---
title: "TrackBack strikes back"
date: 2002-09-24T14:46:22-04:00
url: https://blog.lmorchard.com/2002/09/24/ooobic/
author: Les Orchard
---

# TrackBack strikes back

And of course, Ben of <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/MovableType">MovableType</a> is <a href="http://www.stupidfool.org/archives/2002/09/000211.shtml">not unaware of Pingback</a>:<blockquote><i>In current implementations of <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/TrackBack">TrackBack</a>, the user sending the ping must take some action: either by selecting the post he wishes to send a <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/TrackBack">TrackBack</a> ping to via a pulldown menu, or by retrieving the ping URL and pasting it into the entry form. And yes, we agree on the point that transparency is the ultimate goal*.
<br /><br />
But note the emphasis on "current implementations"--there is nothing inherent in <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/TrackBack">TrackBack</a> that would prevent an implementation from making it completely transparent.</i></blockquote>Interesting.  Let's see where he goes with this.  He does raise a concern with more automation though:<blockquote><i>* (I do worry slightly about the impact of content management systems fetching and scanning every external link in an entry to determine if it's ping-able. But that's not really the issue.)</i></blockquote>Hmm - I suppose if a site gets heavily referred to, that's a double-Slashdot-effect?  And this investigative process has the potential to add more overhead to the publishing process.  But.. hmm, until I see some convincing <a href="http://www.decafbad.com/twiki/bin/view/Main/ConsideredHarmful">ConsideredHarmful</a> arguments, I think the flow producing qualities of this sort of thing are worth it.
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shortname=ooobic

<div id="comments" class="comments archived-comments">
            <h3>Archived Comments</h3>
            
        <ul class="comments">
            
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221090103">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href=""><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=a8e8cc16d25a51a0914efde23e523ce7&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="">Ben</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221090103" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-09-24T16:48:56">2002-09-24T16:48:56</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Hi, You said "Let's see where he goes with this." We're going to add the extracting-links transparency to MT for version 2.5, so that when you post, external links will be extracted, and TrackBack ping URLs auto-discovered and pinged automatically. More details...</div>
            
        </li>
    
        <li class="comment" id="comment-221090105">
            <div class="meta">
                <div class="author">
                    <a class="avatar image" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com"><img src="http://www.gravatar.com/avatar.php?gravatar_id=2ac2cffd36ada8c734b90e02a1e5c1ac&amp;size=32&amp;default=http://mediacdn.disqus.com/1320279820/images/noavatar32.png"/></a>
                    <a class="avatar name" rel="nofollow" 
                       href="http://www.decafbad.com">l.m.orchard</a>
                </div>
                <a href="#comment-221090105" class="permalink"><time datetime="2002-09-24T17:22:05">2002-09-24T17:22:05</time></a>
            </div>
            <div class="content">Sounds very cool!  I'd be pinging you back right now, but my webhost seems to be going haywire currently.  Thanks for the comment though!</div>
            
        </li>
    
        </ul>
    
        </div>