A webring is a community of websites or webpages linked one to another to form a virtual "ring". Each site or page links to the next, so that as visitors click to go from one site or page to another they will eventually return to the site or page from which they started. Generally, the sites or pages are linked by a common theme or interest making surfing the webring an ideal way of finding sites or pages of interest to the web surfer.

The individual who creates, owns and manages a webring is called the ringmaster or ring manager. Each website in the ring is called a member site. Webrings are hosted by a webring system. The system can be either remotely-hosted on a commercial system (like Webring, Ringsurf, and Bravenet), or it can be a self-hosted system running on a server used by a ringmaster (like the Ringlink webring software system).

Webrings use links like "Next", "Previous" and "Random" that enable navigation from site to site around the ring. Sometimes "Skip" functions are included to let visitors "hop over" a member site that might be offline.

Most webring systems provide a listing or a directory of all the sites within a ring, which is known as the hub or list page. Such directories frequently include a description of each site, and a link to let the visitors quickly go to a particular site within the ring.

What makes the ring function, is the "navigation panel" (navpanel for short)! This is the panel that includes all the above links (Next, List, Random, Previous, Home, Join, and...), and is placed on each member site. These navigation panels can be rendered in a wazillion different formats, depending of course on the wishes and artistic flair of the ringmaster/s (anything is possible)!!

So, if you have a special interest or topic, then setting up a webring is the best way to find others who share the same interest or topic as you do! :-) And best of all, how you do this can be accomplished with any number of webring hosting systems/formats! :-)

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