Weblog self-linking visualised

A short post about the visualisation of self-linking in weblogs. The idea for having a look at self-linking behaviour is due to Lilia.

An interesting property of self-linking is that there is only one dimension: time. And, unfortunately, visualisations of a single dimension look rather flat. One solution is to temporarily escape the single dimension by using arcs connecting the posts, an idea that seems to have originated in Thread Arcs.

The above image is an example of a variant on the Thread Arcs idea. Left to right is time, and the arc that links connected posts is filled with a colour: the darker the colour the shorter the time span of the linked posts.

Another example. Visualisations like this can, at the very least, differentiate between those who use their weblog to create an intricate structure of linked posts over a long period of time, compared to bloggers who hardly refer to their own posts.

The final example depicts Lilia's self-linking practices. I see waves, woods ...