Trackback Etiquette

  • SpamKarma2 just notified me that I had a spammer trackback comment (a score of -7 because it didn’t include a link to my site). The trackback looked authentic enough, so I rescued it but it got me wondering about Trackback Etiquette.

    I thought all trackbacks and pings contained links to the trackbacked/pinged sites (unless they were obvious spammers) but when I looked it up in the Codex I found I was wrong.

    Okay, so Blogger A might want to let Blogger B know they are writing about a related topic and throw out a trackback without giving Blogger B a link. I can see how I MIGHT do this (but probably would not) with somebody I know and who knows me.

    But I can’t see sending an unlinked trackback as a first time contact. It seems kind of… pushy.

    Wouldn’t it be more… I don’t know… tactful?… if Blogger A commented directly on Blogger B’s post or sent a pingback first, rather than sending out an unlinked trackback? Otherwise, isn’t it almost like saying: “Rather than comment directly or link to this, I’ll just add a link to my own post.”

    Which kind of smells like spam.

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  • I kill all trackbacks where I can’t see a visible link.
    At one point I did email them to advise them, but given that a trackback in and approved opens the door to possible spam ? Nope, delete on sight.

    It’s my impression that the advent of massive trackback spamming has changed trackback/pingback etiquette somewhat over the last year or so.

    When I started blogging two years ago, the Codex definition was fairly accurate. These days, however, anything without a link back to your site is suspect (and rightly so, most of the time).

    Interesting. I’ve always had trackbacks turned on, and since upgrading to WordPress 1.5+ I haven’t had any problems to speak of with trackback spam.

    I’ve always thought that trackback was useful when I wanted to write a longer response to a blog post than would be a good idea to leave as a comment.

    Kiss of Death

    I was recently chastised for not linking back in a trackback. I view trackbacks as a way of using my posts as a commnet. Why rewrite my post as a commnet?

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