Canadian furry web ring's future?

[Benjamin]

Okay, so I'm at a bit of a crossroads with one of the longest running Canadian furry services that I've got here...
 
The Canadian Furry Web Ring is a web ring that I've been running since even a few years before I had been running furry.ca itself. I think I even had it around even before I started taking care of the toronto-furry home page. Hmm... Well, it's been around a long while!
Anyways... These question has been bugging me for a while now...
Does anyfur even make use of it anymore?
Is it beneficial to the community anymore?
Should we bother to keep this web ring active?
 
I've noticed a lack of interest in web rings in general. They don't seem to be an effective way of improving traffic to a site anymore. I don't think I've had a submission for a new site to be added to this ring in a very long time, either. Probably doesn't help that the web ring software and back end has been changed over without them bothering to properly notify the respective webmasters, either.
 
Anyways... Your input would be much appreciated!
If you have any questions about the web ring, feel free to ask.
 
Benjamin

[Don Karnage]

1- for the poll you should day close it or keep it, you ask 2 question and its yes to keep it or close it?

anyway for the answer is: close it, web ring are old school and useless now.

we use link instead until something new is created rending link useless, maybe zelda will be created 

yea close the web ring.

[Benjamin]

I clarified the options. Thanks.
 
And yeah... It seems so far that nobody cares for web rings, if they even know what they are anymore. I think web rings had their day, but they're a marketing scheme of the past now.
 
Benjamin

[Don Karnage]

well the webring where not always working, some site where close and it was not updated.

well it was a time, now its just good for a museum 

[Benjamin]

A big part of the problem was when FurNation would go out of service every other day and it'd leave huge gaps in the ring since half of the fandom uses that site for their own pages. Heh. As an admin, you don't want to keep on removing sites and putting them back in constantly... so that's one thing that certainly doesn't help the whole web ring concept too well. It's a lot of work to maintain a busy ring.... and I don't believe it's worth that work anymore, seeing as I don't think anyone uses web rings anymore.
And the internet world rolls on to another trend of sorts... Google seems to be it, at least for now.
 
Benjamin

[Oni]

Perhaps by advertising your web ring in other forums and other, online "furry" gathering areas, you will be able to lure in moar traffic?

[Orcus]

I didn't even know there was a canadian furry web ring so what does that tell ya. Close it and use the resources for a better use.

[Ekevoo]

Just a random suggestion:banner exchange projects serve the same purpose, and I reckon they are more efficient and attractive.

[Benjamin]

We've had a banner exchange here before, and despite it being linked to from furry.ca and member sites, it ended up dying a slow death.
As for advertising a web ring... it effectively should advertise itself as the ring grows... but it had stopped growing long ago, it seems. I honestly don't think web rings are an effective way to increase site traffic, anymore.
 
Benjamin

[Ekevoo]

I guess Google manage to take over the Internet, haven't they?
I'm posting this from Google Chrome after all. =P

[Benjamin]

I think Google has the biggest chunk of mindshare on the market, as it is. Heck... I don't even say "look on a search engine for it", I just say "Google it!" and most people know exactly what I mean.
 
Any other input to offer for the web ring issue at paw?
Anyone?
Anyone?
Bueller?
 
Benjamin

[Seamus]

for one, more tasteful john hughes movie references

I've seen some link pages that are just terrible.  Essentially a list of websites in plain text, followed by a short description.  lets face it, that is boring and almost considered work to the lazy.  When i say terrible i really mean "plain".

Maybe a more interactive link page, something where users could posts approved links as well.  also, dress it up nice, make it look fancy dancy, lure unsuspecting kids to it with candy and BAM, the unmarked white van of linkage takes them to a far off place they've never been before where they discover new worlds, worlds only thought to exist.  Sunken worlds of wonder and amazment, ATLANTIS they called it.  the lost city, but no, they've found it now, they've found it and it's their job to not only TELL the world, but to show them.

