NOEXTEHO

[Note: This is a rant, instead of a triumphant return to blogging. Sorry, Lin.]

I've never really understood trackbacks. Sure, I get that it's nice to know who's talking about your blog and what they're saying, but do the readers have any interest in that at all? I think trackbacks are pure internet litter for everyone except the blog's author. Shouldn't the blog author(s)/admin(s) be the only one(s) who can see all the trackback junk? And even then, wouldn't it be more useful to have the trackbacks appear as some sort of RSS feed?

And, more existentially, how do the trackbacks even get there? Surely a blog doesn't spider the web for mentions. Do bloggers add trackbacks by hand, then? Or do the popular blogging systems just go and post trackbacks automatically? I don't think I like the implications of automatic trackback posting. Is there some way I can avoid doing that?

Trackbacks should be disabled on this blog. If you ever see one appear, tell me about it, please, because it probably means that I accidentally enabled it in one of my messing-around-with-the-site binges.