Comments, Trackbacks, Pingbacks

Comments, Trackbacks, & Pingbacks

One blog feature that makes blogs so appealing to readers is the ability to enter comments about a post right in the blog. It doesn't matter whether a reader agrees, disagrees, or just wants to share additional information related to a postthe comment feature can handle it all. Then, when a reader views a post with its comments, he can see the original entry as well as all of the comments that are associated with it (Figure 1).

Figure 1. An example of a post that includes both a pingback and a comment.

Trackbacks are similar to comments but originate in the commenter's blog rather than the post author's blog. Say, for example, that Blogger A reads a post in Blogger B's blog and wants to share it her blog readers. A would write a post in her blog and include a special trackback link that pointed to the original post in B's blog. When the post is published, a trackback comment appears in the comments area for the post on B's blog.

Pingbacks work a lot like trackbacks, but do not require a special trackback link. Instead, using the example above, A would simply include a link to B's site in her post. When the post is published, WordPress informs B's site that A included a link to it. A pingback comment is created on B's site (Figure 1).

This chapter explains how to configure, use, and moderate comments, trackbacks, and pingbacks.