Trackbacks
I deleted a trackback today. No, not a trackback from Viagra or Free Porn, but one from a real blog.
I found it in the junk trackback tab a few days ago - but it was still fairly new. So I rescued it, and and checked the site it came from. Oddly, there was no corresponding link there. So I zipped off a polite email to the proprietor asking if the trackback was in error. No answer. I sent again. Still no answer.
So today I deleted it. Shame, too, as it looked like a good blog.
By the way, is it just me or are more folks just not using trackbacks anymore? I find more links to me from my stats page than from trackbacks lately. Are trackbacks becoming a dying fad?
Also, any other Movable Type 3.2 users out there think that trackbacks in MT don't work very well? Auto discover misses most links, way too many get rejected for timeout, method not allowed, throttled, etc.? And I almost always have success using the Wizbang standalone trackback pinger, even after multiple tries with MT failing...
Just askin'.
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Despite the comment policies of most places, one reason why any good blogger comments is to advertise a bit.
Same with trackbacks. Once the impact of spam forced most trackback policies to require an actual link to the post to be valid, that killed trackbacking. A lot of people were posting on Lincoln some months ago, and I was using trackbacks to point from their post to a copy of the Gettysburg Address with a commentary.
I was thanked by many for advertising. Not all advertising is spam - sometimes we have real things to share, and the original posts don't cut it. But that freedom is gone now.
I have a social bookmarking site with a conservative bent that needs some help; if you're interested in going to it, contact me.
I'm noticing the same thing, which is why I was so positively astonished to see your trackback. They just don't seem to happen anymore, which is a real shame. ashok is probably right in most of his reasoning, but also I think the "blogger genepool" has become considerably larger and has stuff floating in it that prevents a lot of free-flowing ideas that made it so great at one time.
It's more like this: the more people that get on the web, the more like a mob this place operates.
Like it or not, we're all in the shadow of DailyKos. It's a cult, they're lunatics, and their "activism" is nonsense. But they have people listening, and if you're into their sort of thing, YearlyKos sounds like a lot of fun.
They are the premier example of "politics" on the Internet - anarchism and frothing at the mouth is rewarded by visits from people that could very well become President. Why? Because they have numbers.
Point is, you could write a verse translation of the Illiad that rivals Pope's or explain how quantum and classical physics are reconcilable, and no one will care. The mob "mentality" is what dominates as the Web grows larger. When Colbert was being trumpeted by every single leftist blog for his "bravery," every single rightist blog was going off on illegal immigration.
There's no self-awareness. We just rant in unison.
We're becoming dumber being on here, subject to a force that is all mass and no brain. Trackbacks are gone, and the next thing to go will be posts longer than 100 words. That's too much concentration and effort, esp. when you can write "Bush sucks" and get 92879872394792 responses and become a star.
Thanks for the comment, ashok. You make Markos sound like a one trick pony, and I'm not sure that's fair. In addition to "Bush sucks", didn't he also write "Bush lied" and "Screw them"?
Ranting in unison (serious hat on), unfortunately I think you're on to something. Occasionally I'll write something different than what other blogs have picked up as the topic of the day, and my stats will go down as a result. I think there's a unison mentality because bloggers know their readers expect certain stories to be covered.
I haven't changed my topic choices as a result (there are a lot of "me too" stories I care about, but many I'll pass on), and I still write off-kilter pieces like yesterday's manatee story even though I know that the effort won't be rewarded by increased readership. But I wonder how many of the smaller bloggers feel obligated to write on the big topic of the day regardless of their passions.
Do you think it may be less of a herd mentality, and more a perception that in order to be heard you have to use the same language and volume as Reynolds, Malkin, Kos, etc?
DragonFly,
Interesting that you put it that way (there's what in the punchbowl?). It makes sense, but at the same time I'd think that the larger the blogosphere got, the more agressively folks would use tools like trackbacks to get their name out.
But you're right - it seems that there was a lot more discussion about (and adherance to) blogging manners and ethics when there were far fewer bloggers.
Sigh... I should have taken better notes in class when group dynamics came up...