Vox Crosslinking and Trackback

Similar to my earlier post on blogrolls, I've got questions about Six Apart's support for trackback on vox.  Trackback facilitates cross-linking blog posts.  For example, in my own post I can add a hyperlink to somebody else's blog post, and trackback allows the other blog to automatically link back to my post.  I believe vox should support trackback for links to external blog posts, and Six Apart could then improve on trackback when linking intravox blog posts.

The improvement is to make intravox links first class like they already are for user profiles.  When composing a post, I can insert a link to a user, and then when reading the post, I can get a context menu of things to do with that user.  Similarly, I want a first-class link to a post so that on the target post's page, I can see a list of all referrers.  The opportunity Vox has is to make the interface for creating a link easier than the goofy trackback interface you see with most existing blog software.

Another advantage of this change is that Six Apart (and hopefully others) could mine the data to build graphs of how posts relate to one another.  I personally think this is more useful than neighborhood graphs, because blog post graphs would be grounded in real content.

First-class links between posts will discourage commenting.  Instead of commenting directly on a post, users will sometimes choose to post on their own blog instead and link to the original post.  If Six Apart doesn't like that, they need to fix their commenting subsystem.  Let's be honest: the blogging metagame is about getting people to read what you write.  Vox doesn't help with comments: I can't tag my comments, I can't insert assets into my comments, they are not enumerated on my profile, and I can't even manage my own comments on the "Organize" page.  If I write a comment, the only way somebody will read it is if they 1) read the original post, and 2) look though the comments long enough to find my writing.  I find all of this especially egregious, since from a software design perspective I see little difference between comments and posts.  The differences are in presentation only.

If we suppose Six Apart makes comments and posts equivalent for the metagame, that still leaves the user with a choice of whether to comment or make a separate blog post.  On a level playing field I think users will usually make the right decision.  A comment that is directly-related to the original post will appear as a comment.  Ideas that are derivitive or tangential will appear as a new post.

But again, this starts and ends with the users.  If users want to cross-link posts, they will do it regardless of what Six Apart thinks.  Let's make cross-post links first class and fix commenting!

Update: Before you point it out, I know that a post's owner can delete a comment, and my suggestions could be interpreted as asking for that power to be removed.  Almost.  The post's owner should have control over what is visible on her post's page, but she shouldn't get to delete contributions.  A removed comment for example, would stick to the writer's assets for him to manage.