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17

We Need to Bring Back Webrings

submitted by KyleIsThisTall to whatever 1.5 yearsDec 9, 2023 02:35:04 ago (+17/-0)     (arne.me)

https://arne.me/articles/we-need-to-bring-back-webrings

We Need to Bring Back Webrings
Posted on November 14th, 2023 from Frankfurt, Germany. Discuss on HN or Lobsters.
The year is 1996. You feed your Tamagotchi, get a Squeezit and turn on the home computer. You’ve told your family they can’t do phone calls for the next hour. The dial-up modem makes beeping sounds1. You’re online.

Yesterday you found this fly website about amateur radio, and you want to explore more—but how can you find related websites? Yahoo is slow and not really showing you what you’re looking for. Then you notice that this website is part of the “Amateur Radio Webring”. You click the arrow to the right and dive into another website about amateur radio.

You wake up.

The year is 2023. You can no longer get a Squeezit anywhere, you live under surveillance capitalism and the enshittification is ruining the web. You found this goofy personal website, and you’d like to browse similar ones. What do you do? Find the person on socials, look at who they’re following and check if they have a website?

It’s time to bring webrings back.

Introducing the Fire Chicken Webring; an invite-only webring for personal websites. You can explore this webring by going to the footer of this website and clicking on either arrow to navigate to another personal website.

If we’re friends, or I follow you anywhere, @ me and I’ll add you. If not, here’s some other modern webrings2: Hotline Webring, Sidebar.io Webring, a11y-webring.club, CS.Sjoy.lol, Fediring.net, and Appliance Ring.

Own a niche website? Why not start your own webring?

https://firechicken.club/


10 comments block

sort by: hot new top old low

[ - ] Lost_In_The_Thinking 2 points 1.5 yearsDec 9, 2023 13:33:10 ago (+2/-0)

Webrings were useful when search engines were just beginning and not very much as indexed, so it was convenient having a topic or interest be self-contained to make the links easier to find. My favorite was the "ate my balls" webring, which started with the first one, "Mr. T Ate My Balls!".

[ - ] SocksOnCats 1 point 1.5 yearsDec 9, 2023 11:54:53 ago (+1/-0)

As silly as it sounds I kind of like this idea.

It’s a way to spread awareness of good web sites on a recommendation basis.

[ - ] VitaminSieg 1 point 1.5 yearsDec 9, 2023 11:29:22 ago (+1/-0)

How tf will this get me a Squeezit or free from surveillance capitalism?

[ - ] Niggly_Puff 3 points 1.5 yearsDec 9, 2023 07:50:55 ago (+3/-0)

I'd rather have a decent search engine like mid 2000s google.

[ - ] Hobama 1 point 1.5 yearsDec 9, 2023 04:47:16 ago (+1/-0)

Need more necklacing

[ - ] canbot 1 point 1.5 yearsDec 9, 2023 03:44:58 ago (+1/-0)

It has been replaced by news aggregators.

[ - ] GreenSaint 0 points 1.5 yearsDec 9, 2023 03:36:44 ago (+1/-1)

Hey op send me your nudes plz Kyle is this tall but how tall is your penis? Send me so we find out

[ - ] Conspirologist 0 points 1.5 yearsDec 9, 2023 02:52:23 ago (+2/-2)

Yes. Webrings were great. I wonder why they disappeared.

[ - ] Sector2 1 point 1.5 yearsDec 9, 2023 11:13:50 ago (+1/-0)

They're like a big "This way to the egress!" sign. Unlike a tricky showman who already got paid at the entrance, sites thrive on attention and ongoing interaction.

It's a good move for the most successful site operators in the ring, because the traffic will shift away from the inferior sites after finding theirs. Most ring members are going to lose their audience to the two or three who compete for attention most effectively.

[ - ] registereduser 0 points 1.5 yearsDec 9, 2023 08:48:14 ago (+1/-1)*

Because the jew wants the interweb to be nothing but peasants.

Here is how to fix..

https://landchad.net/

Also, make a gopher site. Do it now.