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nice manners, babe

[Inside blogging stuff follows. Ignore at will, skip to the rock star post if you don't care. Of course, the people this is aimed at will skip right by it now]

I don't really care what YOUR etiquette/rules for trackbacks are. I know what MY rule is: Don't trackback to my posts unless you've linked/referenced them. I see no reason for someone to go through the trouble of sending a trackback which basically says "hey, I've written about the same thing as you, but I didn't reference your post on it at all. However, I'm going to use this nifty automated feature to leave a URL to MY post on your blog!" That's just god damn RUDE.

I also HATE when trackback is used as a feature to say "I wrote about a subject that you seem to care about and instead of emailing you a note to say hey, check out this post, I think you'll be interested in it, I'll just lazily send off a trackback to a completely UNRELATED post of yours, most likely your most recent post, thereby informing you that I've said something I consider important and leaving a URL to my very important post in your completey UNRELATED post!"

See where I'm going with this? Stop doing it. It's arrogant. Take two freaking minutes to send an email. Or don't trackback at all.

I will delete any trackbacks that don't reference the post they track. Don't be an such a self-absorbed ass all your life, ok? Show some manners.

Update: Update has been deleted because I can be a real dick sometimes and I have the ability to erase my dickishness from the annals of blog history.

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Listed below are links to weblogs that reference nice manners, babe:

» One-way Trackback Intolerance from The Politburo Diktat
Michele issues the regrettably necessary quarterly reminder about one-sided Trackbacks. She's right. I also agree with her punchline, "I am caring less and less about my intolerance," at least with respect to blogging. Put me firmly in the "Don't Like?... [Read More]

» Blogger Etiquette from INDC Journal
Kathy the Cake Eater hits a common boiling point: For those of you who are wondering what I'm going on about this time, well, it's this: I am getting exceedingly tired of bloggers who perhaps don't have a huge audience---and... [Read More]

» The 'real' Trackback policy from Arguing with signposts...
This is why I read Michele. She puts her trackback policy into such clear, stark terms that it's impossible to misunderstand her meaning. I will delete any trackbacks that don't reference the post they track. Don't be an such a self-absorbed ass all y... [Read More]

» A Point of Ettiquette from Registan.net
As readers may or may not know, I manage discussions on this blog as a mostly benevolent tyrant who strikes from the shadows when my ill-defined "Act like you are a guest in my home" policy is broken. What follows has nothing to do with comments an... [Read More]

Comments

Gee, I feel like I should apologize and I don't even have a blog. :)

You shoot me in a dream, you better wake up and apologize.

I'm going to speak in movie quotes all day.

"Gee, I feel like I should apologize and I don't even have a blog. :)"

Same goes for me. Please don't hurt us.

When is the last time someone messed with you ? What size shoebox did you send the remains to their mamma in ? :)

Sounds like you need some fine print.

Ah, she's a creampuff, I mess with her all the time. In fact, I'm doing it right now!

Well, I refuse to apologize. I can't even figure out HOW to trackback.

Was Skillzy here? Did he say something? Because I tend to tune Red Sox fans out. I just smell his stench, so I know he was here.

No matter, he won't be back. I think I just "accidently" blacklisted his URL.

HA! You'll come crawling back when you start missing those three hits a day... you know you need the juice.

Don't take it out on me just because your team is drowning in suckitude!

I gotta take it out on someone and since Solonor isn't here, you're the available pin cushion.

Oh, and not to suck up, but there is no Van Halen except the one with David Lee. Anyone who doesn't know that is a dumbass.

Wait for it.....Wait for it....

So...ya wanna dance or what?

Hmmm. What did you expect after your little rant, I wonder?

Of course people are going to try to mess with you with one-sided trackbacks after a hissy fit like that. Face it, you were practically daring them to do it! And now you get annoyed when they do? I'm surprised it wasn't more than a dozen doing it. Your readers must be pretty polite and restrained.

Oh I had no idea that "It really annoys me when people do this, so please stop" is code word for DO THIS NOW.

Unless you're dealing with five year olds, which I assumed I was not.

So, how's the recovery from the dental work going?

Any chance this anger is a side-effect of something you're taking and/or experiencing?

I'm not taking anything, I have no pain.

Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.

Sorry if this sounds like a stupid question, but doesn't your blog software allow you to block trackbacks from specific urls? If so, why not just block the ones who have annoyed you?

Please provide the names of all the other people who tracked back so that I can take this to the shop steward. Being childish and messing with you is MY job. And we're gonna protect American jobs, by God!

At least it's almost a relevant trackback instead of some loser doing a trackback to someone else's link to your post. Or stealing your post in its entirety without asking, and then being an "I only hang out on rightnation.us and there's no way I have to apologize while W is in office" cocksucker.

But I'm not bitter.

HeHe you said annals HeHe.

Um...I have tracked-you-back in the past, and followed your above rules already, yet I STILL feel the need to apologize. Yikes. In the future I'll just link you, and send the much-deserved traffic your way anonymously. :)

I think that some people (spammers aside) just don't understand the trackback concept. Invariably, when someone fails to link to my post (which has received the trackback ping), I find that the person has quoted me.

Since I think it's less maliciousness than ignorance, I delete their trackback and leave a comment on proper trackback behavior in their weblog. I can't recall anyone ever repeating their poor trackback behavior after that.

Is that post title inspired by Anthony Micheal Hall's dialogue in Sixteen Candles? I've been using 'King of the Dipshits' to describe a few key mannerless bloggers.

Excellent, Sadie! You're the only one to pick that up.

Unless you're dealing with five year olds, which I assumed I was not.

This was the only part that struck me as patently unlikely.

Since the developers of trackback, MovableType, as well as Wikipedia, do not include any mention of referencing a trackbacked site in the trackbacking blog's entry, it is perfectly understandable why people wouldn't. Especially when it's not mentioned in your NOTICE, nor your trackback page.

http://www.movabletype.org/trackback/beginners/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TrackBack

Of course any blog/site owner owns their site, but the SMART sites actually take the trouble to list their rules somewhere. To rant hysterically and viciously against people that don't follow made-up rules that aren't listed as rules, is like a five-year-old crybaby that make up rules after the game starts, doesn't tell the other five-year-olds about the new rules, then start fights with them for breaking unknown, made-up rules!

Feel free to delete this comment; it was meant mostly for your eyes. I imagine that you'll most likely connipt in a rage (as evidenced by your ranting in this post), and probably not even reflect on whether you might have handled it differently. So of course you'd delete this, rather than having the spine to leave it up, and write about how you've re-examined this issue and have decided you need to include clear, concise rules when these rules are not included at standard sites such as MovableType and Wikipedia. Or maybe you'll go off on them for not including YOUR rules in their sites; that seems most likely after reading just one post on your blog.

It's so cute when people analyze me and offer unsolicited advice after reading one blog post.

CUTE! Wanna go out, dewdlehead?

Hahah I said dooooo.

Yay!