credit where it is due

I was reading Euan writing about Koyaanisqatsi and thought of my friend Igor, who gave me both Koyaanisqatsi and Powaqqatsi to me for my birthday. I intended to comment about the film on Euan's weblog, either via a comment or trackback, but the moment passed.
Later I was reading Ant writing about the thoughts of Alice and Paula on the lack of attribution to those who do not have a web presence, it struck me that this was maybe the reason I'd not commented on Euan's blog. There is a very insular thing going on in the weblog culture, a strong in group feeling of attribution if there is someone to link to and almost denial if not.
It feels odd to see someone's name on a site without a hyperlink around it and mentioning someone who has a weblog and not citing them feels wrong too. Yet attribution to those people who have had the original idea is important, as that way you can ensure dialog with the originator, not the messenger. Trackback is a delightful tool, but deeply insular to MT, a gateway to a spam protected email might be a solution, so that I can trackback ping Alice and Paula via Ant's blog, so that I can communicate with them without having to know their email addresses already.