FLASH, I’ve been carping about the Web needing more webring hosts for awhile, only to discover a new small startup webring host webri.ng on Hacker News discussion. This is definitely a good step for the Web Revival.
Webri.ng is fairly basic, it does not have all the features of the big legacy hosts like Webringo. But it has enough to create and run a ring.
Why is a Webring Host Important?
Most modern webrings are controlled by a code that the ring owner has to install on their own website or server in order to start one webring. A webring host is like the old original Webring.org or Ringsurf.com they power webrings using their own servers. Not just one ring but many. What this means is that anyone who wants to start a webring can do so and only needs an email address and know a little bit of HTML. You don’t need to install Javascript on your site and you do not need to mess with Github pull requests and the like. Anyone joining your hosted webring just needs an email address and again a little HTML knowledge. IMHO it lowers the bar to entry and makes it much easier for many webrings to be started and maintained.
Just to be clear: I’m not knocking the various new scripts for creating single webrings. I think they are important for those who know how to use them. They also have the advantage of being decentralized. But I think the web revival needs both homebrew webrings and third party remote hosts to really get webrings back in the public eye and popular.
I hope you give webri.ng a lookover for your next ring.
Liked this post? Follow this blog to get more. 