All the cool kids are doing it

GuitarGirl and Stunted Diva have joined the ring ranks with wandering aimlessly... and Not Safe For Work, respectively.

By the way, if I'm getting anyone's details wrong or I have misnamed your blog, let me know. I've tried to make it so that when you place your cursor over a member site you see the FT username as a "tool tip". I think all the names are accurate, but let me know if I screwed up.

I just have to say, I'm enjoying everyone's blogs much more than Fametracker these days. I may have to remove it from my links. There's not enough hours in the day.

In today's news

we are joined by holiday girl, aka HarperValleyPTA, who has inspired me to add some Ella Fitzgerald to my current music rotation.

Quick Update

decca wrote me to let me know that she is subsidiary and our newest member is P.D. Noosh with The Nooshie Diaries.

So you think you have something to say?

If you're a member and you want to post your own news or observations to this site, let me know and I'll add you as a contributor. I know I'm not the only member with something to say.

So who's reading this anyway?

If you want info on just how many people have visited your site as a result of the Webring, there is a "Stats" link on the sidebar. This will tell you how many people have visited your site while surfing the ring. (The results vary a bit from my site meter stats, so I' not sure how accurate it is, but it's amusing at the very least.)

And then there was one more

Our newest member is "subsidiary". I know s/he has an altternate FT ID because I've seen the site before, but I don't know what it is. Maybe subsidiary will drop me a line or leave a comment to let us know. (Cool name by-the-by.)

Linking to Diaryland

I use Diaryland and I don't know how to put the webring code on my site, can you help me?

You just can't make this easy for me, can you? ;) Again, the style and layout of the links will depend on the template and options you use. I have the freebie account, so here's what I did.
First go to this page: http://members.diaryland.com/edit/changeentrytemplate.phtml
(Ignore the "Gold" thingie, ; they slap that bold-faced plug everywhere)

You can then insert the code provided when you signed up, or one of the code examples here. Place the code where you would like the links to appear on the page. I placed it under the default Diaryland link bar. (Above the <map name="menubar"> code.)

This is how it turned out.

These go to 11

l discovered the part of the manual check that allows me to amend the link page, so welcome:

Title	Author
Dkellergrl's Experiences, Thoughts and Rants	dkellergrl
Still Crazy After All These Years	mif

(Mif, eventually, you'll have to move your links somewhere more permanent. - p.)

In on the ground floor

ln our first day of existence we welcome 9 new sites.

<

Title	Author
I Ka Nye Tan	baggylettuce
Mad Girl's Love Song	baggylettuce
shibaiko	endlesspapercup
The Musings of a Muse	Snuffy
The Music of What Happens	queencallipygos
Are you High?!	phoenix
The Otherside	phoenix
The Untrustworthy Speaker	sarahpi
RubyTramp's Trampy Ways	Super Grover

Plus we have 2 more Sites pending. I'd bake Cookies, but l haven't even managed lunch yet. Try and leave comments to let people know you were there.

Changing/Updating Your Site Info.

If you ever need to change or update your web information there is no need to sign up again. Just log into the main ringsurf site. You'll need the Ring ID (FTOTZWebring) & the Site ID you were e-mailed. You'll only need to rejoin if you lose your ID or if you want to add a completely new site.

Welcome to the FTOTZ Webring!

The precioussss...

Who can join in the ring?

Any member of the FTOTZ or Fametracker forums (over 13 years old) who maintains a blog or web journal.

How to join

Joining is easy. You can click here, or on the "join" links you find on any active members' sites.
After you fill out the form, add the code provided to your site.
Once you have submitted your site, I receive an email letting me know a new site awaits approval. The site gets placed in the web ring queue and checked for code. Once the code has been checked out and verified the site is transferred to the active members list and entered into the traffic loop. The whole process should take less than 24 hours if you've installed your code. Thanks for your participation and have fun!
Note that the URL entered into the Site URL field must be Of the page with the web ring code on it, otherwise the site will not validate as having the appropriate ring code and will not leave the "pending queue" (Sites in queue that do not validate after 14 days are deleted.)

Guidelines

Rules? We don' need no stinking rules! Well, maybe a few. This webring is for members of the FTOTZ community, so you should be a member of the forum. Any topic is fair game, after all it's your site and this isn't a police state. However, general guidelines of good taste should be observed. If you're running a porn site, this isn't the ring for you (so to speak). If necrophiliac, incestuous sex with movie stars is your thing, you might want to keep that to yourself, though we won't keep you out. Just don't come to me if people leave nasty comments on your site. All sites are solely the property and responsibility of their respective owner. Also, all member sites must visibly display the webring link on their connecting page (the one you listed here). Otherwise, what's the point?

Need help? Have questions?

Leave me a comment and I'll respond as soon as I can.

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Code

For some examples of how to format your code click here.

Linking to LiveJournal

I use LiveJournal and I don't know how to put the webring code on my site, can you help me?

First things first. * *If your links are on your User Info page, you must list that as your main page. You can update this later if you move your links.* *

The style and layout of the links will depend on the template and options you use, but setting the links is fairly easy. It's mainly a matter of inputing the links one at a time into the Links List.

Here's the complete list of the possible links you can include. You must include "Join","Random" ,"List" and the "FTOTZ Webring" Homepage to be validated. The rest are optional. Remember, the links have to appear on the page you link to and you have to add the links before your Site can be approved. If your links are on a different page than the one you originally entered, you can always always amend your Site settings or move the links to the appropriate page.

