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Welcome to WebRing! This status page
is here to update RingMasters, Members, and Visitors, with current
information about the WebRing system and WebRing community. Thanks
for checking in.
(The previous status update can be
viewed here.)
Ring Checker
Interest in the Ring Checker is still
high, things are settling somewhat as more RingMasters read up on
what the Checker is intended to do for them. For information on the
Checker we encourage you to re-read prior status reports (see the
link above). Here is a short list of outstanding issues,
- Some ISPs are still hard to access:
- Homestead.com - We've contacted them and are waiting to hear
back.
- Globe.com - They've contacted us and we're talking.
- neopets.com - Requires a cookie to access their system.
Looks bad.
- Page timeouts will be handled differently. The Checker won't
consider this a "fail" as far a moving the site is concerned, and
will report it as a timeout in site management.
- V3 redirects seem to be a problem. We're working on these.
go.to seems to be where this occurs most.
Announcing Adopt-A-Ring Program!
The Adopt-a-Ring
program is now complete. We'll be launching this feature very soon,
but wanted to give you information on how it works beforehand. As
most of you are aware, there are many viable rings that have been
abandoned for one reason or another and are in need of new
management. Also, we know that there are many of you interested in
managing existing rings. Until now the process of matchng
prospective RingMasters with abandoned Rings has been informal and
not well promoted. We've devised the "Adopt-a-Ring" program to meet
this need. Here are some of the highlights:
- We will feature a separate directory of adoptable Rings that
you can use to look for Rings that you may be interested in
managing. We are working on a new search engine for
WebRing. When that is complete we'll also include an Adopt-a-Ring
only search. For now, the directory is one way of finding Rings of
interest.
- A registration system that prospective RingMasters can use to
apply for adoption. See the section below on "Adoption Process"
for a more detailed discussion.
- Links on the Hub page of adoptable Rings so that users can
tell that a ring is adoptable.
Announcing Abandoned
Ring Checking!
We get numerous emails from Members indicating
that particular Rings may have been abandoned. Until now we've had
to check each of these complaints by hand. We have started an
automated system that checks each Ring weekly to see that it hasn't
been abandoned. This will enable us to know when Rings aren't being
managed so they can be put up for adoption. The criteria we are
following to determine whether a Ring is abandoned is:
- Check the Ring's 'Home' link. If that works (i.e., a page
comes up), then we assume the ring is actively managed. Sometime
users complain about Rings even when the Home page link is valid.
These will be checked by hand.
- If the Home page link fails for any reason it is checked again
in one week. If it fails the second week, we send a first
warning email.
- If the check fails the third week, a final warning
email is sent.
- If the check fails a fourth week in succession, the Ring is
put up for adoption.
Note that this process takes many weeks. The goal is to
find Rings that are truly abandoned, and to avoid bothering well
managed Rings.
Upcoming Changes
-
Site Re-Design
We are currently working on a new
Site design that will provide a consistent and easy to use
format for all pages within WebRing. We're focusing first on the
WebRing Directory and Search systems. In addition to a new look
we are working on a revised directory structure with more
categories. This will help visitors find Rings faster, and will
allow RingMasters to place their Ring in the most appropriate
location within WebRing.
-
Support
Our support form has been in need of an
upgrade for some time. We pride ourselves on responding quickly
to requests for assistance. We wish to make this the best online
service available. So, we are developing a comprehensive Expert
System based support system. With a few selections and questions
we hope to either solve/answer your questions immediately, or
take you directly to the part of the WebRing system you're
looking for. In case that process fails, we'll have all the
information we need to respond to your request
directly.
-
WebRing Served Htmlfragment
We are developing
several different navigation mechanisms that can be served from
WebRing servers rather than stored on each Site's system. We've
named this a "Server Side Navbar", or SSNB. The idea is to allow
RingMasters to develop and store, on our SSNB server, a single
Htmlfragment for the entire Ring. Does this sound like the
present system? It's not. Currently each ste has to copy and
paste the fragment onto their page, and often change a number of
parts of the fragment in order to make it function properly.
With the SSNB the Site owner only has to cut and paste a small
piece of code, which never has to be changed, onto their
page and we'll do the rest. When their page is loaded, the SSNB
server will build the fragment on demand, inserting all
necessary information (Ring ID, Site ID, etc.).
There are many advantages with this approach. Here's a few:
First, we can check a single fragment for validity, and do it on
our system. The Ring Checker will still check to see that Sites
exist and that the simpler fragment code is present, but this
process should be much simpler. Second, since the fragment is
stored in a common location for all Sites in a Ring, changes can
be made quickly and easily if the RingMaster decides to make a
fragment change. Rings can also be merged and/or split easily,
giving rapidly evolving communities an easier growth path.
In addition to the HTMLfragment, we are also considering a
"WebRing" link button that we can serve in a similar fashion.
This might be either a very small navigation fragment and a link
to a "WebRings" page within a Site, or just the link to the
"WebRings" page. The plan is to make it a nice, small, uniform
graphic/link that Members can put in any number of locations
throughout their Site. This is a very common practice already,
but having us store and serve the fragment would allow our
crawler to know where to check for a "WebRings" link page.
Any ideas for improving WebRing can be emailed to the Member Support
Form. As always, we appreciate your input.
The WebRing Team
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