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Welcome to the SiFi Novel Webring

This Webring is for any site containing information on Science Fiction or Fantasy novels, your own or your favorite author's.

The SiFi Novel Webring links together the websites of people who love to read or write science fiction or fantasy novels and have developed webpages with interesting content about authors, books, themes, or other matters of interest to sf/fantasy fans.

CURRENT MEMBERS:After a brief period with the Yahoos, WEBRING IS ONCE AGAIN INDEPENDENT. If you haven't yet signed up with the new (and independent from Yahoo!) webring, you can do it at login. You probably want to use the same ID & password as you had with Yahoo Webring, to save yourself confusion. You can then associate your ring sites with your new ID so that you can edit and manage them in the future.

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?

The standard webring navigation links are:

Previous

takes you to the previous website in the ring. If you keep going, you will eventually get back where you started.

Next

takes you to the next website in the ring. If you keep going, you will eventually get back where you started.

List

shows you a list of all the websites in the ring (larger rings are listed in pages of 20 sites each.) This page also shows the ring description, logo, ring owner, staistics, and other information about the ring.

Random

takes you to a random site in the ring.

Home

takes you to the home page of the ring. (The small icon in the nav bar links to the ring home page, if the ring has one.)

Join

takes you to a page with instructions on becoming a ring member.

The ring may also have a link to information about the ring owner.

How Do I Join the Ring?

The criteria for membership are:

1. Your site has content about one or more fantasy/sf books and/or authors. (This can be yourself and your own books.) Background information of interest to sf/fantasy readers would also qualify, like World-Building 101.

      "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 sf/fantasy books, you may join the ring IF your site includes interesting content that doesn't require purchase.



2. 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 sf/fantasy -- apply anyway. Let me see your site and talk it over with you. Let's make the 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. If you want to join, fill out an information form about your site. This will build an entry in the webring directory, so that visitors can seach for your site by keyword, or read a description in the webring index list. The page address given on the form will be where webring send visitors to your site. It must be the page you will display the webring code on, or have an easily identifiable link to that page. This should be a page with specific book-content, not necessarily the front page of your site. You may find it conveninet to put all of you webrings on one page. In that case, you need links that go to your relevant content, and back -- or what's the point?

If your page address, email adress, or any other site information changes, please update your entry! The magic of webring cannot work without your help.

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 More detail about navigation code.

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

 

The code will become active after you are added to the ring.

If you have any questions not covered here, please email me.

The SiFi Novel Ring is made possible by Webring.