13th May 2004, early evening | Comments (15)
Trackback is an interesting thing. Sometimes you get nice comments from it, and sometimes, as in this post from Mena at Six Apart, you get your arse handed to you in a sling (I’ve never fully understood that phrase, but I’m going to go out on a limb and use it here).
Six Apart say they are: [Committed] to a Free Version, while getting our pricing right.
The post’s trackback entries say:
And so on. In fact, it was so noticeable that P.J. Doland wrote this:
You would have to be insane to enable Trackback on a corporate blog. Look at the links at the bottom of Mena Trott’s post about the new licensing terms for Movable Type 3.0.
The mob has spoken, and it’s publicly viewable on the company site.
He’s right, it’s admirable to show that as a company you’re open to criticism, but is it entirely good for business?
Update: This wasn’t a post specifically about Six Apart’s announcement, but more on the decision to allow public reaction (in Trackback form) to a company on that company’s own web site.
No-one’s going to mistake Trackback data as coming from the company itself, but still, when unflattering text appears in the Trackback section it can’t reflect well on that company, unless it’s as a measure of their openness and willingness to accept reaction/feedback from their user base.
So, don’t get hung up on the Six Apart issue, I’m more interested in the general concept of external data being displayed on a company web site, when that company has no way of filtering that data.
Jump up to the start of the post ↑
A collection of miscellaneous links that don't merit a main blog posting, but which are interesting none-the-less.
Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we. They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we.— George W Bush (9)
Stuff from the intersection of design, culture and technology.(3)
A selection of blogs I read on a regular basis.