trackbacks

[whollycow]

Hi John, I just recevied another trackback moderation notification today.
I am new to trackbacks and do not know a lot about them. I do know that trackbacks are a way of letting me know that someone has posted a link to my blog. But how do I find out where this link is and what it is? How do I make use of this trackback moderation feature. thanks.

[john]

Trackback is a method for you to send another blogger notification that you have posted an article related to one of their articles. Or vice versa, another blogger might send a trackback to your blog letting you know that they posted an article related to one of your articles.

Unfortunately most trackbacks are spam which is why your blog has spam protection settings which allow you to moderate spam. You have the following options for trackback moderation:

• Never moderate
  
• Always moderate
  
• Moderate only if trackback is detected as spam
  
• Automatically delete if trackback is detected as spam, moderate all others
  
• Automatically delete if trackback is detected as spam, do not moderate others

Your blog is currently set to "Automatically delete if trackback is detected as spam, moderate all others", which we think is the best choice. So if you get a trackback and our system does not flag it as spam, you will get a "Trackback moderation notification".

[gristgal]

John, in the process of trying to give whollycow a complete answer, I think you accidentally skipped over the specific answer (s)he was looking for. The information on trackbacks is at the bottom of the Dashboard page (the one BlogHarbor takes you to when you log in), so you have to page down to see it. The 5 most recent trackbacks are listed there, at the bottom (if you get inundated - which doesn't happen often using the level of spam protection John recommends - you can select to view 25 or 50 at a time). To see what is in a particular trackback, you click on the article that's listed. I prefer to open it in a new window or tab (so that I don't have to go back afterward), and right-click, then select tab (or window), to see what they're trying to sell (or porn, which seems to add up to more than half, over time). Then I click to select the item(s), then click delete and block.

Sometimes you'll get more than one spam trackback on a single article, and by clicking on the article before deleting, I get to see that.

Over time, I've decided I prefer to use the option that John has recommended to you. It saves a lot of effort (and seeing most of the stuff that's frankly disgusting), and leaves me with the minimum of "housekeeping" to do. It also ensures that if I ever get an honest trackback from somebody I don't mind my readers being exposed to, I'll be able to keep it there.

Have "fun",
gristgal

[whollycow]

OK, I followed the trackbck to a footware website, and deleted and blocked as suggested. Thanks. But why would a seller want to link to an unrelated blog?
I receved about 6 trackback notices from this one trackback. Why is that?

[john]

But why would a seller want to link to an unrelated blog?

This is spam... Spammers don't take the time to figure out if your blog is related or not...

I receved about 6 trackback notices from this one trackback. Why is that?

If you are referring to the trackback moderation notifications sent to you by email, the notices are sent every 4 hours if there are trackbacks in your queue waiting to be moderated.

[whollycow]

great, thanks for the info.