Moesring - Trackbacks

Trackbacks

Monday, 24. August 2009, 22:42:13

... perhaps

Here's a question for you. What is this picture below, and where was it seen?

It is a list of so-called trackbacks on a Furious blog post that Moesring read. If it was too blurry to read, click the picture to see an enlarged version.

Unsurprisingly, they are all spam. First of all, Moesring thought that only the blog owner could see a post's trackbacks - and the delete buttons at the top certainly don't make sense for anyone but the blog owner. Anyone else think this is a bug (and thus, should be reported)?

[Edit: The buttons are visible but do not do anything except for the blog owner.]

There was a long ramble here (even by Moesring's standards ) about trackbacks and why they could be useful, in spite of being spammed relentlessly. That is something for another time, though.

Odd facts about MoesringSpam - official and otherwise

Comments

Aadil # 25. August 2009, 03:00

I don't really understand trackbacks.

The Dark Furie # 25. August 2009, 09:01

Trackbacks are a way for you to reference another blog post and have that blog owner notified of it with a way for their readers to see who's linking there too. It's the equivalent of anonymously sending someone £100 then sending them and their friends a card saying give me respect and kudos for doing that, and I expect the same from you lot too at some point.

I usually keep on top of my trackbacks. I get dozens of animal porn, incest and pharmaceutical trackbacks for some reason and delete them as soon as I can (although I once noticed a phone company linking to my review from their site after I'd deleted them and was heading back to my watchlist).

Which post has had that many that I've missed?

Moesring # 25. August 2009, 12:50

I didn't understand trackbacks myself until a couple of months ago. A quick glance at the Wikipedia page gave the gist of it, but it didn't fill in important gaps like how to send a trackback. A bit of reading around told me how it works. I keep meaning to trackback myself as a test and then, once I've worked out the bugs, to use trackbacks as they should be. Just because.

This is the spinged post.

The Dark Furie # 25. August 2009, 13:34

I only cleared that one last week.

Kitty # 25. August 2009, 19:58

I still don't understand them. Do I have them too??

Moesring # 25. August 2009, 20:24

I still don't understand them. Do I have them too??

Trackbacks? Yes, you have them enabled.

Let's say you've uploaded a recipe on your posts. (

The ZRS tag springs to mind here.

)
Imagine that I've read a recipe of yours, decided to try it out and made a post about these wonderful new M&M cookies I've tried.

How am I going to let you know that I've tried your cookies and made a post about them?
I would send a trackback to your M&M recipe post, letting you know the address of the post where I've told the world how delicious I thought the cookies were.

I don't even have to be a My Opera member to send you a trackback - I could have written my post on a different blogging site, or even my own site, and the trackback would still work.

I could also use comments for this purpose. However, I assume the first sites that used trackback didn't allow anonymous comments - and so this was their way to allow non-members to let the post author know that their post was useful to some people.
Nowadays, trackbacks only seem to be used for spam. Because anyone can send a trackback, it is really easy for computer programs to send spam trackbacks to any site they find that allows them.

Kitty # 25. August 2009, 20:42

Hmmm okay, yes, I understand that. And I also remember the box with "enable trackbacks". But why don't I see them? What do I have to click to get to see them? :curious:

All this cookie talk is making me very hungry. :yum:

Moesring # 25. August 2009, 20:45

If there are no trackbacks at the bottom of a post, it means no one has sent one for this post. Other posts may have trackbacks, but that one does not.
It could also mean that your posts don't contain the keywords that the spammers put into Google.

Kitty # 25. August 2009, 20:47

Ah, okay, I thought I had to do something to see the trackbacks. - Thanks for explaining that to me!