moreinfo_logo   folkring_logo
DOES  YOUR  SITE  SATISFY  THE  STATED  REQUIREMENTS  FOR  JOINING  FMR ?

Your Web Site should be suitable for all-age viewing and have an appropriate folk content. It should :

  • feature one or more folk songwriters, or folk singers or folk instrumentalists
    and / or
  • provide information on folk-venues, or folk festivals, or folk-club diaries etc
    and / or
  • feature folk instruments, techniques, tablature etc
    and
  • display the FMR guitar logo
Genre Suitability : Please consider if you need to be in the FMR or elsewhere. The Webring categorization of rings may help you decide. For example, traditionally, this ring has always accepted the Country & Western genre but there is a ring devoted to C&W (probably more than one) and I think most C&W site owners elect to go there. But the decision is yours. Folk is free-and-easy how could it be otherwise?

Folk Music Ring is international. It welcomes one and all, world-wide

Ringmaster's foibles : I don't like midi music that comes on automatically, is long (or loops), and can't be turned off without leaving the page. Please, can't we just be invited to switch it on ??

MP3 Singer/Songwriter Sites : These are not excluded but it has proved difficult or impossible for page owners to get the ring code onto these sites.

Music Mail-order Stores / eBusiness : unless you truely specialise in the folk genre you won't be allowed membership. Having a folk section amongst hundreds of genres and thousands of albums isn't good enough.

HOW  TO  JOIN  FMR   MY  COMMENTS  ON  THE  WEBRING  NEW-MEMBER  PROCEDURE

You'll go to a URL address called dir.webring.com/rw, and sign-in as a new user via the Sign me up! clickable. It will accept a unique ID name of your choosing and a password of your choosing. It will ask for your email address and you should give one that is the least subject to change.

Acceptance into the WEBRING system is automatic. Providing you supply an ID name which isn't already in use you will be accepted.

You'll be given these helpful URLs:

http://dir.webring.com/cgi-bin/login
or get help with Ring/Site management here:
http://r.webring.com/forum?forum=ringhelp
and general help here:
http://dir.webring.com/help

After you have been accepted you will be invited to join a ring by clicking the My Rings clickable at the top of the page. It will give you some instructions, but as of 20/Aug/2003 this page forgets to show you how to find a ring! To join the folk ring, you'll need to return to the Webring Home page and Browse Our Directory of Rings. Navigate down as follows:

Music > Genres > Folk and Traditional > Folk Music Web Ring

Now click on Folk Music Web Ring and when its screen comes up, click on Join This Ring then click the GET STARTED button and follow the WebRing instructions, which includes obtained the code you'll need for your webpage (this code is variously described as banner code, navigation code, SSNB, original html code, and so on.) You obtain it by means of a Navigation Code Wizard. WebRing's words in red are VERY important.

If your navigation code IS on some other URL than the one registered please do NOT request a "manual" review from support. It's is simply in the wrong place and we'll tell you exactly that.
In otherwords, mismatch between the declared site URL and its banner code is not allowed. Once upon a time it was allowed and some sites joined the Folk Ring successfully with a mismatch. These sites have now been thrown off the ring system by WebRing because such sites don't work. Because of this the Folk Music Ring now has fewer sites than it had five years ago, but the plus side is that ring navigation should be 100% accurate (which is the whole point of the ring).

Note that the old HTML form of navigation code is still allowed provided you match the code position to the declared site URL. The information you need is tucked away in a short sentence:

If you wish (or need) to use the HTML version of this navigation code you can get it here (with the word 'here' being clickable of course).
You are strongly advised to look at the four example sites which WebRing have constructed. These are at http://s.webring.com/hub?ring=webringnavigati1

CRITICAL COMMENT #1
Although these examples are good, you'll notice that WebRing contradicts itself by saying that a mismatch of code and URL might be acceptable in a situation where nothing else is possible. The mismatch creates a Pass_L condition. Elsewhere in the Webring site you will notice that it recommends that 'Pass_L' is treated as a reason to fail a site. Also, the Pass_L condition simply contradicts WebRing's red sentence as quoted above.
CRITICAL COMMENT #2
Whilst the example pages promote the notion of the banner being on the content page, this is only possible if you belong to ONE ring. If you belong to (say) three rings, all THREE banners will be on your content page. This is fine if the banners are for similar rings. It is when you have disimilar rings that you are tempted to put the banners on a links page. This works (provided the link page is also the declared URL) but it slows surfing a ring drastically and is therefore not liked. A workround is for you to have a different WebRing ID for every category of ring you belong to. This is extra effort but it really is the best solution. I wish WebRing would explain it so that I don't have to.

< nav bar example here >

That's the navigation bar you'll see if your html banner code is accurate. Webring will verify that your code is correct and if it is you will be automatically be admitted as a member of the Folk Music Ring. Later I'll look at your site to check it's appropriate, and if it isn't, we'll have a little chat.

RUFUS August 2003.

 

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