I noticed MaxBlogPress has a plugin called the ping optimizer which I wish I’d been using all along. This plugin is a necessity for anyone running a self hosted wordpress blog, and therefore deserves mention to those of you who might have missed it.
A few months ago I edited tons of old posts, fixing the title tags and did several edits of each one. After installing this new plugin I learned how bad this pinging problem is. If I save a unpublished post as a draft, it pings!!!! If you have a blogger blog or a wordpress.com blog you won’t have this problem.
Is this the culprit which ruined my page rank? I turned pinging off on the plugin’s options. It lists what is pinged and what would’ve been pinged. Just working on one post (a draft) I was shocked to see what would’ve been pinged if I weren’t using this plug in!
Take a look at this (keep in mind, this is only a section of the pings…around 50% of what actually happened):
WOW!!!! Unbelievable. The day I edited most of my old posts probably pinged thousands of times. This will get you listed as a ping spammer quicker than you can blink. They really need to fix this. I believe most of the pings were caused by the autosave feature because I didn’t save the post that many times.
WordPress needs a global pinging control to say the least. Keep in mind, a post doesn’t have to be published to ping every service! Thanks to MaxBlogPress for giving us this plug in. I imagine that I’m listed as a ping spammer in many places. This plugin isn’t perfect but will certainly help! I leave pinging turned off and just do it manually through Ping-O-Matic.
#1 by Andy Bailey at January 14th, 2008
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oh **ping hell! I think I need to download that plugin now, my posts get previewed so many times that bill gates phoned me up and told me to use live writer!
thanks for the heads up!
Andy Bailey’s last blog post..iMaingo Portable Speakers ?37.50 + 0.50 P&P
#2 by Ed Philly at January 14th, 2008
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Don’t feel too bad about your PR. I was predicted to do a 4 after the change, and I got dropped down to 0 from 6…and I don’t use WordPress…or ping anything except Technoratti. I think you
have enough hardcore readers by now, that the PR shouldn’t really phase you.
Good info for everyone else though.
#3 by Madhur Kapoor at January 14th, 2008
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Thanks for pointing this out to us buddy . This thing never crossed my mind .
Madhur Kapoor’s last blog post..My new Blog : TheSoccerPitch.com
#4 by clairec23 at January 15th, 2008
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Crappity crap crap.
I’m always editing my posts. And I mean always. I can’t help myself. There is way too much about blogging that I do not know 
Thanks for letting the rest of us know!
clairec23′s last blog post..Logical Move
#5 by emila at January 15th, 2008
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Hah! No wonder! I think this happened to me also, Bobby! Thanks for sharing the fact, I will download the plugin too.
emila’s last blog post..Stitch – Illustration Friday
#6 by nimrodjo at January 18th, 2008
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I used the plugin too..other way to avoid this problem is either use live writer (Andy Bailey have mention it) or Blog Desk to write your post offline..I use Blog Desk..
nimrodjo’s last blog post..You Have To See This!
#7 by Colorado Lasik Surgery at January 19th, 2008
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I just downloaded this plugin. thanks for the warning.
Colorado Lasik Surgery’s last blog post..Possible Complications of Lasik Surgery
#8 by Todd Morris at February 9th, 2008
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Yikes … I’m another one who loves to preview posts many, many times before I actually publish them. If it’s not already too late, this plug-in should prove very useful.
Thanks,
Todd
Todd Morris’s last blog post..I Missed a Deal on a Product I Wanted
#9 by Derek at May 11th, 2009
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Yeah…I was also frequently editing my posts, not realizing this. How careless of wordpress to allow so many people to get banned by ping sites without even realizing it until it’s too late.
I have a couple of questions regarding this subject. Maybe someone can help. So how do I find out if I’ve been banned or penalized by the ping sites from “over-pinging”?
Also..when re-pinging happens, do the hyperlinked sites in my posts also get multiple pings?
#10 by Revellian at January 14th, 2008
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Isn’t that crazy? I fix mistakes sometimes several times on each post. It doesn’t matter if it’s a draft or post
#11 by Revellian at January 14th, 2008
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Having low page rank simply means if you don’t know me or haven’t met me by chance…you’ll never find me. I gave up caring about it months ago. However, there’s no need to destroy my rankings completely by being on every ping spammer list known…haha
#12 by Revellian at January 14th, 2008
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It never crossed my mind either Madhur! I hope it helps, thanks for coming by
#13 by Revellian at January 15th, 2008
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I hope it helps you! I edit mine all the time too, it’s almost unbelievable that this problem exists
#14 by Revellian at January 15th, 2008
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I used it to turn pinging off and leave it off. After I write a post, I use pingomatic and do it manually. It really is a big problem
#15 by Revellian at January 19th, 2008
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I write some posts in a separate editor sometimes too. WordPress is supposed to be the best…if I can’t edit with the best then why use it at all? They need to address the problem and I’ve asked them too!!!! Thanks Nimrodjo