Serendipity Forums

Hi,

This is probably a blogging 101 question, but I admit I'm confused.

I just posted my latest entry and within seconds it said the entry had a trackback. The admin area shows only a few lines of my entry and an IP.

The blog itself shows the entry as having no trackbacks. No other entry shows trackbacks either but in the admin panel it says this new trackback is #14.

I had forgotten that my email gets notified so I went and looked at that. I found several emails about trackbacks. Most had the same text as spam comments that I already deleted. The other is this new one.

I thought I understood what trackbacks and comments are but it seems rather obvious now that I don't.

So why are things that show up on the blog as comments being considered by the system as a trackback?

How would I get a spammy trackback within minutes of posting a new entry? (Trust me when I say I don't have any traffic.)

Every time I think I've got things under control, I quickly learn I don't. Please help me to understand and hopefully protect my site from the garbage artists.

Thanks,

michele

Hi!

Did you check if the new incoming trackback had a yellow caption bar? In that case the incoming trackback was moderated. It will only be displayed, if you click on the APPROVE-Button on the comment interface!

How would I get a spammy trackback within minutes of posting a new entry? (Trust me when I say I don't have any traffic.)

Well, sadly spammers have their ways. Especially if you use the "Announce Entries" plugin, spammers will very quickly find new entries.

HTH,
Garvin

As far as I know I am not using the Announce plugin.

OK, I'm feeling a bit dumb now. My newest post refers to the post before and seems to be creating the trackback that is in my admin panel. The trackback is showing against the older post on the blog.

Do most people leave those or do they delete them? Am I correct in assuming that deleting the trackback will not impact the link within the entry?

I still don't understand the messages in my email that say other posts have trackbacks when there are none showing on any of the entries. It's a bit confusing when the email saying I have a trackback contains the same content as a spammy comment I've already deleted. If the comment contains an embedded URL is it then considered a trackback?

Sorry for all the questions - I feel so out of the loop with this.

Hi Michele!

OK, I'm feeling a bit dumb now. My newest post refers to the post before and seems to be creating the trackback that is in my admin panel. The trackback is showing against the older post on the blog.

Yes, your blog will create trackbacks to your own articles! Many people like that, I personally also use it if the trackback is of interest to the older article. Sometimes if that is not the case,I just delete the trackback. It does not affect anything in the original article.

I still don't understand the messages in my email that say other posts have trackbacks when there are none showing on any of the entries. It's a bit confusing when the email saying I have a trackback contains the same content as a spammy comment I've already deleted. If the comment contains an embedded URL is it then considered a trackback?

Usually if trackbacks show not up in your article, that trackback was moderated and the subject of your email should read "Review required" or something like that.

A trackback simply is a foreign link that links to one of your entries, and was submitted to your blog using an API. What the content is does not matter; it could be a URL, but it could also be plain text.

HTH,
Garvin