Our site is a member of over two hundred webrings and we actively manage over a dozen. We have spent many hours pouring over web server statistics to determine where traffic to our site comes from. Does it come from search engines, webrings, ezine advertisements, FFA pages or link exchanges? The answer to this question is used to determine where promotional efforts are best directed.

Our analysis has led us to an inescapable conclusion: webrings are not a significant source of traffic to a site. In fact, excluding very large rings (such as many ones run by Random Acts Of Kindness), traffic a site gains from being a member of a webring is minor.

So why create a webring if benefit is not gaining traffic to your site? The answer is simple. You are not creating a "guaranteed traffic engine for only $19.95!". No indeed. When you are doing is building a small path through wilds of internet, guiding your visitors through your own personal pick of sites which reinforce your theme. You are creating a communications method between sites, all of which directly and indirectly improve your visitors overall impression of your own site and your own talents.

Following this line of reasoning directly implies that a ringmaster must have a set of standards which he or she follows in order to be sure that ring supports his website. If a ring is in bad shape, then it follows that ringmasters website is also in bad shape. Conversely, a well designed and well managed ring makes ringmaster's site look professional and polished.

Thus, first rule of ringmaster ethics is to write up a good set of criteria which is in turn used to judge which sites can be added to ring. Once that is done, it is imperative that only sites which match those criteria are added. Of course, exceptions can be made here and there, but in general it is wise to stick to master criteria.

It's small minority, however, which has created need for moderators. These are people who read all of articles and comments posted to a board and ensure that they are suitable for audience.

Moderators are very necessary. If you've ever visited a board (or near cousins: newsgroups and elists) which is not moderated, you know exactly what I mean. These often are filled with spam of worst sort: silly money making programs and pornography. Quite often they degenerate into meaningless collections of junk visited by no one except automated spamming programs.

I always find it sad when I visit a board in this condition. I mean someone put some effort into creating a community on web, then for whatever reason neglected or abandoned it. The truly sad boards are those that were obviously active, useful areas full of vibrant communications which have degenerated into uselessness. It's exactly same feeling I get every time I visit long abandoned Marineland in Southern California. Kind of an uncomfortable, ghost- town-like spookiness of wrongness that permeates area. What is job of a moderator?

Some boards require user registration. In very strictly moderated boards, a moderator must approve each person who registers to access board. This allows some measure of control over who can post. Security levels can further restrict what visitors can do. Good judgment in allowing people to join group can obviate need for extreme policing of postings. In other words, don't allow bad apples into barrel in first place.

Postings are policed. You can have two forms of moderation. In one form, articles are posted automatically. They are reviewed by moderator after they are posted to board. Moderators can delete postings which do not measure up to board standards. Personally, I dislike this kind of moderation, since unnecessary postings are available for reading until moderator reviews them.