Yahoo And Webring Part Ways

As promised I have an announcement to make. It's long, like a State of the Union address, but it's pretty much a summary of the past six months, so for all intent and purposes, it's a State of the WebRing address. Bear with me. If Yahoo! truncates this email, I'll follow up with Part II shortly.

I'm pleased to announce the CLOSING of the Surviving Y!WR Club! I am hoping this will come as a TOTAL shock to the long-time members. No, it's not because I'm sick of Yahoo!, it's not because I'm sick of trying to help people. It's not because of my decreasing online time.

It's because we HAVE officially survived Yahoo!, meaning this Club is NO LONGER NEEDED. By now you must be wondering why I'm talking in circles....it's to build the drama because what I'm going to say is huge and long-awaited:

Yahoo!'s involvement in WebRing is history.

Many of you will remember the April 12 shutdown of the searchable webring directory. That was the first step. At that time they wanted to CLOSE DOWN Webring entirely. At that time, one of the laid-off WebRing techs stepped forward and asked to take it over. I tell you these details because it's noteworthy to know that while things have been shaky, it's been because there has been ZERO Yahoo! support of WebRing for six months. It's all been ONE tech, yes, one, who has been providing ALL the support of this system. And when you consider that fact, his effort has been NOTHING SHORT of heroic. He wants me to take some credit in here, but all I did was provide the method of communication between users and him. The ONLY thing for which I shall take any credit is the WebRing Users Poll. I created the idea to allow YOU to tell the tech just what you wanted from WebRing once Yahoo! is history, I just couldn't SAY that. Believe me, the poll results are more than mere suggestions. You'll find SEVERAL of the popular responses implemented in the NEW WebRing either immediately or within a few months.

Some of these changes: 

1. Site and ring statistics 
2. Limited editing of member information by managers 
3. Transparent backgrounds for SSNB 
4. FULL SUPPORT OF HTML CODES (See, James, why I've been promising this. I've known it for MONTHS!) 
5. Management functions opening new browser windows
6. Increased support of RING HOMEPAGES

This is by NO means a full list and the WebRing team is open to suggestions. I'll establish a new poll or something along the lines of a suggestion box on the Help Site at a later time. It's a great start and leaves the door open to so much more.

So, what is next, you wonder? Go to http://edit.webring.yahoo.com/cgi-bin/migrate and begin the migration from Yahoo!Webring and over to WebRing. James, Dan, and others with overly large membership lists; as well as Gary, me, and anyone with overly large collection of managed rings, will be appreciative of the simple migration process. Everything associated with one Y!ID will be transferred automatically to your new WR ID. No need for individual migration like we had September 5, 2000. I have already successfully migrated my TWO largest IDs. It's quick and easy, but if you get stuck, help is available!!!

Bear in mind that there WILL be bugs. This migration is being hastened by the database failures which have been plaguing the Y!WR system for just over a week. The new system is not fully tested (although two of us have been helping the tech check things for several weeks now) and may have some problems to start. If you encounter CRUCIAL problems, post them immediately in the NEW CLUB. Small bugs, inconsistencies, and other notations should wait. Please use your judgment to discern between what is minor and what is vital.

Also note two other important changes:

1. SurvivingY!WR has been replaced with the "Official WebRing Help Club" at http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/officialwebringhelp You might as well jump over there and join. Just as with SurvivingY!WR, this Club will serve to assist members and managers with problem solving and bug reports. Nothing has changed except the need to have an updated title! LOL I am still here and functioning as volunteer liaison to the WebRing team! Again, use this for posting major problems and bugs that you find. Little complaints can hold for a while. For comments and opinions, go ahead and use Surviving!YWR for the remainder of the time it exists. 
2. My Help Site has also moved. If WebRing moves off Yahoo!'s servers, why not the Help Site, too? You can now find my Help Site at <LINK INACTIVE>. If it's not "open" yet, use <LINK INACTIVE> and I'll update my pages and links shortly.

I do ask that you not share this information with anyone else. This is privileged information provided ONLY to members of the SurvivingY!WR Club. It's much more detailed than anything Yahoo! or WebRing will be releasing but includes information I feel is important to share with someone. The tech agrees that those who have been supporters of this Club are entitled to early admission and a chance to play around with the new and restored nuggets of the old system. Have fun. Again, feel free to use SurvivingY!WR as a DISCUSSION forum for the remainder of the time it's in existence. Tell us what you THINK of the changes, we want to know.