Introduction

People can visit each website in the ring in turn by clicking on the nav bar next button.

The HTML to generate it looks something like this:

There is an alternate version of the nav bar HTML that uses no Javascript at all that lets you customise the way the nav bar looks.

If you don’t have a website, you can get a free one from an ISP (Internet Service Provider) such as SimpleNet, Angelfire or GeoCities. You can’t join a ring until you have a working website with something on it to show people. In a pinch, you might borrow a corner of somebody else’s website.

You will need to learn HTML or some HTML generating tool. You will need some simple (often free) tools to write and validate your HTML. You will need an FTP tool to upload your creation from your local hard disk to the webserver. I use Netload which completely automates the process and FTP Voyager to recover when things go off the rails. The coming instructions look intimidating. Admittedly they are long-winded, but they are not that difficult if you go step by step. It might help to print out these instructions, and tick them off as you complete each step.

Terminology

hub logo

A large, up to *.gif, *.jpg or *.png image that is used on the hub page. It is not the same as the nav bar logo. You need both. As a ringmaster, you can change it with Edit Ring Logo. It can take perhaps half an hour to show up on the websites after you upload a new logo.

nav bar

navigation bar. A piece of HTML that generates a box representing the web ring on your web page. Visitors can click to go the next site in the ring or go to the ring hub to join themselves. The nav bar handles all your webrings for that webpage. You don’t need one per webring. It works because all the different webrings use the same U# embedded in the nav bar. I like to put them near the bottom of the page so that if something goes wrong, you can still view the top part of the page.

nav bar logo

sometimes called the ring logo. A 50x50 *.gif, *.jpg (but not a *.png) icon that is used on the on the nav bar page. It is not the same as the hub logo. You need both. As a ringmaster, you can change it with Customization ⇒ Navigation code ⇒ Nav bar logo. It can take perhaps half an hour to show up on the websites after you upload a new logo.

ring home page

A web page created by the ringmaster giving any information he wants. On my web home pages I give extra explanation on setting up the nav bar.

SSNB

Server Side Navigation Bar. A more technical term for the navbar, especially when talking about the magic numbers it contains to identify the ring and site and webpage.

ring hub

A web page at webring.com for a ring that lists the member sites. It also gives you a place to join the ring.

ringmaster

The person in charge of a webring. They get to decide who can join and who can’t. They set up the criteria, and adjudicate them. They also do the administrative work for the ring.

site

Webring uses the word site is two different ways which is very confusing. If you are a ringmaster the sites are the website that have signed up for your ring. If you are looking at a U# for an URL, then the sites are the rings this site belongs to.

site URL

An HTTP URL that points to the website, webpage and anchor on the page where you want visitors to arrive. That is also where you place the nav bar so that visitors can leave for the next site in the ring. URLs are long, so WebRing assigns each unique URL that you use an abbreviation, called the U#, normally a number but it can contain letters.

 community

The new term for WebRing, sometimes called a WebRing community, all the websites on one ring.

Joining New Rings

• Click on Join Now on the nav bar of some site already in the ring and follow your nose. This will take you to WebRing.com, the company that manages the rings. Alternatively, click here to go to Webring.com.
• If you don’t already have a webring.com login id, you can choose an id and password. You will use this id for all your rings, not just for the one ring you are joining. click here to sign up
• Login with your id here.
• Click join ring on somebody’s nav bar who is already in the ring, or else find some ring in the huge hierarchy of possibilities.
• You will be asked to describe your site and give its URL. Make sure you give the URL of the page where you plan the put the nav bar, not your home page (unless of course you plan to put the nav bar on your home page). This is the landing place where arriving visitors start their tour of your site. It is also the taking off place for them to depart to the next site on the ring. Giving the wrong URL is the most common error.
• Filling in that form will generate an automatic email to me telling me, the ringmaster, that you want to join the ring. I have to ok your application.
• Click My Rings at the top of the page.
• Click View Web Sites on the left.
• Click Get SSNB code next to the corresponding webring.
• It will show you a piece of gobbledegook html something like this. The actual nav bar is not indented or commented like the one I showed at the top of the page.
  This is the nav bar you have been hearing so much about. A single nav bar handles all the rings that use the same URL. Cut and paste it into your web page. Make sure you get the whole thing including the final </script>. Don’t copy my nav bars. They won’t work for you. You need to get versions customised for you.
• HTMLValidator will complain that the nav bar is not valid HTML, so you might be tempted to correct it, adding the missing type and quotes. However, if you do that, unfortunately the automated-nav-bar-finder will fail, and you will find yourself automatically suspended from the ring. You must use the nav bar exactly as given. use the <cseignore> </cseignore> to tell it to ignore the errors.
• The most important thing to understand is that the nav bar must be displayed on the page where you want the web ring to send visitors when they first land on your site, on the precise URL you told Webring.com. The automated Webring.com link-checking software is not smart enough to go searching for it. This rigid scheme has the added benefit of making it easy for users to find the link to the next website after they have explored your site.
• This section is only for advanced users using frames. You have five choices.

