TestDriven.NET Link Cosmos
If you filled in the TestDriven.NET survey in the last couple of days, you will have seen a 'Show' option on the 'Weblog/Home Page' question. If you selected 'Show', then your link may appear on the TestDriven.NET website. Today I'm opening a new section on the site called the "LinkCosmos". For the moment, this is where user links will appear.
The LinkCosmos is a fun way to track how word-of-mouth about TestDriven.NET is spreading. Users who have opted-in to be shown will appear as nodes on a graph, with links to who referred them and who they refer. If you're using the Adobe SVG plug-in for IE, these nodes will be hyperlinked to the users page. If you're not using the SVG plug-in, you can preview the graph as a static PNG image.
When the survey was first designed, there was no 'Show' option and the privacy policy explicitly stated that no personal information would be disclosed to any third party without your consent. Because of this, you and the people you referred will have to opt-in to appear on the graph. Opting-in is simply a case of visiting the 'Cosmos' page and selecting 'Show'.
Links only appear in the cosmos when special referrer URLs are used. As I mentioned yesterday, less than 0.1% of .NET developers are using TestDriven.NET. There is plenty of scope for expansion in the cosmos. You can be part of the red-shift by sending referrer URLs to your friends, colleagues and internal mailing lists. ;o)
PS. The code to draw these graphs is packaged with TestDriven.NET in the MbUnit directory. Once again I am indebted to Peli and his excellent QuickGraph library.