- Your page must contain information related to your own Genealogy, and/or family tree.
- You must have a site that is well maintained.
- Your site must be 'child proof' - no adult content please!
- Please do not register if you do not intend to post the coding to your web site!
- Please add the coding as soon as possible after registering as the queue is checked daily (some folks seem to forget about posting the info if they don't do it right away). If you fail to add the coding to your site within 2 weeks, your site will be dropped from the queue due to inactivity.
- Post the GenePool ring html fragment to either your home page (index page) or a clearly marked genealogy 'ring' page. (If you use a genealogy ring page, don't forget to include a link to your home page - I've been to some sites where you have to 'hunt' for the main site - many of your visitors may leave your site instead!
- If your page also contains 'Yahoo type' ring javascript navigation bars, please post the ring html fragment ABOVE these navigation bars (they can on occasion cause various download problems due to the javascript they consist of).
- If you maintain a 'frames' site and the ring fragment is not on your 'welcome' or opening page, then the full url (address) for your 'ring' page will be used for this ring's purposes - please make sure you have a link to your home page on your ring page!
- Please do not use a javascript driven 'splash' page if that is the only access to your site - many genealogists on-line do not have the technology to deal with javascript.
- Do not use a 'redirect' url - the page we are trying to access should be on your website.
- 'Free' servers and 'pop-up' ads! Pop-up ads are a necessary evil today on the internet; however they can be abused by some webmasters. Unnecessary over-use could affect your ring membership. We in the genealogical community currently have an excellant choice of 'free' web hosts through rootsweb.com - consider them if there is nothing better suited to your needs.
- You agree to keep your web site and e-mail addresses up to date through the ring edit page.
(If for some reason your web page is discontinued, please remove your site from the ring through the edit page). Both of the above situations result in 'broken links' in our ring!
URLs or site addresses Ringsurf.com uses a 'ring checker' which helps a ringmaster effeciently maintain your webrings. If the properly coded ring fragment is not found by the 'checker' at the registered page the ringmaster is quickly able to determine if there is a problem (it sure beats the old system of routinely going to each and every member site to see if the site is still there; try that with an 800 member ring, it used to take months).
Please be advised! If during spot checks your URL (site address) yields a 'not found error', your site will be removed from the index back to the ring queue (waiting list). An email to this effect will be sent to you advising that it will remain on the queue for 2 weeks; after this time if the correct address is not submitted, your site will be removed from the ring. If the email message also bounces as undeliverable - it will be taken for granted that you are no longer interested in maintaining your ring membership and your site will be deleted from the ring immediately. - No Broderbund Family Tree Maker sites (please see here to check out your options!)
- No commercial sites please - there should be some freely available genealogical info on your site concerning your own family tree. (Actually, I have started up a ring for commercial and resource genealogy sites at: GenePool Genealogical Resources & Commercial WebRing.)
- No sites with servers such as MyFamily.com that require a password to enter your main web pages.
- No static 'splash' pages (a simple one page site with a minimum listing of surnames only).
- No 'links only' sites - unless you have posted info on your family tree.
- No 'tip' or 'help' only sites - unless you have posted info on your family tree.
- No sites that are not easily accessible (if I can't access your site with my MSIE and Netscape browsers version 3, then your site is probably not accessible to many of the researchers on-line. See the paragraph below on 'technology'.)
- Do not link to the graphic on this site (in addition to possibly delaying downloading of your page, linking of graphics is considered 'bandwidth theft' and can be costly for the site that you have linked to.). Please download it to your own hard drive and then upload it to your server. If you have a WebTV site and are not familiar with downloading graphics, this info may be of assistance. Or, there is an alternative ring logo available for those unable to upload graphics such as 'Homestead.com' sites!. (There is a tutorial for Homestead web pages authors.)
- Do not post excessive graphics on the page to which the ring logo is posted - if your site takes too long to download, your visitors may decide to go elsewhere; save your 'extra' pictures for other pages on your site. Remember - genealogists are basically looking for your family history info and may not be interested in your cat or dog :-) If you belong to a wide range of webrings, consider posting your genealogy rings on a separate ring page; breaking them up into separate, quicker loading pages by category ensures that the vistor to your website gets to the part of your site that they are interested in!