  1. Klutzy

     : Point Webring directly to the frame containing your rings, and provide a link on that page back to your home page which then redisplays the surrounding frames. The page will first appear without its normal enclosing frame.

  2. Ruthless

     : Put your nav bar on a non-frame page.

  3. Theoretically Correct

     : Create a new frameset page very much like your index.html page. The difference is it brings up your rings page inside the frame instead of the usual default index page. You point Webring.com to that enclosing frameset page. Unfortunately, Webring cannot always find the nav bar if it is embedded in a frame. At times it seems to, then loses the ability.

  4. Advanced

     : use multiple copies of the nav bar. There will be one landing place and many taking off places. I will explain this in greater detail later. Use one of the other techniques for your landing place. No matter what else you do, you must always have a valid nav bar for that URL on the landing page.

  5. Optimisitic

     : Just put the nav bar in a frame and hope for the best. It might work.
• I repeat. It won’t work to point the URL to your home page, and then hide the nav bar on some other page. The automatic link checker can’t find the nav bar and it will automatically suspend you. You must put the nav bar on the exact URL of the page that you tell Webring.com when you join the ring.
• Upload the page to your website. Remember to re-upload every time you change the HTML or your site content.
• Usually your nav bar will start working within seconds after the ringmaster approves your site. Until then, nothing will happen, so not to panic. Eventually, the nav bar will eventually show up.
• If you don’t get your nav bar successfully installed, the automatic nav bar checker will suspend you. This is so that people using the ring won’t get stuck when they come to your site. It means nothing at all about the quality of your site. It is no reason to panic. Further, if for any reason your nav bar stops working at some point in future, Webring.com will automatically suspend you until you get the problem fixed.

Making Changes

• If later you want to change some of the information about your site, such as its name, description or URL, go to Webring.com and click View Ring Sites.
• Then click the line representing your web page. The most likely thing you would want to change is your URL if you decide to move the nav bar to a new page. Make sure you get a new nav bar when you change the URL. It is confusing, because the old nav bar may appear to work, at least for a while.

Under the Hood

It also lets you play games by assigning multiple different u#s to the same page, and hence allowing multiple independent nav bars on the same page.

Clever readers will have noticed that this scheme also allows you to put your nav bars on several different websites, all managed by the same account.

Bugs

These are bugs I discovered at the time Yahoo.com was running the webring. I have not yet retested to see if these bugs have been fixed. Be wary of them.

Trouble Shooting

Oddly, you can’t access the test from the Go HERE to manage your web site URL, U#, get navigation code, view your SSNB stack(s), etc. (aka My Web sites in URL Order) screen.

If your nav bar test fails, double check the following:

1. Is the nav bar on the exact same URL you told Webring.com? If not, either tell Webring.com (on the appropriate form) the correct place or move the nav bar to the correct page.
2. Get a fresh nav bar. Nav bars only work properly on the page they were created for.
3. Don’t change the nav bar HTML in any way. Don’t even put a carriage return in the middle of it. Once you get it working you can try tidying up the HTML checking all the time that the tests for nav bar presence still works and all its buttons still work.
4. Scan your website to make sure the u#s are unique and that they match the Webring.com records.

On the Go HERE to manage your web site URL, U#, get navigation code, view your SSNB stack(s), etc. (aka My Web sites in URL Order) screen you will sometimes see Delete SSNB code beside an entry. This means there are no living webrings associated with that web page any more. You should either delete the nav bar from your page and the entry from WebRing, or join some suitable rings. These defunct pages will not show up at all in the click my account ⇒ manage memberships ⇒ Go HERE if you want to see/manage/edit the sites that you have in other rings (aka Your Ring Memberships) page.

Alternatives

See this proposal for a new generation of WebRing software.

Joining Multiple WebRings

To make all the webrings show up in the nav bar, configure the size of the stack on the WebRing site. Otherwise visitors to your site have to click “Visit a complete list of WebRing memberships here” in fine print, to see the other rings. The effect can take 30 minutes or so to show up.

Starting Your own WebRing

It works best if you provide a URL instead uploading your logos. Your server will be faster than theirs. Also they seem to compress and distort the images, so the URL method gives nicer looking images.

Webring automatically tests member sites periodically to make sure they are properly installed. They can fail or pass or pass-L. Pass-L means he put the nav bar on a different page from where incoming visitors land, but that they can get to the nav bar to leave in one link. Typically visitors land on the home page, and click webrings to get to the nav bars. It is a judgement call whether you should allow these. I do not. They make it harder for visitors to navigate to the next link.

Roedy’s Rings

If you have trouble with one of the rings I manage, you can email me ator phone me, Roedy Green, at (250) 361-9093. That is in Victoria, BC Canada. However, there are many things I cannot do for you.

1. I can’t put your nav ring in for you (unless you trust me with your ISP id/password and FTP trivia) to upload the finished result.
2. Unless you give me your Webring.com id/password, I can’t change your URL.
3. Unless you give me your Webring.com id/password, I can’t change your site name.
4. Unless you give me your Webring.com id/password, I can’t change your site description.