How can you implement trackbacks on a custom-coded blog (written in C#)?

Question

How can you implement trackbacks on a custom-coded blog (written in C#)?

Answer 1

The TrackBack specification was created by Six Apart back in the day for their Movable Type blogging system. After some corporate changes it seems to be no longer available, but here's an archived version:

http://web.archive.org/web/20081228043036/http://www.sixapart.com/pronet/docs/trackback_spec

Answer 2

Personally, I wouldn't. Trackbacks became completely unusable years ago from all the spammers and even Akismet hasn't been enough to drag them back to usable (obviously IMO). The best way I've seen to handle trackbacks any more is to have a function that will turn an article's "referrer" (you are tracking those, right?) into a trackback (probably as a customized comment type). This leverages the meat-space processing that guarantees that no spam gets through and still allows you to easily recognize and enable further discussion.

Answer 3

If you're custom coding your own blog you have too much time on your hands. Start with something like dasBlog or SubText and customize that to your needs. Then you get trackbacks for free.