DISQUS

Lorelle · 2 years ago

Well done!

Trackbacks are a very important part of the blog conversation world. The fact that comment spammers use comments and trackbacks to spam should not mean that trackbacks should be treated differently from comments. They are all "comments".

I'd also like to clarify a point I'm seeing on many blogs as they debate this issue for themselves. There are incoming and outgoing trackbacks.

Many blogging programs, including WordPress, have a feature to turn on and off trackbacks from the Write Post Panel and/or Options Panel. This does not turn off all trackbacks, it only turns off your blog's ability to send trackbacks.

To stop the receipt of trackbacks involves changing the core programming manually or through a WordPress Plugin and changing the WordPress Theme that displays the received trackbacks.

Excellent coverage and thanks for bringing up this issue. I believe those shouting trackbacks are dead are certainly missing the whole picture. Trackbacks are still new and still being understood by bloggers. Their value is growing, not dying.

Lorelle · 2 years ago

Minor self correction. I forgot that WordPress now allows turning off incoming receipt of trackbacks and pingbacks from the Options > Discussion panel.

Tiffany · 2 years ago

No, I don't think it's a fear of being contradicted (after all, you've gone so far as to call me "selfish" in this post, and I assure you I won't be losing sleep over it). After all, Technorati and other tools would show those things just as readily as Trackbacks would (it's how I found you, after all). But what Technorati does NOT do is pour thousands of messages into my inbox each morning: "Please moderate trackback...." I have a fantastic anti-comment-spam plugin, but the assault on my wp-trackback.php on a daily basis was torrential. I could not maintain that if I had to spend time digging out of that level of trackback spam multiplied across the three blogs I participate in. Maybe you have that kind of time on your hands, but I surely don't.

So yes, I suppose it IS selfish. I value my time very highly and prefer not to spend it on moderation-queue maintenance. I value keeping my database size reasonable so that legitimate content loads without getting bogged down by links to hentai and online gambling sites. And if it's selfish to want to save literally hours of my time daily in exchange for interested readers having to make *one more click*, then yes, I embrace the term.

I have been blogging for 5 years now, across three different sites. And I've learned that if my readers care that much about being part of "the larger conversation," they're already using the superior tools- they're subscribed to Technorati tag feeds, they're clicking through to commenters' sites, they're using Google Blog Search and Blogdigger. The ones who are interested don't need Trackback, and the ones who aren't interested weren't using it anyway. It's the people who rely primarily on Trackback to participate in the conversation who will find themselves left out of it in the long run.

I'll say it again. As long as Trackback can be abused by spammers, it will be an inferior, broken tool. I'd turn it back on in a heartbeat if someone could figure out how to fix it. In the meantime, I will absolutely not continue to allow my blog to be a free billboard for the scum of the Internet.

Paul OFlaherty · 2 years ago

The thing about using services such as Technorati is that you're forcing the user to take an extra step to beyond your site to see who is talking about your post. You may have found me, but it's very doubtful that your readers will!

My readers however, will not just find you (because I linked) but also find Steven Hodson because of his trackback.

Do you expect me to believe that the majority of your readers go to Technorati and Google Blog search just to see who is linking to any posts you've written?

Hell I won't even do that for my OWN posts, instead preferring rss searches for sites linking to my blog.

Steve Hayes · 2 years ago

I'm only just beginning to work outy how to use trackback, and even then it doesn't seem to work half the time.

morganusvitus · 2 years ago

The site looks great ! Thanks for all your help ( past, present and future !)

CA · 2 years ago

I have been trying to find out the code to display trackbacks or pingbacks to my blog for a while now. But I cannot seem to find one. I have tried a number of themes but none of them ever showed me any trackbacks or pingbacks. The Discussion Options are all enabled.

I do think, pingbacks and trackbacks are no dead - but are important to further a conversation.

Paul OFlaherty · 2 years ago

CA, trackbacks and pings are supported by wordpress by default.

If they're not displaying in your current them I'd suggest comparing the code of the comments section in Default WordPress theme and implementing it in your own.

But that really would only be displaying the trackback address to readers.

The trackback address is usually yourblog/postname/trackback/

In the WP discussion options make sure that "Allow link notifications from other Weblogs (pingbacks and trackbacks.)" is enabled.

CA · 2 years ago

The "allow link notifications ..." option is enabled. Actually, the trackback address does display. Only the pingbacks and trackbacks from other blogs to my blog does not get displayed in my comments section.

I'll do what you suggest and look at the themes that display them and compare the code. Thanks.

CA · 2 years ago

"You just can't get to there from here" - This was a comment made to me, years ago, by a farmer when I was lost and asked him for directions. That's how I feel about pingbacks to my site. Here's what I have as my pingback settings:
Options --> Discussion: Allow link notifications from other weblogs - checked; attempt to notify any weblogs linked to from the article - checked.

I had "Comment author must fill out name and email" checked earlier: but I unchecked it to test this pingback beast. I do have "comment author must have a previously approved comment" checked.

I checked the code on my site with the same code on the theme developers website and a few others - it works for them but not for me.

There's also really not much documentation on troubleshooting pingbacks on the Wordpress site.

It is frustrating not being able to show to my readers people's comments. But on the flip side: I have one less spam channel to worry about.

I just wanted to thank you, Paul, for your helpful suggestions.