Tags, Trackbacks, and other things

[N7YUO]

When I post, I notice the Tags and Trackback fields below the message area, but I have been unable to figure out how exactly they work.
Could someone explain these to me?

 

[newsphotog]

From Wikipedia:
A tag is a non-hierarchical keyword or term assigned to a piece of information (such as an internet bookmark, digital image, or computer file). This kind of metadata helps describe an item and allows it to be found again by browsing or searching. Tags are chosen informally and personally by the item's creator or by its viewer, depending on the system. On a website in which many users tag many items, this collection of tags becomes a folksonomy. Tag (metadata) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

In summary, a tag is kind of like a category except a little less formal. A tag would describe a topic in the thread. For this post we might add the tags of "tag" "trackback" "question" "forum" and similar topics like that. If, as an example, you start a new thread about the Westchestervilleland Hamfest, you might want to tag that with "westchestervilleland" "hamfest" "ham" "radio" etc. Then after it's tagged you can click on one of those tags and RadioReference will return a page of posts that have been marked with the same tag. I think it's more helpful for casual browsing for a specific topic than it is for actively trying to find something.

Try it yourself... currently as of this posting, there are no tags for this thread. Right above the "Quick reply" box on this page you will see the tag box. On the upper right-hand corner of that box there should be a link that says "edit tags" and you can click on that and tag this thread with the appropriate tags.

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The forum has a page about trackbacks, etc. here: The RadioReference.com Forums - LinkBacks

From Wikipedia: A trackback is one of three types of linkbacks, methods for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. This enables authors to keep track of who is linking, and so referring, to their articles. Some weblog software programs, such as Wordpress, Movable Type, Typo,Community Server and Kentico CMS, support automatic pingbacks where all the links in a published article can be pinged when the article is published. The term is used colloquially for any kind of linkback. Trackback - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

So, for example, if I read an article on someone else's blog about (for example) Dallas PD & FD going digital and then I come to RadioReference to start a discussion about it, I might want to send a "trackback" (also sometimes called a "ping") to that person's blog entry. By sending a trackback to that blog entry, it'll tell that blog, "Hey! We're writing about the same topic" and a link (sometimes with an excerpt) from the RadioReference thread will be posted in the comments section of that person's blog entry.

They could do the same as well. If they see a thread here on RadioReference about Dallas going digital, they could write about it on their blog and all they have to do is link to the forum post from their blog and RadioReference will eventually realize that the thread has been linked to and it will be counted as a trackback.

Though many blogs and websites nowadays don't have a trackback address. All you have to do is link to the blog entry and the blog will realize it's been linked to as a trackback. There are lots of people saying that trackbacks and pinging are dead. There's been a lot of trackback spam, like comment spam. I know it definitely is not being used as much today as it was when Movable Type (one of the first blogging platforms) came out with the idea of trackbacks. I remember when everyone went crazy when trackbacks first came out, and now it's really not so much of a tool in the blogging community anymore.

With this post, I am going to send a trackback from this post to a random blog entry. For this example I'm going to use Location of Kopete Emoticons at Coolkevmen. I will use the trackback address (which is located on that page near the comments section) and enter it below my text entry box when replying to the thread. The trackback address for his blog entry is http://kev.coolcavemen.com/2006/09/location-of-kopete-emoticons/trackback/.

Now I'm not sure what the other blog will do, but when you visit that specific blog entry, it should link back to this specific thread on RadioReference and maybe include and excerpt from this post. Go to Location of Kopete Emoticons at Coolkevmen and see if it shows up in the comments section.

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Hopefully I didn't confuse you more than you already were. There's plenty of reading material about it out there on the web that should help you to wrap your head around it.