Trackback

When Trackback first came out as a feature of Movable Type, I almost immediately implemented it, thinking it was one of the better ideas I'd seen for a more interconnected web.

Now, I'm not so sure.

I still think it's a neat concept.

But how many people ever use it? Of the hundreds of unique visitors who come by here daily, about the only people who ever use a trackback ping are... the people who probably would have sent me an email if it weren't implemented. Now, trackback automates that process, and makes it less of a pain -- but it does so by (IMO) adding bulk to the web pages themselves (the hidden trackback info, sitting there for every single entry). So I'm not sure if the greater sophistication really adds net value to the website for the bulk of its users.

Anyway, this isn't all just navel gazing for the sake of the same. Although I'm not using Movable Type to power the next version of Reductio, there's a plugin for Nucleus that implements trackback. And it works. Really well. So I'm trying to decide whether the new Reductio blog is going to get trackback or not. But I've about come to the conclusion that it's not going to, because I just don't think it adds all that much in functionality (especially for the audience Reductio targets, which isn't necessarily a weblog or web design crowd).

And this is the place where I wonder aloud (in type?) about such things.

(Update) Scott emails me and tells me to keep trackback (EMAILS, yes?). :) It's staying here so long as MT is powering things (its days are numbered here, though), so no worries. But still doubtful for the new Reductio blog that is nearing launch....

[Posted at 12:05 CST on 02/15/03] [Link]