- This is the International
Poetry Webring and literature/poetry in languages other than English
are welcome to apply.
- It is expected
that member sites will respect copyright and be of legal content.
- Sites which promote
the abuse of children are NOT welcome in the Poetry Webring.
- Sites which advocate
violence against individuals based on religion or membership in a
minority group, or the like, are likewise NOT welcome.
- Sites which contain
sexual content, must have a warning page containing our webring links
before the sexual content.(see below for details)
Email us,
should you find such a page. Thank you.
Note:
The Poetry Webring reserves the right to refuse admission at its sole
discretion
I want to point
the webring to a different page to the one I put the fragment on. That
way people will have to explore my site!
We
no longer have the time to search sites that have buried our links. The ring is reliant upon people surfing the ring. If they can't find the ring code to SURF, then they quit surfing. Therefore it is not beneficial to the other members of the ring if the code is not accessable.
So we ask that you put the links on the page you have on record with the ring (that's the one you submitted to us). Be sure you have links back to the rest of your site if you place it on ring page on your site.
What is the webring
policy on mature poetry content?
Poets throughout the ages have often chosen controversial or adult
themes but we appreciate that one person's erotica is another's pornography.
Accordingly, we ask that sites containing mature/controversial/or adult
subjects, have a warning page, with our links on it. This should then
lead into your site. We ask this of the site owner, so that surfers
can choose to surf to the next site if they think the content will be
offensive, without having to arrive at the "offensive" material without
choice. This does not have to be your opening page, but can be a special
page on your site for our ring code with the contents of your site listed,
or just a link to the main page of your site. But it MUST display the
contents warning.
The bottom line
is that there should be a barrier between the surfer and your site so
they are not visually bombarded the moment they come to your site. The
Ringmaster's verdict as to what comprises acceptable content is final.
The Poetry Webring is an international ring and people of many backgrounds
surf it and while we do not believe in censorship, we do believe that
surfers have a right to consider whether or not they wish to view mature
content.
At this moment in time, we have only ever had to remove 2 sites for
not abiding by our standards.
Why can't I just
get the HTML fragment from another page?
Each ring member has a different ID number.
Why must my site
be visible in both Internet Explorer and Netscape?
Simply, because
they both exist. One half of the internet uses Netscape and the other
uses Internet Explorer.(a statement based upon the statistics from our
page trackers)
Regrettably, the browsers do not treat coding in the same way and a
page that displays as expected in MSIE may not in Netscape. We find
that missing closing table tags are a particular issue in Netscape with
the result that you may have an invisible page!! This does not help
ring surfers! Please don't shoot the messenger when we tell you about
such a problem, we are just trying to help and have enough hassle in
our lives already!!
No one can surf around your site, if it does contain an error that locks up the browser or appears as invisible. We frequently visit sites in the ring, checking on code. but do not rely on us to find all the mistakes that prevent your site from working, we recommend that you view your own site in both browsers or use one of the online services like netmechanic.com that offer services to analyse your site.
I am already
in the ring, but you have put me in the queue? WHY?!
When our assistants
go through the ring, they are looking for errors in your code, or just
looking for the code!!! We will contact you about the error, but we
need to put you in the queue to keep track of your site until it is
fixed. You become an obstacle in the ring if you remain there, so we
put you in the queue.
Please don't ignore our email!!! We only allow 2 weeks to fix the error,
and if you don't comply then we delete your site from our ring. If you
need more time we will give you that, but don't ignore the email we
send you. If you feel that there is no need to fix anything, let us
know, you may not be seeing the problem as we do.
I really like
the webring graphics someone has on their page, but they are not on
the logos page. Can I use them?
Please email the owner of the page and ask them if you can use their
graphics. If they say yes, make sure you place the graphic on your server
and not link to somebody else's page. Some servers limit bandwidth and
people can have their sites suspended because of others linking to their
graphics. Respect copyright.
Will we get spam
from you?
