Weird TB ping problem

February 11, 2003 12:25 PM

Ping ping ping! Weird TB ping problem, couldn't find anyone else having the same problem here in MetaTalk. I tried Trackbacking the thread (I linked to it in my post, and MT (yes, version 2.51) automatically found the TB URL) instead of cut and pasting the URL in the "URLs to Ping" post area, or using the MT bookmarklet.

Found a typo, deleted the MeFi TB URL in the "URLs to Ping" area when I re-saved, and it repinged Metafilter. Also strange: when I click on Previously Sent Pings in MT on the entry, it doesn't list that any were successfully sent. Haven't had this problem Trackbacking any other blogs, because when I send a ping to other sites, it appears to get sent "successfully," and no longer appears in the "URLs to Ping" area, it moves to the 'Previously Sent Pings" locale. Anyone else? I think the shuttle thread had this problem, too.
posted by gramcracker to Bugs at 12:25 PM (11 comments total)

What is pinging?

No, really.
posted by iconomy at 12:51 PM on February 11, 2003

With trackback, you can "ping" other websites (mostly blogs) that are also running trackback, to tell the other website to create a link back to your website entry.
posted by gramcracker at 12:56 PM on February 11, 2003

maybe check with ben and mena about the bug? Why doesn't MT report previous pings?
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:58 PM on February 11, 2003

see, the blogging world is trying to eliminate annoying and confusing diversity. to that end, the latest 'cool blogware' MT, has concocted a scheme whereby blogs with the same item notify other blogs with the same item, so that all the same items on all the blogs can be interlinked to create one big giant happy blogospheric commonality. so after you have read about, say, the oscars here, you can easily click to 20 dozen other blogs carrying the same thing and read those too! the notification 'signal' is called a 'ping'. because ping is the sound bloggers heads make when you bonk them together!
posted by quonsar at 1:01 PM on February 11, 2003

isn't that more like a plunk (when a head is hit with something) than a ping? i've only heard it a couple of times (after all, i don't purposefully clobber people on the heads just to listen to the sound they make), but it's quite a pleasant, resonant noise, somewhere in the middle of a piano keyboard (while a ping would be right up near the squeaky end).
posted by andrew cooke at 1:22 PM on February 11, 2003

I've tried to trackback to MeFi about 4 times. I think I only managed to get it to work once. I don't know why it worked that one time or why it didn't the others.

iconomy: Ping like from sonar where you send out a "Ping" sound (you've seen it in all the Sub movies), and then it bounces back telling you it hit something. Same thing but with servers. Ping - you there server? Ping - yes I'm here and it took 6 milliseconds to make the trip from you to me and back.
posted by willnot at 1:57 PM on February 11, 2003

The sound depends on so many factors quonsar and andrew cooke - thickness of skull and skin, emptiness of head, whether the mouth is open or not (to allow reverberations out). Oh wait, bloggers all have thick skulls, thin skins and empty heads, so the only variable is actually whether the mouth is open or not. Oh wait.....

I kid OK?
posted by dg at 2:13 PM on February 11, 2003

Thanks for the info, everyone. I feel so edumacated now.
posted by iconomy at 4:14 PM on February 11, 2003

Just wondering, does MeFi support the HTTP POST method for TB pings, as defined in the official specifications?

I haven't been able to trackback MeFi posts from my home-rolled TB implementation, which is supposed to be TB 2.5 compliant and thus uses the POST method only, yet I reckon MeFi still uses the 2.2 standard (HTTP GET method), which has been deprecated in January 2003.

Or did I miss something there?
posted by cip at 12:35 AM on February 12, 2003

Yeah, I'm only doing the get method. No one told me they deprecated it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 1:06 AM on February 12, 2003

Is Movable Type's TrackBack really considered the "official specification" now? I'm pretty sure they were the first to implement it, but why shouldn't MeFi's (or B2's, whatever) versions be valid?
posted by etoile at 8:51 AM on March 10, 2003