Pingbacks in comments - bad?

[Halfdeck]

I was wondering if grandma's pingback was working

I wouldn't get stuck on thinking too much about links. Pingbacks/trackbacks are a way to further the dialogue between bloggers, instead of just talking to ourselves or driving a sale. Google may reward us handsomely for that dialogue, but what's more important is the value added to our blog from that conversation. The end game *should* (i hope i dont sound too preachy lol) be building a great blog, and having people link to you because they love your blog -- not pulling cheap tricks to somehow pump traffic to some mundane site that helps surfers become one with the back button.

Blogs have an amazing reach that free sites will never have. When you post something you know other people can hear you from miles away, for better or for worse. Trackbacks, comments, etc are all part of that.

BTW, http://www.quirk.biz/searchstatus/ isn't a bad tool to check nofollows on sites, though a blog with nofollow won't stop me from leaving dumb comments.