10 Aug 2002
Sat, 10 Aug 2002
Moderated Trackback
On Scripting News Dave Winer questions the efficacy of Movable Type's Trackback system, " Here's the problem. By design it seems to assume that everyone plays fair. But eventually we all attract a relatively small number of people who would mark up every post with trash talk, if given the chance to. It's a predictable process. That's why I don't have a discussion group here (I used to), or a comments feature. It's why MSNBC is moving to weblogs over discussion software. It's basically why weblogs have a future for thoughtful discourse where mail-list-like collaboration tools are dead-ends. When I think about evolving weblogs, I try to avoid features that turn them into discussion groups."
I have two points on this subject:
- Trackback threading has the potential to take this to the next level, perhaps Dave sees that as making weblogs too much like newsgroups, but to me when that trackback thread runs across multiple sites, you've got tremendous power working for you from a knowledge management standpoint. It's unfortunate, but the link to the threading example at that site is broken right now. I'll have to send mail to Mena and Ben later.
- The trackback system is a first attempt. I can envision a system, let's call it moderated trackback, in which a trackback ping is sent, the server registers it, and the server's blog owner receives an email with a simple form which permits the owner to accept or reject the post. If accepted, the ping is published to the owner's site, as in the existing system. If not, it's removed.
Dave then goes on to question Evan Williams assertion that automatic linking is useful, "What's so great about automatic?"
What's so great about automatic? It's simple. If author A writes an article and author B writes a response to that article, the only way that readers are going to know about author B's response, is if author A notices the article (via surfing, friend, email forward, etc.) and links to it (which I'll follow up on later), or author B emails author A and mentions it (assuming author A's email can be discovered and that author A doesn't take it as spam) or you have a system like trackback in which author B can ping author A's article, thus automating the link. Automating the link reduces the cost of administration for Author A and enables ideas to evolve at a more rapid rate than they could otherwise. Case in point? I've written articles that sat for a month on my server before somebody like Dave noticed them, bubbling the discussion to the forefront.
The weblog world works for authors who bubble to the top of the food chain because of syndication systems like RSS. But blogging can be as intimidating a world to outsiders as open source is to would-be hackers. If I don't have the authority of a Dave Winer, will anyone ever see my posts? Perhaps, but the chances are very small and getting smaller by the day as more great thinkers get involved. That's competition, but that competition can work against the growth of the activity. A system like trackback reduces the barrier to entry for novice weblog authors.
Some of the most interesting trackback pings I've seen were ones in which I was being corrected where my facts or opinions were wrong. I like the fact that I have an automated system whereby the small universe of people reading this page keep me honest and humble. That's a good thing.
The problem that I see with Dave's question is this: what's missing is the notion of a semantic link. In the future, I could imagine that a system like trackback would evolve to the point where you could moderate the trackback automatically based on the semantic of the incoming link. In this way, Dave could ensure that the noisemakers were not given a platform for publishing on his site. Of course, that's a long way off and a robust semantic linking system would be quite difficult if not impossible, leaving holes for the noisemakers.
Posted at: 11:45 | permalink
Boston Doctor Leaves Hospital During Surgery
The Boston Globe has a story about David Arndt, an orhopedic surgeon in Boston who apparently left the surgery he was performing to make a trip to the bank then returned to finish the surgery. Barry Lang, an orthopedic surgeon who's also a medical malpractice lawyer, said, ''If I were defending him I'd say bite the bullet, mea culpa, I'm going to get help,'' Lang said, questioning how Arndt could think leaving the operating room did not deserve a suspension: ''If he honestly believes that, I would take his license away forever.'' Ouch.
Posted at: 10:12 | permalink
