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January-March 2007

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User Group Weblog & Trackbacks
By George M. Holloway
Member Southwest International PC Club

Several User groups are now offering Weblogs (aka Blog) in addition to their regular Web sites. Blogging is a great way to convey new information to members and the public at large.

Depending on how the blog administrator has set up the blog, members who have registered may post to the blog. Generally the administrator will be notified of a new post that needs moderation/approval. Likewise members may wish to comment on a particular posting.

This has led to the question of sharing related information between User Group Blogs. This question arose recently when I had information on Windows Vista I wished to share on the APCUG Blog. Not having permissions to post, I contacted Don Singleton and he suggested using “trackback”. Being new to blogging and only recently set up the SWIPCC Blog, I did not have any idea what Don was referring to. Undaunted I delved into the subject and this report is the sum of what I have learned.

The information to be detailed here deals specifically with the Wordpress Blogging package available free at http://wordpress.org .

The principals and procedures should apply to all Blogging packages which have the track back feature.

First – what is a trackback?

Trackbacks – also known as pingbacks is a method of having two different Weblog articles linked together. Let’s say I write an article on the latest and greatest gadget and want to link to a similar article on a different Weblog.

First I need to find out the trackback URL of the Weblog post I wish to link to. If the Weblog is using Wordpress, open the post comments and just above “Leave a Reply”, you will see trackback which is hyperlinked. Right click and copy the link.

Return to your Weblog and enter your post as normal, scroll down the page and locate “Send trackbacks to:” and paste the URL in the space provided. Save and publish your post and in a few moments an excerpt and Linkback URL should appear in the comments of the article you wish to link to. Well maybe it will.

Things to be aware of:

Do not enter track back more than once and do not enter the URL of the Weblog site. Doing so will risk confusing the trackback script and result in no valid trackbacks being sent.

The trackback URL can have several forms:

Examples:
• http://www.swipcc.org/blog/?p=123
• http://www.swipcc.org/blog/2007/01/25/sample-post/
• http://www.swipcc.org/blog/archives/123

The last two use .htaccess re-write rules which is beyond the scope of this article.

If you have the Askimet Spam blocker plug-in activated it will block the trackback from being sent to moderation. The administrator will have to monitor Askimet Spam and determine if the trackback is legitimate and whether to accept it. Once approved, the trackback will be posted and no further moderation is necessary.

Note: You should consider contacting the administrator before sending a trackback. The administrator may not wish to have trackbacks. Be considerate.

That’s it. A nifty tool Web Administrators can use to their advantage.

Editors Note: I would describe trackbacks somewhat differently. If blogger A reads something on blog B he can comment on it there, but he is limited to the formatting in Blog B’s comment system (probably no pictures, maybe limited HTML). Or he can post his thoughts on his Blog A, and do a trackback, which provides Blog B’s readers a link to his post on Blog A which responds to what Blogger B wrote on Blog B.