- If your site is 'technogically advanced'; consider those of us that do not surf using the most up to date browsers and equipment, or just dislike frames, java script, excessive graphics or music etc. You should not expect to be able to request folks to download different browsers or other types of software just in order to access your website. Consider including alternate 'no frames' pages, 'plain' html pages versus advanced scripting, options to turn off the music etc. (If your site is so far advanced that ONLY the most modern systems can access your pages, there is a chance that you may not be added to the ring if you do not provide alternate pages!)
| GenePool WebRing | |
or obtain a fresh copy of your html fragment (especially AOL users)
WELCOME TO THE GENEPOOL WEBRING HOMEPAGE
powered by Ringsurf.com
I have been trying to get members to move from the original GenePool Ring on the 'Yahoo' webring.org system to this 'new' ring on the ringsurf.com system for the past year. In September 2000, Yahoo effectively destroyed the ring system with their inane attempts to make it a money-making endeavour, instead of the system of 'communities' which webrings were designed to be. Their changes made it impossible for ringmasters to maintain their rings in any meaningful manner - this resulted in thousands of ringsmasters either abandoning, neglecting or moving their rings to other system. Then, apparently as of April 2001, Yahoo had abandoned the webring system entirely (tens of thousands of separate rings were established on the original webring.org system before being taken over by Geocities and then Yahoo, who proceeded to destroy the entire existing ring maintanence system in a futile attempt to make money through advertising on the system). As a ringmaster of a ring that originally had nearly 800 member sites, I have still not been notified by "Yahoo" that they have ceased to have anything to do with webrings. I found out in October through a ringmasters' newslist that Yahoo had dropped the ring system, which has been maintained since April by a single technician who has since taken charge of the entity previously known as "Yahoo webring" (webring.org) and is now known as 'webring.com'. This news was only made public after a major yahoo database malfunction caused numerous rings to suddenly 'disappear' overnight and prompted the takeover by the technician earlier than had been planned.
In short, this ringsurf.com powered GenePool WebRing is destined to be the original, one and only actively maintained GenePool WebRing
Current members of the original GenePool webring.org ring - you'll have to join the ring again from this site. I apologize for the inconvenience, but can think of no other way to get the ring back on track! If you do not reapply your site will eventually be dropped from the 'yahoo' ring.New applicants: if you have been worried about the state of the GenePool WebRing which would appear to not be properly maintained, with multiple 'broken links' - you have probably been visiting sites that have not reapplied to this ring as requested.
1. Requirements to join:
- Please!:
-
More do nots! please: (sigh!)
Don't forget it! If you have any problems submitting your site to the ring, e-mail the GenePool Ring Ringmaster.
4. Read this:
The above form does not admit you to the ring yet.
You have to send an e-mail message to the ringmaster once you have the ring html fragment and graphic posted to your web page.
5. Html coding fragments:
After you have filled in the form above, you need to add one of the following html fragments to your site.
Shortly after registering you should receive an e-mail message containing your 'customized' html fragment (that means that your site ID number is already coded into the fragment). Simply 'cut and paste' this fragment into your editor (with the 'word wrap' function turned off) and then post it to your web page. Or, if you want to use one of the alternative ring set-ups see the html fragments that are listed below.
AOL customers please note! If you have not joined a web ring before, click here to find out about e-mail html coding and graphics problems particular to AOL. (The HTML code that you receive in your e-mail message **will not work** for AOL members. Either follow the instructions to use one of the set-ups below, or go down to "edit site information" and input your Site ID and your password; this will bring up a new screen which will contain your 'customized' HTML fragment you need to copy into your webpage. )
The default html coding fragment you receive by email,
after being posted to your html document,
should appear on your webpage as per the example below:
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[Prev 5] [Next] [Next 5] [Random] [List Sites] [Home] [Stats] [Join ring] |
| Powered by RingSurf! | |
This is the 'default' html fragment (or html 'coding') that you will sent by email after completing the 'join' form.
Please 'right click' on the above image to download and save it as (genepool.gif) to your own harddrive (computer); remember to upload the graphic to your server when you upload the html document containing your customized coding.
If you have problems with the graphic not loading on your site - ensure that the graphic in your server's directory is in the correct sub-directory and in small letters as shown.
(If you need a 'fresh' copy of your customized html fragment for any reason; simply complete the 'edit box' with your site ID number and password - then 'copy and paste' the fragment that is displayed.)
Alternative setup - no graphic required!
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GenePool Web Ring Ring home page Graphic alternative! |
[Prev 5] [Next] [Next 5] [Random] [List Sites] [Home] [Stats] [Join ring] |
| Powered by RingSurf! | |
Get this coding here!
and to remove sites from the ring at any time, at his descretion.
