� Getting underway | Main | Transit Strike 2005 - Over �
December 20, 2005
Trackback alive and well
For those of you who do not know understand trackbacks (ie. blogspot headz, heh), let me give you a quick definition.
Trackbacks were designed to extend the conversation and connect bloggers of similar thought. In other words, Tseng of Mainland China could virtually provide accolades or disparage a blog entry from Billy of Peoria. When I first learned of the power of this technology, I was instantly hooked. You could essentially help syndicate and validate the work of a fellow blogger. The absolute form of street cred on the blogosphere.
Of late, it appears that comment/trackback spam terrorists have taken a bite out of many blogs. I too was a victim roughly one year ago. However I took very aggressive measures, nearly to the detriment of my admittedly minimal readership. In retrospect, I'm glad that I took a ruthless and gestapo stance against the crap. These days, I receive zero spam. Well, actually yesterday I received nine erroneus msgs that never touched my blog. Actually, this was the first bit of junk that I've rec'd in probably 9-10 months. It was due to an executable script that I left on my server. The problem has since been resolved.
Let me run down some of the basics for those of you who use MT.
1) Security by obscurity - (aka change name of mt-comments.cgi)
2) Upgrade to latest MT 3.x engine
3) Utilize Spamlookup which deploys a RSBL
4) Grab a copy of Chad Everett's MT-Approval
5) Read Elise Bauer's article for dealing with spam on your MT blog.
Following these steps will mitigate any spam threat.
Trackback is dead. Are Comments dead too? (plasticbag.org)
Posted by AG at December 20, 2005 8:22 PM