Also remember to replace ***YourSiteID*** with the site number you were provided when you registered and replace www.Yourhost.com with the address of your image host site. (Feel free to use my icon just upload it to your own hard drive or server first. If you're graphically inclined, feel free to make your own.)

(Each link is 1 continuous line, even if it takes up 2 lines in the table.)

Title	URL
FTOTZ Webring	http://ftotzwebring.blogspot.com/
Join	http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=addform
Random	http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=rand
List	http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=list
Previous	http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=prev
Next	http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=next
Previous 5	http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=prev5
Next 5	http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=next5
Skip Previous	http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=sprev
Skip Next	http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=skip
	http://www.Yourhost.com /FTOTZWebring.gif

Code

(I cribbed large sections of this from the photoblogring, so please visit some of their sites as thanks.)
Below you can see some examples of the webring code that needs to be included somewhere on your photoblog. (If not the index page then somewhere logical such as a "links" page, please) Examples 1 & 2 have the minimum set of links required for inclusion of a site into the FTOTZ Webring. The way the links will appear using this code appears above the box containing the code. Copy the code above and paste it into your html where you want the links to show. These are just a few variations, and if you are familiar with html and css styles you can customise the look of your ring code even more, to suit your site. If you need help inserting your code, leave a comment.

Code Example 1: HTML

FTOTZ Webring | Join | Random| List

<div align="center"><div style="margin-top:4px; text-align:center;color:#BBBBBB;font-family:Trebuchet ms, Tahoma, Verdana, Georgia, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px; "><a href="http://ftotzwebring.blogspot.com/">FTOTZ Webring</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=addform">Join</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=rand">Random</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=list">List</a></div></div>

Explanation of the code: The div align="center" tag simply centers the links on the page. You can remove or change it if you wish to position the webring links differently. The div style tag is a handy way of specifying the look of your links. You can change the margin, alignment of text, font variety, size and color very easily using the style tag. Examine the code and change the values such as the color or text size to see the flexibility of the div style tags and to suit the look of the page you are placing the code in. The div style tag has similarities to using css (see next example), but is not as involved.

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Code Example 2: CSS

<FTOTZ Webring | Join | Random | List

The css code: Insert this between your < head>< /head> tags.

<style type="text/css"> <!-- # FTOTZWebring { margin:4px; text-align:center; color:#BBBBBB; font-family:Trebuchet ms, Tahoma, Verdana, Georgia, Arial, sans-serif; font-size:11px; } #FTOTZWebring a, #FTOTZWebring a:link, #FTOTZWebring a:visited { color:#666666; text-decoration: none; font-weight:normal; } #FTOTZWebring a:active, #FTOTZWebring a:hover { color:#333333; } --> </style>

This is the HTML that goes with the CSS. Insert it where you want the code to appear on the page.

<div align="center"><div style="margin-top:4px; text-align:center;color:#BBBBBB;font-family:Trebuchet ms, Tahoma, Verdana, Georgia, Arial, sans-serif;font-size:11px; "><<a href="http://ftotzwebring.blogspot.com/">FTOTZ Webring</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=addform">Join</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=rand">Random</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=list">List</a></div></div>

Explanation of the code: The div id refers to a css id called "FTOTZWebring" which outlines how anything within the div tag specified with the id "FTOTZWebring" will look. For this to work you need to have a css style defined between your head and /head tags at the top of your html document.

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Code Example 3:

FTOTZ Webring Join | List | Previous | Next | Random | Previous 5 | Next 5 | Skip Previous | Skip Next

<table border=0><tr><td><div style="{padding: 5px; border: solid 1px #0000aa;}"><center><b><a href="http://ftotzwebring.blogspot.com/">FTOTZ Webring<br><img src="http://www.Yourhost.com /FTOTZWebring.gif"></a></b><br></center><a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=addform">Join</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=list">List</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=prev">Previous</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=next">Next</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;action=rand">Random</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=prev5">Previous 5</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=next5">Next 5</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=sprev">Skip Previous</a> | <a href="http://www.ringsurf.com/netring?ring=FTOTZWebring;id= ***YourSiteID***;action=skip">Skip Next</a></div></td></tr></table>

Explanation of the code:This example gives you all possible link options. Remember to replace ***YourSiteID*** with the site number you were provided when you registered and replace www.Yourhost.com with the address of your image host site. (Feel free to use my icon just upload it to your own hard drive or server first. If you're graphically inclined, feel free to make your own.)

F. A. Q.

How do I link to the webring from LiveJournal?

This entry should cover the basics.

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How do I change my site's url / Make changes / uqdate my info?

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How do I link to the webring from Diaryland ?

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I updated my site but I don't see the promised ***** after my site name. What gives?

Yeah, I noticed that too. I know a bit about programming, but I haven't mastered that live checking php-type stuff. In fact, I'm not even sure blogger supports it. The members list is maintained using BlogRoll which supposedly updates site info when you ping them or a site like Weblog.com. (For more info on that, see their sites.) I know for a fact that my sites ping there as should any blogger site, yet, I'm not seeing proper updates. Obviously, this is a flawed system. When I figure something better out, I'll implement it. In the meantime, you just have to visit each other the old-fashioned way to see updates. Is that really so bad?

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