Comments on: Trackbacks: Still Useful?

By: SP

SP — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 03:19:08 +0000

Thanks for to PM, I sent you an email, but I was not sure if you got it.

By: SP

SP — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 03:27:40 +0000

This is probably the wrong place to ask, but if I make a comment on my website about a post on a different blog and refer my reader to someone elses site this is when I should send a trackback, is this correct?

In doing the above (without quoting any of the refered article, so as not to steal content) is this proper etiquette? I would like to get a link from the website, but I do not wish to be considered as trackback spam. Also, is it considered improper to leave an excerpt of my comment in the comments on the other blog in order to get a link? (especially where trackbacks are not offered as an option).

Another question, is it wrong to use my website address in the name field of a comment. I don’t want to be spammy, but I don’t want to post my real name or a fake name?

By: Drakudemine

Drakudemine — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 01:30:59 +0000

Well, the truth is I only use the trackbacks to see whoever likes my posts and links to them! THe reality is that I never allow them as comments and there is so much spam that I am so sick and tired of that!

By: Zacharias

Zacharias — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:09:29 +0000

I think I’ve got one real trackback (out of, eh 50+) since I launched eight months ago. I don’t get “teh megga spamzors” but I’ve yet to see a real-life dude/dudette talking about what I blogged about. They’re either scrapers or splogs.

By: OPENGIGA TECH

OPENGIGA TECH — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 18:13:42 +0000

hi,

sometimes track backs useful and sometimes not.. when spammer use for spamming purpose…

By: Peter

Peter — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 04:44:30 +0000

I’ve turned off trackbacks AND pingbacks on my site. Little to no useful trackbacks amongst all of the spam trackbacks. Too many scrapers sending pingbacks.

It was a tough decision, but they wore me out.

By: Paul McCarthy

Paul McCarthy — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 02:46:54 +0000

I recently disabled trackbacks on my site due to huge increase in trackback spam I was receiving. I don't get a lot of valid trackbacks anyway, so I felt that I had nothing to lose by doing this.

By: Max Roeleveld

Max Roeleveld — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:51:46 +0000

Yes, I still use track-/pingbacks. I send them whenever it’s possible, and I receive them occasionally.

By: Keith Bowes

Keith Bowes — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:30:09 +0000

Yeah, Pingbacks were supposed to replace Trackbacks. Personally, I’d like for WordPress to allow you to disable Trackbacks and only allow Pingbacks (right now, I have them both enabled but a Trackback validation plugin for the non-Pingbacks). I wouldn’t rely on Akismet too much; it has a bad history of blocking legitimate users (sometimes even the blog owner).

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 23:18:04 +0000

meh. I’ve only had one trackback (yes, it was a trackback, not a ping), and the page it points to is no longer there. So I’m thinking of blocking them altogether as Nick ↑ does.

By: Lee

Lee — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:40:10 +0000

I think they help, but mainly I think they just give you a pat on the back and make you feel good.

I also think to readers it can make your blog look more used… Not sure if it does much though… Mainly just for looks I think.

By: DjZoNe

DjZoNe — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 19:03:58 +0000

Personally, I usualy send trackback to my friends posts, for example about the same event.

On the other hand I write WordPress plugins, so I love to receive trackbacks, from people who use them. And Akismet does a great job about filtering out spam trackbacks.

By: Erik

Erik — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 15:53:42 +0000

Better question: Were Trackbacks Ever Useful? My answer is no, because they’re rarely used, they’re mostly spam, and with the growing accuracy of search engines it’s always been far more reliable to rely on search rather than trackbacks to see when and where your content is referenced elsewhere on the web.

By: Michel

Michel — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 14:53:22 +0000

Simple Trackback Validation plugin is a marvellous plug-in!

‘Been using it for months, all spam trackbacks AND pingbacks are caught in a minute! Just set it up to delete automatically all of the spam-backs …and write a log of deleted ones, so you can see how well the plugin works, and that’s it…

Cheers, my $ 0.02

By: Tom

Tom — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 13:57:22 +0000

I would use trackbacks if my hosting provider allowed them.

By: micke

micke — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 10:27:00 +0000

Shadaik >> Well, 90% of my trackbacks are myself (seriously, why does a Wordpress installation ping itself?), the rest is spam.

Actually, WP only pingbacks itself when you use the full URI to your post (). If you use relative links (< a href=”/path/to/post/”>) WP won’t pingback itself.

By: Donna

Donna — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 07:58:58 +0000

That’s weird, I just now found out how to actually write a trackback. I don’t know how to ping someone, however - I do have the ping box checked when I write a post. However, I’ve never gotten a ping. Am I that unpopular?

By: Dexter | Techathand.net

Dexter | Techathand.net — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 06:27:56 +0000

Yup it is Still useful for me. It gives me additional visitors And for my site it give me an additional navigation easyness for my visitors

By: Scott

Scott — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 04:35:05 +0000

Yes. Trackbacks are useful. Let’s me know who is reading and linking to me, validates my work.

I use a cocktail of Akismet, Bad Behavior and WP-SPAMFREE to combat tracback and comment spam.

I was averaging about 20 spams a day from various sources before I teamed up with these three. Now? I don’t know when the last time I had SPAM was.

By: Kjell

Kjell — Sun, 03 Feb 2008 22:28:42 +0000

Of course it’s useful!

I myself trackback sources that inspired me to blog about.

If my writing could be taken as a follow-up OR if i quote somebodys writing - i do a trackback.

But thats very rare, because i usually write very abstract or simply create original content.

As for DO’s and DONT’s = never comment + trackback to the same post.. If you have something to add and you plan to trackback anyways, save your comment and let your blog speak. (one link to your site is enough and the post should say it all - some bloggers may find it offensive.)