Trackbacks are a link-tracking system. If, in a post, I was to link to - say - Ted's post about cats Movable Type would see the link, realise (automagically) that it's a link to a post on another blog, and send that blog a ping. Assuming that Ted's blog is working properly, it will record the fact that I have made a comment about his post. By clicking on the trackback link under his post, Ted can see who has linked to him and what they have said.
How do I get the link to go to the post rather than Ted's blog? Well, under each post, where it says "Posted by so-and-so at 11:24 AM", the 11:24 AM is actually a link to the post. Right-click on the link and Copy Shortcut (Copy Link Location in Mozilla) and then paste it into your blog at the appropriate place. Viola!
There's more details to be found in the Movable Type Users Manual, but that's all you need to know to get started.
One extra trick: You can list as many links as you like in the URLs to Ping box, and they will get pinged (ping?) as well, so I can quickly and easily ping all the mu.nu blogs at once. Like this.
Update: Or maybe it will puke on my shoes instead.
Posted by Pixy Misa at August 30, 2003 03:04 AM | TrackBackyou have to enter the actual trackback url in that box, not the article url (I learned this the hard way). But you can get it the same way, by copying the "trackback" rather than date/time shortcut.
Posted by: Susie at August 30, 2003 09:09 PMOh--Pixy, maybe that "notification" thingee on the main manage page can be set up to notify us...
Posted by: Susie at August 30, 2003 09:11 PMI posted an answer to this in Ted's entry's comments. Interesting, Pixy, that we both used hypothetical examples that mentioned cats. Hmmmm.
Posted by: Tuning Spork at August 31, 2003 01:07 AMWow! The comment spammers are out in full force tonight! We must turn on the Pixy beacon (which I seem to remember is grail-shaped)....
Posted by: Susie at November 3, 2003 06:28 AM