Hi, I was following a beeminder goal graph years ago but I stopped and I just started up again recently and now there are “new” lines on the graph that weren’t there many years ago, and I’d like to know what those lines do. I searched Help, blogs, & orum for 30 min and can’t find an explanation. One line is a “pink” line connecting pink dots in the middle of my up and down data that looks like a moving average (but it’s not). The other is a purple line that sits above my rapidly descending data range (goal it to reduce and it’s working). Thanks for any help on what those lines are!
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A super fair question since Beeminder has changed so much in the last 2 or so years. What type of goal are you looking at (e.g. Weight loss, do more, etc).
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Goal is weight loss. Thanks for any insights on what those lines are, I appreciate it! Michael
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There is a legends section in the statistics tab of your goal that I believe has the explanations that you are looking for
Pink line = optimistic projection:
"An optimistic view of progress, i.e., a view of your data through rose-colored glasses. It shows your inexorable march towards your goal. If you’re bouncing around it just shows you flat. When you go down (or whichever direction your goal is), it shows you that right away.
It never shows you going up (or whatever the wrong direction is) unless it’s sure you’ve screwed up.
If you find the random fluctuation unnerving, you can focus on the pink dots day-to-day."
Purple line = Moving average:
"This is an exponentially weighted moving average with smoothing constant 0.25. It shows the overall trend of your data, but lagged. If most of your daily numbers are below this trend line then you are inexorably dragging it down.
For the case of weight loss, this is another way — proposed in The Hacker’s Diet — to see the forest through the trees, to see past the daily random fluctuations to what your weight is really doing."
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Ah, I feel so stupid, that very clear graph Legend was sitting right there in the statistics tab (I"ve never opened that tab before). Both lines are great features, now that I know their definitions. Thanks so much for leading me to that legend! Michael
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