Last modified: 2014-01-04 07:13:13 UTC
Hi, I'd like to see a means by which Mediawiki can communicate with other wikis, Mediawiki or otherwise, and for that matter blogs and discussion forums, with a type of linkback (pingback, trackback and/or refback) system (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linkback for overview) for sharing page or category information. The system might be open/blacklist (good luck with the spam) or white-list based. Given the more transient yet abiding nature of wikis, it might be helpful to propose/implement an extension to the pingback/trackback specifications which allows for the "undoing" of a link, but otherwise I think the specifications ought to be sufficient (not to mention interoperable with existing blogs, etc.): http://www.hixie.ch/specs/pingback/pingback or http://www.movabletype.org/documentation/trackback/specification.html . USE CASES (RECEIVING) 1) A simple enhancement to "What links here" backlink pages, allowing the external sites to be accessible in this more subtle (but potentially more exhaustive and extensible) fashion. (The remaining cases may be even more requiring of whitelist approaches where a finite number of sites are envisioned, though with a possibility for different sites to perhaps be put in a request queue, where they request to be added as an allowable site.) 2) Topic-sensitive Web Ring where wiki article pages can link to the same article on another wiki, blog, or discussion forum. 3) A category aggregator wiki whose category pages can be allowed to include automated links to category pages from different wikis, blogs, or discussion forums, with orange-colored links or omissions in place of correspondingly non-existent categories: a) Extra automated information on the page: "Visit this Foo category at the ABC wiki", "Visit this Foo category at the QQQ blog", "Visit this Foo category at the JKL discussion forum" b) Embedded subcategories: "Foo subcategory1 (ABC wiki)", "Foo subcategory2 (XYZ wiki)", etc. c) Embedded article: "Bar article1 (ABC wiki)", "Bar article2 (XYZ wiki)", etc. USE CASES (SENDING) 1) Ability for external URLs to be added to wikis which facilitate formal pingbacks/trackbacks at the targeted site, allowing them to link back to the wiki in a manner more trustworthy than refbacks. Thanks!
Essentially, the receiving use cases are enhancing what is possible in "What Links Here", and allowing that information to be displayed inline within pages (category or otherwise). (That would actually be useful in some situations for wiki syntax to allow manual inclusion (or selective exclusion) within the body of the page too, but this suggestion is more for using them in its own exclusively site-owner-controlled section.) During the pingback checking process, Mediawiki or extensions could allow for more intelligent use of these backlinks (in terms of placement, etc.), by checking (and storing) whether the origin page included the link as part of "nofollow" (in which case, it might not be shown at all, or shown in its own confined area), whether "Mediawiki" appeared within the generator meta tags, and/or whether some other "rel" or meta-information was used as well (e.g., to determine in a systematic way whether a page linking to a category page was itself meant as a category page).
There was a Trackback feature in core until r104051 See bug 29475
I can look to try to implement this myself, but only if this is only likely to be added as an extension and no one else of higher ability or familiarity with the codebase plans to add it.
(In reply to comment #3) > I can look to try to implement this myself, but only if this is only likely to > be added as an extension and no one else of higher ability or familiarity with > the codebase plans to add it. Its unlikely that this would be added to core (especially since trackbacks were just removed from core). But it could certainly make a good extension if people want this type of functionality.
