Help:Node Cloud

The home page displays what we call the Node Cloud. It is a visual representation of recent nodes and their status, with each title linked to the node's article. The titles of nodes are plotted on to a three-dimensional grid with the following axis:

X (horizontal) axis

The alphabetical order of titles, from left to right, A-Z. This makes is easy to find an article alphabetically at a glance.

Y (vertical) axis

The creation date of the article, most recently added articles at the top.

Z axis

Represented by the visual font size of the node title. The amount of activity a node has received. This is calculated by a function incorporating: the hit count, cumulative time users have viewed the node, number of incoming links (backlinks), number of files referenced by other nodes, number of entries, and the number of edits.

As time passes, a node will move further down the page. The font size will also decrease if the node does not continue to receive constant activity. This causes old, inactive nodes to literally fall off the bottom of the screen. If a node's font size is large at the top or bottom of the screen that indicates them to be hot nodes.