Use case or problem
When using local graphs, the outgoing and backlink nodes are randomly distributed around the central node, making it unclear which are backlinks and outgoing links without looking at each edge’s arrow direction. In the image below, we see a real example of this, where the backlined “Main node” and the outgoing linked “Grandchild 2 node” are both below the central node, and the other outgoing linked “Grandchild 1 node” is above.
Proposed solution
Initialize the backlinks’ y-values above the central node’s y-value, and outgoing links’ y-values below the central node’s. For simplicity, as well as because the relation to the central node is most important, if one uses a depth > 1, don’t do anything to the deeper nodes’ positions.