I looked into the IceRocket ping issue.
The problem is that IceRocket, whether by ignorance or intention, has implemented an incompatible variant of the common weblogUpdates.ping mechanism. Their ping request accepts only one argument, the blog URL, and their success-case response also is not properly structured (it is a simple string rather than a struct with flerror and message members).
I'm pursuing two tacks in parallel: (1) I've contacted Blake Rhodes at IceRocket, and requested that they consider putting up a compatible weblogUpdates.ping endpoint. I'm not expecting rapid response here, but this is the right thing to do in principle, since there is a defacto standard spec that most of the rest of the world seems to adhere to. But also (2) I've filed a Roller JIRA issue http://opensource.atlassian.com/projects/roller/browse/ROL-1192, which I hope to fix before the next Roller release to add configurable support for non-conformant ping implementations like IceRocket.
Also before the next Roller release, I am hoping to add common ping target definitions in default disabled state for most/all of the ping targets I know about and can verify as working or get to work with this and similar minor variations.
In the meantime, a workaround is to ping icerocket via ping services like ping-o-matic or pingoat. (Expect additional delay and somewhat weaker guarantees that your ping will be delivered.)
--a.
