Ugh, I really hate stacked area graphs. Usually you can display the same information in a much more readable format by using a multi-colored or dotted line graph with a legend, and use logarithmic scaling to space out all the crap on the bottom.
The main problem with these stacked graphs is spikes/dips on the bottom cause everything stacked on top of it to distort in weird ways, making things very difficult to see.
Also, the ones in this article are square shaped, so you can't even see total site growth over time, which would be interesting and relevant.
Also, the ones in this article are square shaped, so you can't even see total site growth over time in them, which would be interesting and relevant.
I came here to say that (although your other points are good, too). The title of the article is "Fascinating Graphs Show How Reddit Got Huge by Going Mainstream" but then they normalize away all of the growth info and make it completely impossible to see how traffic growth is related to anything they are displaying.
The main problem with these stacked graphs is spikes/dips on the bottom cause everything stacked on top of it to distort in weird ways, making things very difficult to see.
Also, the ones in this article are square shaped, so you can't even see total site growth over time, which would be interesting and relevant.