GENESSA has specific requirements for each ring, but there are requirements that hold true for all rings she manages. Here they are:
Hi! WELCOME! PLEASE DO NOT SKIP ANY OF THIS!
PUT THE WEBRING NAVIGATION CODE ON YOUR REGISTERED PAGE! You cannot be an active member of a WebRing without passing code on the page producing a functional, visible NavBar, and there is no point in being an inactive one; only active members are on the member list of a ring and only active members get visitors sent to them.
Find information about all my rings (and about WebRing itself) at my always-a-little-behind-but-catching-up unofficial manager's page at http://sh1.webring.com/people/wg/genessa/webring.htm .
NO WEBRINGS OR LINKS PAGES and NO ENTRY PAGES! NO PASS-L! SSNB ONLY, NO HTML! NO ONE-WAY NAVIGATION! NO FALSE HOME PAGES! I MEAN IT!
ABOUT ONE-WAY NAVIGATION: One-way navigation is against WebRing rules, and it will get you failing code and suspension in any and every ring you're in, not just mine. Find more information HERE. One-Way navigation is any navigation that lands the visitor on a page to which the rest of the site does not link back, or on which the NavBar is obscured or otherwise unusable. Opening pages in a new browser is not good enough. There must be a link. Using the browser's "back" button is not good enough. THERE MUST BE A LINK. Some people create false home pages for the purpose of landing visitors onto those pages, with no way back to the NavBar. This is one-way navigation and it's mean and selfish. Don't do it.
ABOUT BAD NAVIGATION: If your registered content page is not linked back to directly from the pages to which it links, but is eventually linked back to, I will decide whether the navigation is acceptable. Too many clicks: bad navigation. Most pages linking directly back but some linking to others that link back: probably okay. I don't know why anyone would WANT to have bad navigation, WebRing or no WebRing. A visitor who can get around your site easily is a happy visitor; happy visitors visit again!
ABOUT ENTRY PAGES: My sole discretion determines whether an entry page has acceptable content and thus is not to be considered an entry page. If an entry page contains an index not available on subsequent pages, and of course if it's not one-way, then it is acceptable (it's an index, not an entry page, even if it looks like one and says "enter"). In just about all other circumstances, it's an entry page and pretty useless, and it's not acceptable.
FOR BLOGSPOT USERS: If you are using Blogspot, please remember to use a BOTTOM gadget for the traditional standard horizontal NavBar; if you wish to use a side gadget and cannot make a horizontal NavBar fit completely within it without being obscured, log into WebRing, view your account page by URL, click edit settings under the url, scroll down the page until you find the option to use the vertical NavBar where available (it is usually available) and check the check box. Scroll to the bottom of the page to click the button that saves your changes. I will NOT accept obscured NavBars.
FOR PRIVATE PAGES: Do you have a private profile, or a members-only page, or some other kind of site that the general public is not invited to enter? If so, then WHY in the world do you want to join a WebRing, which will bring lots and lots of visitors to your site, who then won't be able to get in because you didn't invite them? Give me a break! No private pages, please!
FOR YAHOO GROUPS USERS: I do not accept HTML WebRing code. Yahoo Groups doesn't accept javascript, which is what SSNB code is. Therefore I will not accept Yahoo Groups pages (or any other pages whose hosts do not accept javascript). If you want people to see your Yahoo Groups page via a WebRing, registered a page (with content, not an entry page!) that links to (and is linked BACK to FROM) the Yahoo Groups page.
FOR MYSPACE USERS: Please do not title your site "the page cannot be found" and if you cannot use SSNB on your MySpace page, you cannot join my rings with a MySpace page. Solution: Join with another (content) page and link back and forth between the two.
FOR WORDPRESS USERS: You have to edit a footer.php to use SSNB code. It CAN be done.
FOR JOOMLA USERS: According to a kind Joomla user, add the code to the template's index.php file just above /body.
FOR MICROSOFT OFFICE LIVE USERS: See http://solutionsforofficelive.com/googlegadgets.aspx for directions. NOTE: If you do not use these directions, Office Live will add slashes to your code and Checker will not be able to read it, and your code will fail. If you DO follow these directions, I don't know whether Checker will find your code, since Office Live's gadget system MIGHT result in the code's technically being on a URL different from the registered URL. So at this point I truly do not know whether you can join any of my WebRings or even any WebRings at all using Office Live. If you find out, please tell me! And good luck!
FOR YAHOO SITE SOLUTIONS USERS: This page gives directions for adding javascript: http://help.yahoo.com/l/us/yahoo/smallbusiness/store/edit/regular/regular-02.html . Note that I have not personally seen a site using this system, so I do not know whether Checker acknowledges it.
FOR EPINIONS SITES: Epinions does not afford easy navigation back to an individual's site; therefore I do not accept Epinions sites.
