Webring
| Synonyms: | Web Ring, Site Ring |
| See also: | Wikipedia:Webring, Category:Webrings |
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A webring is a collection of websites linked together in a circular structure.
To be a part of the webring, each site has a common navigation bar; it contains links to the previous and next site in the ring. By clicking next (or previous) repeatedly, the surfer will eventually reach the site they started at; this is the origin of the term webring.
The click-through route around the ring is usually supplemented by a central site (sometimes called a ring hub) with links to all member sites; this prevents the ring from breaking completely if a member site goes offline.
Webrings were a popular way to connect fansites in the 1990s, although their use tapered off in the 2000s.
More recently, they have been making a comeback within the Web 1.0 Revival movement, and can be found among sites on Neocities. One such example is the Fanfiction Webring.
- For fannish webrings documented on Fanlore see Category:Webrings.
Popular Webring Services
Historical Services
- WebRing.com, founded in 1995. Became Yahoo! WebRing from 2000 to 2001 then reverted back to WebRing.com.[1] Also WebRing.org.
- Comics Ring, founded 1996
- RingSurf, founded c. 1998.
- Bravenet SiteRing, founded March 2000 and discontinued in 2016.[2]
Modern Tools
With the webring revival of the late 2010s/early 2020s, several new tools for creating webrings have emerged. These tend to be free tools or guides that anyone can use on their own website rather than hosted services.
- onionring.js, ca. 2020[3]
- Max Böck's Webring Starter Kit, ca. 2019[4]
- Viatrix's How to make a webring, ca. 2022(?)[5]
External Links
- "Let's bring Fan Sites and webrings back!", Bryan L. Robinson, February 2019. Accessed June 11, 2022
References
- ^ Welcome to Yahoo! WebRing, archived 09 November 2000 by the Wayback Machine. WebRing News 10/10/2001: "WebRing has separated itself from Yahoo!"
- ^ Bravenet Update, "New Service Added - SiteRing" posted 14 March 2000, archived 11 May 2000 by the Wayback Machine. See Bravenet Web Services - SiteRing and Site Ring from Bravenet.
- ^ what is onionring.js? garlic garden. Accessed July 25, 2024. Archived from the original on October 20, 2020 (first available Wayback Machine snapshot).
- ^ Max Böck. Webring Starter Kit. Github. Accessed July 25, 2024. Archived from the original on July 10, 2024.
- ^ Viatrix. How to make a webring. Internet Rando Extraordinaire. Accessed July 25, 2024. Archived from the original on June 3, 2022.