Also, please consider: Are comments and
trackbacks allowed and / or forbidden?
Not exact matches
And finally, this other blogger blocks most
trackbacks and rarely
allows links to be posted in the comments.
For one thing, because of the tools that have grown up to
allow bloggers to communicate with each other (
trackbacks and rss, for example), a blog
allows you to respond quickly and effectively to bloggers in their own sphere and using their methods, both to promote your ideas and to answer criticism.
(Andrew Sullivan's pre-existing blog is the other way around, supporting
trackbacks but with no reader comments
allowed.)
Thankfully, the
trackbacks have been nuked, too, as evidenced by the text «Pinging is currently not
allowed» at the bottom of each of Liz's post.
In a nutshell,
trackbacks and pinging (but especially
trackbacks)
allow you to have an actual exchange of communication with other bloggers.