Adam Shostack wrote:

“I have to say, I love getting real trackbacks. I like it when people take what I’ve said and expand on it. I hate getting semi-trackbacks, where a poster sort-of refers to what I’ve said, doesn’t link to me, and throws in a trackback. I hate, hate, hate, spam trackbacks.”

Every weblogger with trackbacks turned on is currently burdened with trackback spam, but this is the first I’ve read of “semi-trackbacks” being a construct of malcontent; in fact it’s the first I’ve read of semi-trackbacks at all, perhaps I’m ignorant on the issue.

It appears the use of trackbacks is to build on others’ existing conversations at close to the same time as adding content to one’s own weblog. This is trackback’s advantage over comments, where content is placed in only a single place. It’s important that “at close to the same time” is understood as not precisely simultaneous. Further, a trackback request can be placed at the time of publishing one’s own writings, or it can be added later to existing postings. This latter type appears to be one of Adam’s objections, where the content may not be strictly personalized.

Is the only appropriate use of trackbacks to request them at the time of one’s own original writing? Should we attach stigma to trackbacking of older articles in a newer conversation? (read more . . . )

I haven’t yet updated this blog to Wordpress 1.5, but I have upgraded another blog. Right off the bat, the template needed minor tweaking to adapt, then thankfully a strange visual problem appeared. I write thankfully because otherwise it likely would have been some time before I noticed it. The getlinkslist() now gives category sub-titles the H2 header. I was able to solve the appearance issue simply by making some minor changes to the CSS file, but there’s a more fundamental, underlying issue with WP 1.5’s flexibility. (read more . . . )

His blog is titled The Forgettable Mister Ruthsarian, and if you’d like to look at some nice CSS layouts, his are not copyrighted: “© Nobody. All CSS/HTML is released into the public domain.” Don’t let the empty blog fool you, the layouts are easy enough to find.

I’ve spent the last few days—um, let me correct that—Barbara and I have spent the last few days recoding his Skidoo Too layout to work with WordPress 1.2.2.
(read more . . . )

To answer the question, “What’s a blog?”, first we could look up the quoted phrase “what is a blog” at Google, however, it is clear to me that those over-simplified definitions walk a fine line between conciseness and inaccuracy, as glossary entries often do.

If you didn’t get lost at that last hyperlink, and you’re still reading this, then I better move along with answering the question.

A weblog, or simply blog, is a type of database driven website. Its purpose is often similar to a paper journal and it lends itself to common use as a simple web-publishing system. However, blog usage isn’t limited solely to journalizing or journaling, its uses are likely as varied as the imaginations of bloggers are diverse. (read more . . . )