Bandwidth Theft - Please don't like directly to my pictures, videos, sound files and other similar objects. You can link to my pages, but not to other things. This is called bandwidth theft, and it basically means you are stealing from me.

Changing my Browsers controls - Webmasters, please don't change my back key to back up to anything except previous page. Please don't disable right click function and don't do anything to size of browser window. It's rude and you can pretty much bet that I won't be back.

Free Hosts that Disable use - A new trend is free hosts which allow a certain amount of bandwidth to be used by each site per month. Once that limit is exceeded site is shut down until next month. This makes it really difficult for these free sites to survive, as they will drop from search engines and be removed from webrings because for a week or two they don't exist. Worse yet, most of these free hosts state bandwidth is a certain amount (say 2gb/month) but sites they shut down most certainly do not get anywhere near that much traffic.

Paid hosts that go to hell - Every single paid hosting service that I've used (about a dozen of them) started good and quickly went downhill. In hosting world, poor customer service, poor performance and rudeness to customers seems to be rule. Perhaps this is why they seem to be failing right and left.

Sites that include a statement like "Best viewed with" - A good webmaster makes sure that his site can be viewed (at least at a crude level) in any browser. Older browsers may only display text and text links, but site should still work.

Sites without site maps - This is like trying to read a book without a table of contents. Please take time to make a decent site map so I can get around your site.

Large Sites Without Site Search Engines - Sites with thousands of pages need to include site specific search engines. Why? Because it is not possible to have a navigation system that foresees everything I might want to find out. If you want me to use your site and it's large, then please include a good search capability.

Informational Sites with too much advertising - Look, I know some sites want to remain "free" and must pay bills somehow. And I understand that chosen dogma is that advertisers will pay for exposure. But do you have to include a half dozen banners, twenty links, three pop-ups, a pop-under and those silly monitors which fall from top of screen? Sites which do this would be better just charging people for access - if their content is good people will pay.

Sites which do not respect my privacy - I'm sorry, but you don't need my address, phone number or social security number unless I am doing specific kinds of business with you. And I am not going to tell you all about myself to fill out your silly survey. Just give me good content, a good shopping experience or good entertainment (whatever you are selling) and I will be happy.

And, oh yes, I do monitor where my information goes. If I find out my personal data has been given or sold to another company, you will NOT get my business again.

Webrings fill in this gap extraordinarily well. You see, webrings are created and maintained by individuals called Ringmasters. These people usually have no monetary interests at all. What they want to do is create pathways through internet which give surfers an experience.

Ideally, webrings are a way for individual webmasters to create and control their own destiny on web by forming little golden paths allowing surfers to navigate from site to site. The ringmaster is in control of ring's style, format and promotion, while member sites are expected to adhere to ring's criteria. This provides a unique surfing experience for surfers.

A well run webring is a incredibly joy to surf. You can proceed from site to site, enjoying differences between individuals while admiring theme which ties them all together. These rings are much like some pixie had walked before you, exploring internet and carefully marking those sites which might interest you.

Thus, a webring has nothing to do with PR or search engines or any other of that nonsense. What a webring does is enhance communication between sites in a coordinated way which gives value to surfers. This, in turn, makes them want to explore whole ring, and to come back occasionally to see what changes have occurred.

In best rings, you can sign up for a newsletter which keeps you informed of new sites and changes to ring. These rings often have extremely active message boards and use egroups (and other methods) to communicate regularly. These rings are not about crass moneymaking - they are about friendship, caring, discussion, and sharing.

Rings are about targeted traffic. Surfers arriving on a well managed, tightly themed ring are interested in subject and want to visit a member site.

As rings get larger, amount of traffic to each individual site increases. This is directly related to attractiveness of rig fragment and how well ring is maintained. Quality rings are indeed extremely good traffic builders; low quality rings are a waste of time and effort.

Webrings were created in 1995, and were almost destroyed by Yahoo in 2000 during their euphoric yet bumbling expansion in those heady times. That traumatic event led to creation of a new type of ring - that of Ringlink. This is a self-hosted system, extremely powerful, open-source and run by a group of highly dedicated, selfless and ethical people. Ringlink has saved concept of webrings from destruction and is single hope of future of this navigation system.

Other systems include Webring, since divorced from Yahoo; Ringsurf, a decent and full-featured ring host; Siterings by Bravenet, very well managed ring hosting company and some other home-grown alternatives.