Trackbacks, comments, and conversations

Ah, I love conversational media...  My earlier post on strategic commenting has generated an intriguing multi-threaded discussion. In one comment to that article, Uri Baruchin asked:

"Amy, could you share your opinion regarding the use of trackbacks vs. comments?"

Trackbacks are ubiquitous among weblogs, and often misunderstood. This theme also arose in the comments to Guy Kawasaki's posting which recommended my strategic commenting article. Here's how I responded the trackback v. comments issue there...

To set this up, in this comment to Guy Kawasaki's post, Joel Vincent wrote:

"Trackback pings work in much the same way. Also gives the readers perspectives on the same topic (if you're using trackback right!)."

To which I responded:

"Actually, I disagree  that trackback pings achieve the same goals:

1) They often just don't work.

2) Many bloggers don't accept trackback pings because of the spam problem, or don't publish them on their blogs.

3) An awful lot of blog readers don't have any clue what a trackback ping is and so don't bother to click when they are displayed.

4) Comments more closely resemble natural conversation and thus are more engaging.

5) Comments deliver real content without requiring that you click away to another site. (More convenient for the audience.)

"...Now, I like trackbacks, and I think they're useful. But I don't think they do as much good for a blog, and for the public conversation, as strategic commenting. Just my perspective."

To which Joel responded:

"Not saying that trackbacks provide exactly the same value as strategic commenting (which is excellent advice, btw) but there is no question that others read trackback articles when they're available. You don't need to know what they are to follow them -- they show up on a post as a sort of "related stories" section at the end of an article.

"They don't add to the conversation on a particular blog and they do steer the reader away to another site, but they can extend the value of the conversation by providing a different perspective on the same or similar topic and therefore they DO add to the value to the reader.

"Bottom line: don't do one or the other, but both help -- especially if you provide some insight in the article that you publish related to the pinged article.

"You do need to make sure that once someone surfs over to your article that its actually interesting or they'll never come back."

I think Joel and I are in agreement: blog comments (especially strategic ones) and trackbacks are both useful tools that can enhance online conversations. If you seek to leverage conversational media to achieve your goals (promote your business, learn from others, expand your personal network, make friends and influence people, etc.), it's a good idea to use both tools well.

However, be aware that both tools are, at present, rather klunky. They also have considerable drawbacks.

For instance, trackback automation (a feature built into most blogging software, including Typepad, which I use for this blog) is notoriously spotty. It often doesn't send trackbacks every time it should. You can general manual trackback pings, but that's one more hassle and not everyone (especially me) takes the time to do that.

Also, not all weblogs automatically accept and publish trackbacks. For instance, I sometimes have to turn off trackbacks for my other blog, Contentious, because I sometimes get huge amounts of trackback spam -- thousands per day, no kidding.

Similarly, the current systems for posting and displaying blog comments leave much to be desired. Unthreaded conversations can be hard to follow. Some blogs allow you to include links in comments, others don't.

And, of course, I wish blog comments were easier to follow -- especially when trying to follow cross-blog conversations. Tools like CoComment and Co.mments are trying to solve these problems, and they're both heading in the right direction -- but they're not quite there yet. Give them time.

So yes, use both trackbacks and commenting to your advantage, and to enhance the public conversation. Don't expect either of those tools to be completely reliable. Use them redundantly wherever establishing a connection is especially crucial to you. And don't ever, ever, ever use them to spam. (Rest assured, there is a very special hell for trackback and comment spammers.)

Keep it all in perspective: This internet thing (especially weblogs) is a chaotic work in progress. Personally, I don't expect perfection from it -- I simply do the best I can here with the tools I've got. The good news is that the tools of conversational media are expanding and improving all the time. The more we keep doing this, the better it's bound to get.

Comments

[Kami Huyse]

Actually, I have been thinking of starting a "trackbacks are dead" meme, but I don't really believe that they are (ha-ha) ;-)

However, I know I have been using them less and less, and more strategically when I do. I like to trackback to people that I think might not be tracking with Technorati, and also on important topics. They have been pretty successful for me from time to time. But other times, not so much.

[Easton Ellsworth]

Amy, I agree with you. The tools we have available to us to track and enhance our conversations are not perfect, and maybe never will be. But they are improving, and so we ought to always be looking for new tools and better ways to use them.

[Uri Baruchin]

Trackbacks, potentially, encourage conversation in a round about way. If i have a very meaty comment, or something that is more of a riff of something that was said in a post, my blog is probably a better place for it then the comment field.

However, many blog templates completely outcast the trackbacks, so i guess making the right choice depends a lot on who you're trackbacking to.