yearfollowed
Yearfollowed is a metric used in temporal graph analysis to denote the year in which a following relationship between two entities was established. In social networks, information networks, and citation graphs, edges representing follows or subscriptions often carry a temporal attribute; yearfollowed abstracts this attribute to a single year value to support year-by-year analysis while preserving some temporal context.
Representation and data sources: The yearfollowed is typically stored as an integer year on the directed edge
Applications: Analysts use yearfollowed to study network growth, identify periods of rapid adoption, compare influence trajectories
Limitations and considerations: Replacing full timestamps with a year reduces precision and may obscure important intra-year
Related concepts include temporal graphs, edge timestamps, and follow or subscription graphs used in network analysis.