FOR IOFFER SITES: iOffer does not afford easy navigation back to an individual's site; therefore I do not accept iOffer sites.
ABOUT WEBRINGS PAGES: By "webrings page" I don't mean a page hosted by WebRing; I mean a page on your site that is dedicated to showing off your NavBars, either because you think they're pretty or because you don't want them to mess up your home page. Actually if you have been dying to get rid of your webrings page, in Webring's Account Settings you can choose "Single NavBar" which will show ONE navbar and link to a list of your other memberships, replacing your Webrings page and saving you bandwidth. I believe the default is now the single NavBar so you may not have to choose, but it couldn't hurt. If, on the other hand, you're crazy about your WebRings page, by all means keep it, but you may not have it as the registered page and the code must be on the registered page.
FOR COMMERCIAL SITES WITH AFFILIATE LINKS: I do not object to affiliate links; I do object to links farms. Make sure your affiliate links are clearly external (that the visitor knows s/he is leaving your site by clicking them) and make sure you have original content on your page, not JUST affiliate (or other) links. Make sure your page is linked from your main index; do not submit a page of search results! (How do you expect a visitor to guess what keyword YOU used?) If you are selling something on eBay, be sure to link BACK TO YOUR SITE from your eBay seller's profile. Too many steps to find the way back? Bad navigation.
HOW TO JOIN: Click GET STARTED at the bottom of this page and follow the few simple directions... AFTER you have finished reading these instructions! The first time you join a webring with a given page you have to put code on that page. If you join more rings with that same page you don't have to add any more code, and none will be offered (you'll be told, instead, that you already have good code on the page). If you use another one of your pages to join another ring later, you will need to put the appropriate code on THAT page too. Remember: one page, one code. (This is not true of HTML WebRing code but I don't accept HTML WebRing code.) NOTE: If you are reading this on my website rather than in the join instructions of a particular ring, please click on the link, in the lefthand column of the page, for how to join a WebRing. Not every manager has join instructions and thus a "GET STARTED" button.
HOW TO GET THE CODE: The code will be offered to you as part of the submission process. If you missed it, or need to get it again, there is more than one way. The easiest way is to log in, come to the ring's hub page and click GET NAVIGATION CODE. Another way is to log in, view your account page by URL and across the page from the URL in question click GET SSNB CODE.
WHERE ON YOUR PAGE TO PUT THE CODE: Anywhere it fits and is completely visible and functional.
WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE TOLD YOU CAN'T JOIN BECAUSE YOU HAVE FAILING CODE: First determine whether this is true. Sometimes checker is slow, or cranky. Log in, view your page by memberships and organize by "failing." For each memberships said to have failing code, click on your site title and then click TEST. If "fail" or "time out" changes to "pass," just do it again for each membership that needs it until nothing is failing anymore. You may have to refresh your account page to see the changes. If TEST doesn't change your status, you really do have failing code; in this case, right there on your edit site information page, in the lefthand column, click Navigation Code Wizard and find out why your code is failing. Possible reasons: your site is down (you don't need the Wizard to tell you that!) or, in the case of newly applied code, it was incorrectly or incompletely applied, or your website host or website-making program altered the code or requires some special method of applying javascript (in which case you need to contact them, not us) or your member ID and/or U# do not match what is on record for that page and that membership, or your page redirects to another page and checker can't find the code, or you have Pass-L navigation in a ring that considers Pass-L to be failing (such as all my rings!) or you made a typo when you submitted your URL and checker is looking for the typo and not the real URL or... well those are SOME of the things that might have gone wrong. Go thou and fix thy code!
WHAT TO DO IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE NAVBAR: You can always ask a WebRing manager if s/he will change it. I make all my NavBars standard size and use one small graphic; in almost all cases the background is transparent to blend in with your site's decor. I can't please everyone but I don't think I have done anything outrageous. If you disagree I am open to your thoughts but quite frankly unless you point out something I've never noticed that truly needs to be changed, I am very unlikely to change the NavBar just for you. You can always see what a NavBar looks like at the bottom of a ring's hub page before joining. (Click Hub on the toolbar above the member list; the NavBar doesn't show on the List Member Sites page.)
WAITING FOR APPROVAL: I tend to make decisions about new applications pretty fast but not everyone does. It can take a week or more. A week is considered normal. If you feel you've waited too long to hear whether or not your site has been approved, contact the ring manager (not WebRing Support). If there is no WebRing Manager, THEN you may contact WebRing Support (or, if you are a premium member, your rep). Keep in mind that your having passing code does not obligate a manager to accept you into a ring. Acceptance or denial is completely at the discretion of a ring's manager. You are permitted to ask why (most will already have told you in the denial email). You are not permitted to harass a manager for any reason, including but not limited to his or her decision not to accept you into a WebRing.