That got off topic rather quickly but i think you get the point of my suggestion.....maybe.

Until then i'm off to ponder the meaning of life in detention with 4 other troubled young minds whom i'm sure to find out I have a lot more in common with than i initially thought.  that'll teach me not to judge a book by it's cover...(don't you...forget about meee...)

[Kell]

Considering that i actualy found this place via a the web ring... its not totaly dead!

Granted, i have no idea where i saw the link... but i know it wasnt google!

[Benjamin]

Until then i'm off to ponder the meaning of life in detention with 4 other troubled young minds whom i'm sure to find out I have a lot more in common with than i initially thought.  that'll teach me not to judge a book by it's cover...(don't you...forget about meee...)

>.<
 
Rrrrgh... Breakfast Club... Too early in any morning for that sorta reference.
 
Heheh...
 

Considering that i actualy found this place via a the web ring... its not totaly dead!

Granted, i have no idea where i saw the link... but i know it wasnt google!

That's a bit of a rarity. I know the ring gets some usage, but I'm thinking it's not a whole lot...
 
Benjamin

[Dan Skunk]

Is it that much work to maintain?

Maybe it doesn't matter to just leave it up and tell people to e-mail you if they find a problem.

[DJDarkViper]

haha webrings... i remember those widgets, used to belong to a flash authors one before it doed.

Ive never seen another website with the exception of this one that had one, and even then i was a little perplexed.
Its web1.0 stuff,

if you want to make it alot more 'web2.0' ish you could do what some flash tutorial sites do:
keep it, but when they activate it, it brings up a famed page (holy shit i havent said frames in a while), basiaclly the top 25px is still your page with a dorp down menu of links within the ring, everytime you change it itll go to a new page.

makes it fast, fun, efficient, anhd useful, instead of siomply "guessing" the whole time.

[Benjamin]

Is it that much work to maintain?

Maybe it doesn't matter to just leave it up and tell people to e-mail you if they find a problem.

Can't really count on random internet users to e-mail reports of broken links though. They'll just go elsewhere.
It's not that it's any sort of work to maintain it. The problem is... Is it even worth maintaining? This poll shows that of those that seem to even know what web rings are, they don't think it's necessary to keep this ring. This poll also shows that most people here don't even know what a web ring is to begin with. That tells me that the ring's not important enough to even keep around. That sort of site navigation system is a thing of the past. A dinosaur. Really, it's kind of interesting seeing an internet technology having seen it's day and no longer being of interest or need to anyone.
 

haha webrings... i remember those widgets, used to belong to a flash authors one before it doed.

Ive never seen another website with the exception of this one that had one, and even then i was a little perplexed.
Its web1.0 stuff,

if you want to make it alot more 'web2.0' ish you could do what some flash tutorial sites do:
keep it, but when they activate it, it brings up a famed page (holy shit i havent said frames in a while), basiaclly the top 25px is still your page with a dorp down menu of links within the ring, everytime you change it itll go to a new page.

makes it fast, fun, efficient, anhd useful, instead of siomply "guessing" the whole time.

Yeah, I don't see a whole lot of web rings on sites anymore. And if they're there, they're old rings that the site designer forgot to remove.
Karma showed me a "Stumbler" script he had done that could show some promise as being a replacement for this web ring system... and it won't need a third party service hosting it that would care more about the advertising revenues than the actual functionality of the service...
 
Benjamin

[Benjamin]

Aaand... She's closed now!
 
Considering there was such an underwhelming amount of support for keeping it running, I've shut the Canadian Furry Web Ring down now.
I'm not disappointed though! It had a great run and it certainly did well during the hey-day of web ring popularity. It has served it's purpose, but sadly, there's not much of a reason to keep web rings around anymore, it would seem.
 
Benjamin

[Aurifer]

I've encountered a few webrings in my time, but I never used them. I just didn't... trust them?