[Note: This is another “inside baseball” post that people without blogs might want to skip]
While some have declared the trackback dead, I think that is an over reaction to a few spam pings.
However, I have a painfully simple method to solve the perceived problem, that some resourceful coder could write in just a few minutes. (Pete are you listening?)
All you need is a simple script that followed inbound trackbacks and confirmed that there was a reciprocal link. (Which there should always be anyway) If there is no link, the trackback hits the bit bucket. This kills multiple birds with a single stone.
No need for whitelists or other logic, no link and you die. Simple done.
Thoughts?
No idea how to do it, but it makes perfect sense and sounds easy.
Easy enough to do; just parse the HTML of the linked page to look for a link to the trackbacked post.
Of course, I can imagine TB spammers setting up pages just filled with links with style=”display: none”, so it’s not an absolute panacea.
I would love this just to stop impolite bloggers from trackbacking me without linking to me.
You’re reading my mind Steven
OK Chris, one bit of logic.
I thought trackbacks were just “continuing the discussion”. One of the posts I made I trackbacked Wizbang because I made the post earlier than Kevin, and I felt vindicated 😛 (Hint its the Libertarian Girl one).
Yeah, what Chris said.
It’ll only be a minor stumbling block for the spammers.
That said, if it’s not implemented en masse, it won’t be worth t.b. spammers’ effort to program around, and it would work for the handful of sites on which it was implemented.
Well, more than one bit, since you also have to parse the stylesheet and deal with commented-out stuff. Doable, I suppose, and probably helpful until widely implemented (and it will fix the “non-reciprocal link scammer” problem noted by Steven). I may hack together something for LSblog that does it just for kicks.
Great idea!
I thought trackbacks were just “continuing the discussion”. One of the posts I made I trackbacked Wizbang because I made the post earlier than Kevin, and I felt vindicated 😛 (Hint its the Libertarian Girl one).
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Henry, (speaking for Kev and myself) we don’t mind if you send a trackback even if the links says “Ha, I beat Wizbang who can eat my shorts on this one” as long as there is a link..
To date, Kev and I leave non-linked trackbacks alone… but it does get tiresome. If there was an easy way to filter them, we’d probably do it.
But feel free to even link us with a “Nanny Nanny Boo Boo” if you want. LOL
P
WordPress does this for Pingbacks, and there has been some discussion about adding this capability to Trackbacks as well.
lol Fine I’ll nanny nanny boo boo to Kevin, soon it will be YOUR TURN PAUL.
Maybe so Henry, just remember I’m a bot who never sleeps. muhahahaha
BTW Henry- still not sleeping. LOL
I’m sure you’re not haha
OH grasshoppa awake too – you very tough challenge.
P
Hey- No fair, you are on the left coast.
lol Fine I’ll nanny nanny boo boo to Kevin, soon it will be YOUR TURN PAUL.
Hey, I sent Paul a nanny-nanny-boo-boo just the other day, so Henry…
Nanny nanny boo boo. 😉
yea well, my blog just got an insane number of hits from the whole thing, so nanny nanny boo boo
Paul, whining over my time zone handicap, nanny nanny boo boo
How are you going to find the reciprocal link when my engine is pinging the trackback at the same time as generating/posting the entry?
Sounds like you are begging for a race condition.