I was playing with Microsoft's API Catalog, a tool to visualize and analyze the API overlap between standards specifications and type systems within browsers, and their footer caught my eye. I am always looking for quality examples of companies doing platform communications and support well, and I think their layout, and available building blocks in their footer, is worthy of showcasing.
For me, these numbers, and the available communication and support building blocks, send the right signals--that a platform is alive and active. These are the data points I tune into, to understand how well a platform is doing, or not doing. There are no absolutes when it comes to this type of monitoring, as anything can be gamed, but sign Github activity, road map evolution, and blog storytelling can provide a vital heartbeat for any healthy API platform.
