MDS.2026.0002
RingWorld Webring Portal
2001–2006
- Origin
- Independent hosting, connective tissue of the pre-search web
- Medium
- Table-based layout, Perl CGI, 88x31 pixel badges
Before algorithms decided what one should read next, there was the webring: a democratic circle of amateur sites joined hand to hand by Previous, Random, and Next buttons. RingWorld administered 340 such circles at its height. Visitors are invited to imagine an internet navigated by trust and adjacency, then to stop imagining, as it upsets the docents.
Cause of death
Search engines rendered the ring topology obsolete; the server fee lapsed in 2006.