Mystery Readers Ring

***

The Mystery Readers Ring links together the websites of people who love to read mystery and detective novels and have developed webpages with interesting content about authors, books, themes, or other matters of interest to mystery fans.

MRR Home This is a Mystery Readers Ring site.
 
[Prev] [Next] [Next 5] [List Sites]
[Random]

 
Want to join the Mystery Readers Ring?
Next!

The game is afoot!

***

[ What is the Mystery Readers Ring? | What is a Webring? | How Do I Surf the Ring? | How Do I Join the Ring? | Other Mystery Webrings ]

***

(Detectives!)

What is a Webring?

A webring is a method of linking similar sites.

If you are a websurfer, you do not need to keep backtracking to a link page or search page to find the next site of interest: starting from any one site in a ring, you can click "next" to visit another site on the same subject -- or any of the links in a standard navigation box. The same set of navigation links is found on every site in the ring, so you can't get lost.

If you are a site owner, you do not have to maintain a list of links, adding, changing, and deleting everytime your friends move their sites around the web. Once you install the standardized webring links, webring.org will maintain the record of where those links point to. The network of sites you are linked to expands more and more, and you never have to update your link page!

***

How Do I Surf the Webring?

Previous - Home - Next

The standard webring navigation links are:

Previous
takes you to the previous website in the ring
Previous 5
shows you a list of the previous five websites in the ring
Next
takes you to the next website in the ring
Next 5
shows you a list of the next five websites in the ring
List
shows you a list of all the websites in the ring (larger rings are listed in pages of 20 sites each)
Random
takes you to a random site in the ring
Home
takes you to the home page of the ring
Join
takes you to a page with instructions on becoming a ring member

***

How Do I Join the Ring?

(Books! Books! Books!)

The criteria for membership are:

# Your site has content about one or more mystery books and/or authors. Background information of interest to mystery readers would also qualify: a non-fiction site on forensics or poisons, for instance; or pictures and history of the English countryside of the Cadfael series.

# "Content" means more than a list of books you've read. Ways to increase content could be: a short review of each book; links to other reviews, the author's own website, or other information about a book; a list of similar books.
   Everybody wants other people to read their webpage. If you can think of a reason someone would want to read your webpage, and would benefit by it, then your page has content.
   If you write or sell mystery books, you may join the ring IF your site includes interesting content that doesn't require purchase.

# Your page has to meet what I, the ring manager, consider to be minimum design standards. This is arrogant as blazes, I know, but I'm keeping it simple:

Load in under 45 seconds for most people on most modems.
This usually means that the text, graphics, midis, applets and all put together amount to not over 70K -- 40K is better. Using WIDTH, HEIGHT and ALT tags on all images also speeds up page loading.
Be easily navigated.
The webring code must be visible on the page you register with the webring -- this does not have to be the front page of your site, and in fact I would prefer that it be a content page. There must be clear links from the entry page to the other pages in your site, and back again -- so that your visitors can surf the rest of the ring.
Be readable.
If you have a slinky black gothic text on a twisty black and green background, it may be elegant and awesome, but it's not readable.
This is a readers ring, and my bias is toward reading, not toward graphics or midis or other multimedia. I will try to control that -- I do like some add-ons myself. But I favor pages that are interesting before the decorations are added, and stay readable after the decorations are added.
Be accessible.
There are things that you can only do with newer tools, like Java. If you've got them, use them. But if your webpage crashes older browsers, or you don't provide alternative text for frames and images and Javascripts, you are limiting the number of people who can see you. I want the webring to be useable by all.

If you feel overwhelmed by all that, but you love mysteries -- apply anyway. Let me see your site and talk it over with you. Let's make the mystery library grow, even if we have to knock down a few walls. :)

RECENT CHANGES: After a brief period with the Yahoos, WEBRING IS ONCE AGAIN INDEPENDENT. You do have to sign up for an ID with Webring.com to join and manage webrings. Management of more than one webring membership is easier than ever.

If you decide to join, the next step will be filling out an application form. In the URL entry on this form, enter the page you will put the ring code on. This should be a page with specific mystery-book content, not necessarily the front page of your site.

I will check your site and notify you if it qualifies for membership, or if it would qualify with small changes. (These are usually things like improving the loading speed or accessibility of your site, which will also improve your general traffic.) After being added, you will be in "suspended" status until you post ring navigation code, so that your site can work as a part of the webring.

If you have added navbar code to your page once, for any webring, you do not have to add it again. The navbar for Mystery Readers Ring, or any other new webring you join, will automagically be added to the stack.

 

*

# Visit WebRing.com to learn more about webrings.
# View the List of Mystery Readers Ring Sites
# Application to Join
# The Standard Webring Navigation Code

# To edit your site information go to the Webring sign-in page.

*

Other Mystery Webrings

# Baker Street Webring for devotees of Sherlock Holmes
# Sisters in Crime, for members of Sisters in Crime who have a webpage. Sisters in Crime is an organization formed "to combat discrimination against women in the mystery field, educate publishers and the general public as to inequities in the treatment of female authors and to raise awareness of their contribution to the field."
# The Sisters in Crime Outreach to Authors of Color
#  The Geocities Readers Ring celebrates reading in mystery, science fiction, fantasy and all genres.
#  The Author Ring for published authors of book-length fiction, of all genres.

Other Mystery Links

Richard Montanari

 

The Game is Afoot!

as Sherlock Holmes would say

Mystery-B Book Discussion Page
Anitra, Dances with Dragons (and books)

  If you have comments or suggestions, email me at netmama@anitraweb.org


This Ring of Rings site is owned by Anitra L. Freeman, Bookaholic.
Click for text links. Visit The Ring of Rings Home

Page Visit a previous site in the ring Visit the next web site in the ring Join The Ring of Rings Visit a random site in the ring List the site in The Ring of Rings List the next 5 sites in The Ring of Rings


Readable in All Versions of Netscape
or any other browser, old or new
Lynx Friendly!

Sherlock Holmes graphics from Sheryl's Eclectic Homepage
Classical images from the Internet Explorer Multimedia Archive