Absolutely not. We do not send out unwanted mail and other than for some unlikely event
such as the breakup of the webring, we cannot envisage a scenario where we would need to send out a mass mailing. Nor do we sell your email addresses or site addresses.
webring.org do collect some information and you can check their privacy
policy via their homepage webring.org. Yahoo, on the other hand, does send out unsolicated email and we are NOT responsible for their actions.
Also, please do not put us on your address book and send us your personal
mail! We have had this happen before, and we already have so much mail
we don't know what to do with it!
COPYRIGHT
Last but far from
least is the issue of copyright. It is impossible for us to check copyrights
and so we assume that all poetry posted is either copyright to the site
owner or that the site owner has the permission of the copyright holder,
or that the work is copyright expired....i.e. long dead poets. Copyright
law as it applies to the internet is still evolving. In the USA, we
believe, the rule is that literature becomes copyright free after 75
years, in the UK it is 70 years after the death of the author and other
countries are different again....put simply, if you are in doubt as
to whether copyright has expired, don't use the piece on your page.
If we are notified
that copyright does not belong to the site owner or that the site owner
does not have the permission of the copyright holder, then we will remove
any such site to the queue until we can be wholly satisfied in respect
of the copyright holder, and if we cannot be satisfied then the site
will be removed from the ring at our sole discretion.
We appreciate that
disputes arise in the field of copyright but we are not lawyers and
are unable to take sides as we have no wish to be enjoined in any legal
action. We will express no opinions on the rights and wrongs of any
breach of copyright allegation but will simply carry through ring policy
as described above.
I can't access my site record! (or I am no longer a member of this ring!WHY!)
In past years we have been rather stifled as to how we can maintain the ring, dependent upon assistants to get out there and surf the ring and find errors. Since the beginning of the year 2000, things changed, methods and software became available that has helped tremendously. We are now able to check the ENTIRE RING once a month with accuracy, to whether a site contains the poetry webring code or not. This now allows us to watch for people who remove the code and never bother to delete themselves from the ring, leaving themselves in for a no-obligations cut of the traffic that we manage to bring in. We feel that this is not fair to those members of the ring that remain loyal to the ring and maintain their code continously.
June 1999, we set into practice a group of guidelines that we use to determine if a site is deleted or removed to the queue.
- A site with no access into the contents of the
page (including those who removed everything to redo or revamp their
site)
- A site with no ring code
- A site on a server that is unreachable for 7
days(usually put in queue when first noticed)
- A site that has code in error or problem
getting into site or access to ring code, and NO valid email address
to contact about the error.
- A site that's 404 (page not found will send me looking for main page, if NO SUCH USER, then site is deleted from ring)
- A site that is linking to our graphics instead of uploading them to the site's directory.
- A site that the owner ignores our emails to correct a problem with their code or site.
These guidelines were established based on our 3 years experience running this ring.
Maintaining the ring is a constant battle, at any time servers can be down, but we do notice a server down when more than one site from the same server is unreachable. We give time for a server to come back online, usually 7-14 days, after that, we haven't much choice but to delete the site from the ring. It could be that the domain has been moved, removed or the site has been deleted or domain has been dropped (special ones like www.poetrywebring.org are purchased by the person maintaining the site)
For members who have sites under construction, yes we understand people do update their sites, but surfers of the ring need to use the code to get around the site under construction. The code needs to be there with a date of return, or you can contact us and let us know its under construction. We will put it in the queue for 30 days...(I could build a domain in 30 days!)after that, it needs to have shown some progress and the code reinstalled.
In essence, you should not let time lapse before you contact us. We are out to improve the quality of surfing for the people who mosey into our site, and refuse to be compared to other rings of poetry nature that you try to surf and 15 sites out of 20 are 404 or moved! People come here for poetry, and that is what we are going to give them.
If you are trying to get into your records and find that you cannot, please contact us. Keep in mind that the tone of your email will set the tone of our response. (is that a clue or what?!!)
This FAQ is a work
in progress.
If you disagree with
something here, spot a mistake, or have suggestions please send
mail.
