ignorant questions -

[Rosesandtea]

What are pings, and trackbacks?

 

and feeds? I read the thread about feeds but although there was much discussion about them, I still don't know what one really is.

 

thanks!!

[NancyCA]

Great questions....and I have one to add to this.

 

If I want to put other's blog buttons (to their blogs) on my blog, would it be common courtesy to ask them first? I don't want to have anyone there that doesn't want to be.

 

TIA!!

[ZingyZoid]

I don't know the answers to any of those questions either, lol. The feeds I think make other people aware when you update your blog?

[Julie]

A ping is kind of like a beeper notification. Since we're talking about blogs, I'm guessing you mean the ping to Weblogs.com when you update your blog. It basically means that the link of your post is submitted to the site automatically by Blogger, a ping.

 

I'm going to rely on Blogger's help section to explain a feed, and know that turning it on is a plus for your blog. It doesn't cost anything. It's kind of like letting your blog entry be emailed to anyone who is subscribed to it whenever you update. You have to use a feed service such as bloglines.com, also free, in order to get those notifications. Most of us use it here and it is a lifesaver as far as being able to read a lot of blogs quickly. It automatically notifies us when a blog has been updated, rather than having to click through a list of links.

 

Trackbacks I don't know so much about. I don't have it turned on at my blog, so I'm definitely lacking in the experience department. Here is Haloscan's FAQ page on trackbacks which makes some sense to me. Maybe someone who is more familiar with them can put it into clearer terms for us.

[Rosesandtea]

Thanks Julie. I'm still a little hazy on how they work but have a much better idea on what they are!

 

Nancy, it's a good question. I notice that some people have a link to my blog ( I don't have a button) who haven't asked but I don't mind. I have my blog up there for anyone to read, so if someone finds it by clicking on a link on someone else's page, I don't mind. However, what the netiquette really is, I don't know.

[Stacey]

Just FYI, I've had to turn off trackbacks on my blog because the comment spammers have started using trackbacks to send spam... (I don't know if it's the same for other systems, but in both of types of blog software I've used--Movable Type and Wordpress--trackbacks show up in your comments and look like a comment.)

 

It's a cool idea, but the spammers want to ruin it for everybody. (Is there an smiley waving its little fist somewhere?)

[Donna]

We don't have a fist-waving smiley, but I think maybe this one would do in this case? LOL

 

I use Haloscan and have never had a problem with spamming. I don't know what they do, but it looks like they've got it figured out.