[embedding-shape]

It doesn't neccessarly have to be such a "ring" that you navigate from website #1 to website #2 and the order is always the same, and you cannot jump, or even do random browsing.

I think initially the idea was mainly around the "ring" concept, but relatively quickly lots of different implementations did lots of different things, and we still called those "webrings" even though many weren't conceptually "rings" at all, more like "lists of websites that are kind of somewhat about the same thing, sometimes". There was typically a "Random" button/link too, and index, sometimes categories and more.

It can be a list of websites, with random order, the main point is people's websites linking to other people's websites, in some way, that it could eventually circle back somehow, then you have a webring.

[galaxyLogic]

So part of it seems to be working together: I link to your site with the expectation that you link back to mine. Not a bad idea, also letting the site-creators coordinate who focuses on which sub-topic. But are there many examples of this in the real web?

[tracker1]

Web-rings were really common in the later 90's... Mostly based on topic or focus of the site(s) in question. It was a common discovery mechanism... you'd usually have prev/next/random/list links, where you could navigate via prev or next, but also jump to a random site int he ring or to a list of sites in the ring.

It's nice to see some old ideas like this come back... also hoping to see more self-hosted conversational sites around topics of interest (bulletin boards) over the giant social media sites we have today.

[embedding-shape]

> I link to your site with the expectation that you link back to mine.

I guess, but more collectively, so like "We both agree to share a list of websites we link to, and anyone who want to add their site to this list also agree to the same". It used to be popular in music, programming and web development blogs, that much I remember, but I can't say how popular it was at large, the web and the internet was pretty much mostly a geeky thing at the time (around 2000s).

[jimjimjim]

uh, the webring idea is OLD. Not quite "And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost. History became legend. Legend became myth. And for two and a half thousand years, the ring passed out of all knowledge" old but close.

[rapnie]

"Master System ruled unchallenged, the key to breaking its power -- five microchips disguised as gold rings, carefully hidden away.", Rings of the Master by Jack L. Chalker

https://www.goodreads.com/series/41810-rings-of-the-master

[verandaguy]

Importantly, webrings are not known to allow their users to live unnaturally long lives, and webring-wraiths have never been observed hunting them.