Nothing to see here…. I’m just trying to understand a function.
I don’t totally understand the pingbacks. What happens if I put a link here to another post, and then don’t approve the pingback? Does the link still work? does it still exist? Does anything happen? Inquiring minds want to know, so I’m fiddling around with this.
How about a LINK to another post about lizards. I will approve this one.
Then, we will make a LINK to another post – this one about Panamanian lawn mowers. I will not approve this one.
Results – apparently it only affects the comments. Both links still work even though I spam/trashed one. But, below the lizard post there is a comment/notice about the pingback, and below the lawn mowers post there is not.
It hardly seems worth the bother to moderate pingbacks because it doesn’t stop anyone from linking to your post. It only stops the pingback notice from showing up below your own post in the comments.
Sometimes people object to pingbacks because it looks like the blogger who included the link has a long list of links just to make all of those bloggers come to their blog and run up their numbers, a spam type activity. It seems approving or not approving pingbacks will have no effect on this whatsoever.
Myself, I don’t mind links out there. I know blogging is a public activity, so if more of the public visits my blog that is kind of the point, right? I cannot control how people find their way here, only what I post on my blog.
The Panama Adventure 
Great attitude about what you can control. As for bingbacks, the only ones I don’t approve are ones from spam sites. I include others posts if they are related to a topic I am writing about.
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Occasionally a few of the Buddhist teachings have gotten through to me over the years 😉 I’ll try to stay clear of spam sites too, and spend the rest of my energy on more interesting things. Thanks for the comment!
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I agree. Like Keith, I send a lot for the photo challenges and only send to related posts.. why write if we invite no one to visit? 😉 I find it hard to believe that people write and hope no one shows up. 😆
My other point is that I plan to cut back on doing it anyway because, despite what people think, quite a size-able number of people who get my pingback don’t respond… So its a dud for me too.
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I’m glad to have a better understanding of pingbacks and approving them and all that. Beyond that, I really don’t have much to say because it just doesn’t seem worth worrying about. If you spend time and energy posting links and don’t get much return though, I can see why you wouldn’t want to keep doing that a lot. But, that’s the way it goes. Not everything we try turns out the way we hope, so we just do something else.
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TY! 🙂 BTW, it takes little time to do. We just copy the ping backs on the Daily Post page and paste the list in our blogs. The real work, at least for me, is that I make sure to visit all the blogs I link to and Like and/or comment on their posts. Unless I’m swamped, I rarely send a link and not follow through with a like or comment. I believe its the right etiquette. Some people send them and think that’s enough….. Best wishes and glad chatting. Ciao!:-)
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hey! i enjoyed this and totally understand.
when you enter the photo challenges, some of the people are now copying the entire queue of people who entered and posting that.. so every one of those people who receive the pingback will follow it back to see who mentioned their blog (and usually to say hey! thanks so much!) but we get there (giving them another hit statistic) and find that we’ve gone back to a dead end.
so if they copied 100 links, most likely those 100 people followed it back, raised their hits, yet they don’t reciprocate. it’s ok every so often, but more people are doing it so there are days where there are a dozen pingbacks to follow only to find they’re duds. to me that’s a bit of a manipulation, especially when they haven’t visited our sites, only copied the links.
i cherish the real /genuine pingbacks when someone mentions a post and wants others to appreciate it as well. of course i follow it back and thank them, and usually spend time on their blog.
i loved the link to your lizard adventure. ‘he’ is gorgeous!
z
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I know what you mean. I read a bit about this on your blog and have seen it myself too. I don’t think there is anything we can do about it though, except not follow the link back to their blog which I doubt will make much difference. Just one click in a crowd. I’m glad to know more about how a pingback works though. The rest, apparently it goes with the territory.
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i hope that you received your own special pingback from me! 🙂
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You’re right Z. It stinks when the follow through isn’t there on both ends. When someone sends me a ping back, I do visit and thank them… It’s a link to my blog and I appreciate it… I think a lot of people don’t understand what they are or how they work so immediately they think spam. It’s not spam. It’s a handshake from a fellow blogger. Personally, I’d love more people to send me ping backs. The only benefit is the acknowledgement of a post written… that’s it. No money changes hands and you don’t lose or even gain much traffic from it.
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I don’t really understand pingbacks so I don’t really use them. I do however, generally approve ones that people have left to my posts. I haven’t really had problems with them being actual spam or sites that I don’t care for. This was an interesting post to read, so thanks!
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I don’t understand much about pingbacks either. But I do post links to other websites on my blog if they are related to or give more insight about what I write. So they are useful. Just need to stay clear of spam websites.
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