Funny what an off-hand reply in the mail can do to a guy's weekend...
I just finished setting up and testing The Sunbeam Auto Showroom, a web
ring that anyone with a Sunbeam-oriented web page or site can join to
increase their exposure to the Sunbeam-surfin' public. The ring is a
database of web sites that is reachable via a small set of controls
placed on a member's home or links page. The idea is that you add
yourself to the ring and become (almost) instantly available from all
other members' ring pages. Readers can scroll forward or backward in
the ring, jump to a randomly- chosen site or a list of all sites in the
ring.
The ring has a nominal web site at
http://www.tgx.com/bridge/sunbeam/webring/
that explains the details and rules. You can also see what the controls
look like, and try them out, from that page or the bottom of my or the
SUNI site (the only two members of the ring at present).
Membership is free. You are required to submit a request to join, and
copy a small section of HTML code into your ring page for the ring
controls. As far as I can see only the controls code will show up on
your page - no ads or other junk. Sites are not inserted directly.
Instead they are queued for review by me, and I add them to the ring. I
did this to keep "just anyone" from adding, say, a "XXX Teen Girls" page
to the ring. Once you make a request I will get e-mail. Then I'll check
your request, make sure you have the controls in place, and add you to
the ring. You will get e-mail confirmations. I don't need any more work
than that.
The WebRing service that hosts the database is a little shaky these
days, and I'm hoping they clear things up Real Soon Now. I've tried to
make your setup as easy as possible, but I can't do anything about
WebRing's ad-hoc approach to transaction management - you may find
yourself locked out from their system and will have to wait (about 20
minutes) and try again. Make sure you heed any WebRing notices about
logging out and hope for the best. The other ring services have their
own problems (some much larger), so unless WebRing really goes to hell
it will suffice for now until I can make a good one on my server.
It won't look like much early on, but as people add their sites to the
ring everyone should get a little more visible and save themselves the
work of maintaining their own collection of links. Enjoy.
Note to wannabe webmasters: have a look at the WebRing pages
(http://www.webring.org) and take notes about what NOT to do with your
site, especially the choice of colours.
--- J e r o m e Y u z y k | jerome(at)supernet.ab.ca - - BRIDGE Scientific Services | www.tgx.com/bridge - - Sunbeam Alpine Series II #9118636 | www.tgx.com/bridge/sunbeam - - I'm going to SUNI III... Are You? | www.newsource.net/suni3 -
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