Blog Etiquette: Trackbacks
Posted By Russ Emerson on December 12, 2004 at 3:41 pm
For good or for ill, the past week has brought higher-than-usual traffic to this site, which has had the side-effect of reminding me of one of the rude little things people do that irritate me: bogus trackbacks.
I don’t just mean trackback spam. I don’t get much of that, thanks to MT-Blacklist. No, I mean bloggers looking to increase their own traffic or their TTLB Ecosystem link counts without having the common courtesy to actually link back to something I’ve posted.
[For starters, my traffic just isn’t that high. There’s not much benefit to it.]
When I get a trackback, of course I check the link. I don’t get so many that I can ignore them.
So people, here’s the rule: If your post does not contain an actual link to my post, I will summarily delete the trackback. I don’t care who you are. You get no free linkage from me unless I say you do.
Quite simple, isn’t it?
And yes, this has happened more than once, with a couple of repeat offenders. It’s bloody rude. The Blacklist awaits the offenders if it happens again.
More on the matter from the Commissar.
I read so many complaints about this that when I left Blogger and was able to do trackbacks, I turned everything off so I wouldn’t make any mistakes.
http://thirdworldcounty.blogspot.com/2004/12/things-people-do.html
Specifically link your post and the Commisar’s post on this issue at the link above. Of course, the lede is,
“Perhaps he [the Commissar—misspelled in the post [sigh]] needs to be reminded—as I so frequently need to be reminded—that one ought not too readily ascribe to maliciousness or greed any behavior that is adequately explained by stupidity.”
I then credit his remarks and your post linking his remarks.
Several times.
Is every other sentence enough?
:-)
OK, discovered how to do a lil more than just link, as Blogger would allow—I think. Haloscan let’s me do trackbacks more as others think of them, like this:
http://haloscan.com/tb/mnmus/110291905914718031
…I think.
Whatever, the Commissar spoke of the ethics of _linking_ to a post when you post trackbacks, and I think most folks try to be up front about that kind of thing, notwithstanding the Total Depravity of Man…
You are totally correct, Russ. I still have the time to not only check trackbacks, but I will go through TTLB links, and will find that someone pulled the story and gave no credit on occassion. Some portion gets left behind, which then registers in the TTLB.
Words Of Wisdom
Go read what Russ said (and this is how you do it, BTW) For myself, I just delete ’em. Cus…