Blog Exercises: Trackbacks

Trackbacks are like an invitation to a party. It is also like legitimate gossip. Trackbacks are notes telling you that someone is talking about you. Trackbacks are part of the important connections that form the true sense of the “web” on the Internet. WordPress and most modern publishing platforms generate trackbacks automatically. As common as […]

Blog Struggles: Trackbacks Count

At a blog conference recently, I overheard the following exchange over a laptop as part of a blog review exercise: “For your blog to be successful, you need more comments on your blog posts.” “I have plenty of comments on my blog. See, this one has 14 comments.” “That post has only one comment. The […]

The Debate Over Comments and Trackbacks

Which came first? The comment or the trackback? Or should I be more clear in my question? Which should come first? The comments or the trackbacks? I have long been a fan of separating trackbacks from comments. Comments are the dialog and trackbacks are the outside discussions, incoming links from sites discussing the topic on […]

The Debate Over Trackbacks from Private Blogs

WordPress.com blogs are now able to be set to “private”, restricting access and viewing to only those with passwords. I think private blogs are fabulous, allowing those who don’t want anyone to read what they write the ability to blog in privacy, and specific groups of people to blog for each other and themselves, free […]

WordPress.com Bug: Anonymous Trackbacks and Comments

There is a new bug in WordPress.com town. You race home and rush to your computer to see if anyone has left you a comment on your blog only to find a bunch of Anonymous folks have left comments on your WordPress.com blog. STOP!!! Before you hit that SPAM button, this is not comment spam. […]

Trackbacks and Pings Out of Order? Ping-o-matic now back online

According to news on the new Pingomatic blog now on WordPress.com, Ping-o-matic is now up and running after a few days of trouble. So if your trackbacks and pings were out of order or not functioning with WordPress.com or your full WordPress blog, this is why: Sorry for the downtime, it was actually NOT related […]

Tiny Problem with WordPress 2.0 and Trackbacks

It has come to the attention of the WordPress support team and developers that there is a tiny problem with WordPress 2.0 and trackbacks. They are investigating the situation as it isn’t consistent, though it is consistently reported. There is a new patch that seems to fix the issue, but the investigation continues. According to […]

Separating Comments and Trackbacks in WordPress – The Answer

WordPress 2.7 News Update: For information on the new structure of comments and trackbacks in WordPress 2.7, please see Migrating Plugins and Themes to 2.7 – Enhanced Comment Display in the WordPress Codex, Justin Tadlock – Making your theme’s comments compatible with WordPress 2.7 and earlier versions and Sivel – Separating Pings from Comments in […]

Enhanced Trackbacks – Making Trackbacks Work for You

Understanding trackbacks and pingbacks and pings can make you crazy. I’ll have a better explanation article for you soon, but I wanted to point out a helpful article to those who already have a clue on what trackbacks are, and how to enhance them to really make them work for you using a little javascript […]

Blog Exercises: Backups and Alternatives

I didn’t expect to return home after a meeting this morning to find I have no telephone or Internet access on this bright sunshine, calm weather May day. I’ve got classes to prep for, sites to review for students and clients, article deadlines, these blog exercises to publish and keep to my year long commitment, […]

Blog Exercises: Prepare for Summer

It’s Editorial Calender check-in and check up time. May is the shift from spring to summer. From blossoming flowers to green leafed trees casting shade, the weather is changing, bringing warmer days to the northern hemisphere and colder temperatures down under. For those of us living in the Pacific Northwestern United States, we are experiencing […]

Blog Exercises: How to Write about Something Someone Else Wrote

In the early development of the web, blogs were classified as echo chambers, vessels of redundant content as every original idea was shared, reshared, quoted, and spread across the web at rapid speed. Some estimates state that less than 2% of all the content on the web is original. It’s mostly regurgitation of the same […]

Blog Exercises: Excerpts and Continue Reading

Encountered the front page of a blog where the posts ran on and on and on and on, stretching across the length of the page? Do you ever wish you had more control over the length of your posts on the front page of your site? This Blog Exercise explores the use of the “more” […]

Blog Exercises: How Long Are Your Paragraphs?

How long are your paragraphs? Have you measured them lately? One of the telling differences between traditional writing and writing for the web is the length of the paragraph. Look at the example below. Which is easier to read? On the left, the paragraphs are huge, long blocks of text. On the right, the paragraphs […]

Blog Exercises: Dissecting Post Categories

In a recent article, Noah Weiss shared his struggle to figure out categories and tags on his personal site. I know many of you following these Blog Exercises have also struggled to figure out your categories, so I thought Noah’s site would be a perfect example, He has gratefully given me permission to rip his […]