Seth,
You sound overwhelmed.

I never have gotten the hang of trackbacks.

AOW --

Trackbacks are supposed to be a part of any blog server, from what I understand, barring technical problems.

We rank & file users shouldn't even have to know how they work, but... alas & alack...

Dont get discoureged Seth, I dont know what kind of trouble you are having with this other group but if they arent helping you, to heck with them.

You can however count on your readers (Me being one):-)

If you have word verification on here you can use that to get rid of the spam.

Thing's will get better, you will see.

You are NOT a quitter, and we would be lost without you.

Some of us might be a little slow in responding, but that's happening all over the blogs right now with all the Christmas shopping and friends and family coming to completely ruin and screw up our Holiday's as usual. But that too will pass after we pry ol uncle Claude off the couch after he's had to much spiked egg nog and we send his butt back to wherever he came from :-)

After Christmas thing's will get better, it's just getting through Christmas that is going to be absolute hell!

Hang in there buddy!

Oh by the way, I have never gotten the hand of Trackbacks either, I just link other post's to mine since i dont know how to fool with that stuff :-)

Marie is right: Christmas is a slow time for the blogs. Plus, a lot of conservatives are in a general malaise following the election results.

And some people have other things going on too...lol...it's the most wonderful time of the year--- YET- stressful. Shopping, wrapping gifts, Christmas parties galore; dealing with family and friends and some foe...schools- plays, class parties and gift exchanges...AHHHH!!

Everyone is busy this time of yr Seth AND every blog will see less readership until mid January- at least thats my experience.

Seth, I have found TrackBacks outside the comment format to be extremely difficult to effect. I used HaloScan (until for some reason it was no longer accessible from work) and found I could only send TrackBacks to HaloScan users. Now that I have had to switch back to Blogger for my comment format, I cannot send TrackBacks outside blogger. It is frustrating as all get-outs. Defensively, I've adopted an attitude that I don't care about receiving TrackBacks and for those who I cannot send a TrackBack, I will send an email or post a comment indicating that I linked to them.

That said, I would hate to see your contributions to the conservative bloggersphere vanish. Your insights and opinions are a welcome perspective to the scene.

God bless and Merry Christmas.

Seth,
Hang in there! I saved you in 'Favorites', and well, you know "I use a computer, but to me the technical details are pretty much like Sanskrit."

Marie --

Thanks, I will try to get through this -- the thing is, I am really busy all year round, and truly can't find the time and the concentration to sit down and learn all the technical stuff, so I have to depend on other people who say they will help me.

I asked the person who has been giving me tech support about putting in word verification, and he was reluctant to do it. He said it's obsolete, yet everybody else I know who uses it has little or no spambot issues. If I knew how, I would do it myself.

The reason I attach significance to trackbacks is that I sometimes like to thank folks for linking my posts, or if I don't know the blogs, get to check them out, and when I've looked around, I've found links from sites I'd either never heard of or don't get to that often that go back weeks or months.

From what I'm given to understand, trackbacks are supposed to go out automatically at my place when I link, but Munu hasn't been able to receive trackbacks for a long time due to technical issues. For that, haloscan trackbacks was added to my blog, but it only worked once, LOL.

The thing that was supposed to stop the spambots did nothing more than put commenters, including me, in moderation mode for a day or two, then whatever that was about also ceased.

It just gets to be a real PIA when everytime you are away from the computer for a few hours, you have to weed through as many as a hundred spambot comments to weed our 3 or 4 legitimate comments, and sometimes end up missing and accidentally deleting the comments you want to keep.

AOW --

Maybe it's just me, but I am one of those people who is reluctant to ask other people for anything, ever, yet if a friend needs something from me, I don't care how busy I am, I drop what I'm doing and at least try to help.

It says a lot when someone can't find 15 or 20 minutes in 3 or 4 days to help with something they are supremely qualified to help with, at amy time of year.

I sincerely hope none of our fellow conservatives are suffering from Dem Derangement Syndrome, LOL. Only liberals are supposed to contract diseases of that nature.

Raven --

I wasn't seeking readership from the individual in question, just a few minutes of help he was the only person with whom I am in contact who is uniquely qualified to provide. I am always quick to do what I can when someone needs help, and I'm not stingy about it -- I do the best I can.

Sometimes you learn more about relationships with people by what they don't at least try to do than by what they do.

Old Soldier --

The trackbacks, sadly, are but one of several issues -- however, I haven't really decided whether to cease or not; I enjoy blogging and sharing my perspectives on issues, and maybe even getting some non-conservative or middle of the road readers to understand the overly and falsely maligned conservative point of view.

It's just all the frustrating technical baggage that seems to go with it.

That said, you and yours also have a great Christmas. :-)

BB --

I will try. :-)

Definitely don't stop blogging! Technology is far from perfect; but it gets better and better, I would think, as time moves on.

I wish I had advice for you on trackbacks, but I've been mostly lazy in doing the research to understand them. I've never really known blogger to be able to do it; although there have been times where I do notice "sites that link to this" on my posts. Sometimes they happen, other times they don't. At Flopping Aces, trackback pings would work and other times they wouldn't. It would be frustrating if I cared enough. At the moment, I just don't concern myself with it.

Wordsmith --

As I wrote another friend in an email, what I think really needs to happen is that the folks who keep inventing newer and "more innovative" computer technologies need to stop, just stop, and start making existing technology more user friendly.

The problem with an engineer's mentality is that it seems to assume that everybody else is an engineer as well. That's evident when you read the manual that comes with a new cell-phone or digital camera.

They need to focus their inventive genius on software that eliminates a user's need to have to mess with code, templates, etc, so a user can just turn on the computer and have it do what needs to be done.

I mean, I have heard that computers are supposed to make life easier, not frustrating, LOL.

If you can't do it all, do what you can. I don't worry about what doesn't work right, as long as I get my ideas and thoughts across.

Seth,

Maybe you should put those ideas into action? You could be the next Bill Gates or Google billionaire.

Shoprat --

I don't see much choice, at least for the present, but hope to remedy this shortly. I have been presented with a possible alternative.

Wordsmith --

If only I had the technical knowledge, LOL. The problem is, that those who do are more interested in doing a half-assed job, making their money and moving on to the next project.

It is a sign of the newest generation -- you can see it not only in technology, but in the latest architectural and automotive designs, in the structural integrity of new houses vs older ones, in customer service venues, etc.