November 29, 2005
To Track or not to Track
I got an mildly annoyed email from someone whose post I responded to here, but that I didn’t trackback, so they didn’t know. The problem is not me, really, it’s the evolution of the trackback.
When blogging was younger, track backs were fairly automatic. MT would ping any link I put in, and send a trackback. However, possibly due to the evolution of the various blogging platforms, the automatic trackbacks have stopped (or at least become far less common).
So, then I started to copy the trackback links of any post I referred to, and send them all when I published – but then I was getting double trackbacks. Also, I found that many sites were blocking trackbacks (most likely due to spammers).
And, of course, the time I spend deleting fraudulent comments and trackbacks on my site increased, decreasing my trackback tracking.
So, now I do it hit and miss, but admittedly more miss than hit. I figure most people have some sort of visitor tracking, which will show that they’re getting referrals from my post (and the literally dozen of people who read here).
Maybe I’ll try to be better about sending the pings, but no promises.
Larry Bernard said (at November 29, 2005 11:28 AM):
If this was me ( And I don't know if anyone else sent that to you) I did find out on sheer chance when I went to my sitemeter. I don't check the breakdown on sitemeter as much as I do the trackback section on haloscan.
But hey ;-) a whole lot of people fail to trackback anymore. So I didn't know the specific reason I'd have just like some mutual exchange in a more timely manner.