What is...

webring?
ring id?
site id?
Nordic Knights' Cool Sites?

Requirements
Cost
Qualifying

Periodic Randomization
Increased Page Exposure
Cool Webring Interface

If you have any questions not answered by the FAQs, please send E-mail

What is webring?
Webring represents a collection of similar sites dynamically linked together. Members can modify their own profile which updates the information on all other linked sites.

What is ring id?
In our case, its cool.

What is site id?
It is used to reference your individual profile on webring's database.

What is Nordic Knights' Cool Sites?
On website design, I have little respect for most cool site awards. I've seen sites that say they've won the bob award. Who cares or for that matter, who is bob? The layout of your site will establish if you have an awesome site or not. Webrings (done correctly) provide a very strong avenue of exposure. The navigation bar needs to be on the page referenced and each individual site needs to offer some intrinsic value.

Cool Sites Requirements?
The webpage must contain unique content and not act as a simple link page.
The webring fragment must appear on the page referenced.
You must own or have the authority to code the webpage you would like to add.

Cool Sites Cost?
Absolutely none.

Cool Sites Qualifications?
The webring volume will be established by adding sites that have excellent content and good presentation. To qualify, click on Join Webring from the cool sites home.

Periodic Randomization
Our short term goal is 60 sites, medium goal is 500 sites, long term goal is 1,000 sites. The ring automatically randomizes itself every 90 days so someone entering 3 years from now has the same chances as you do on being placed well within the ring.
I thought about how it would feel to add myself to a high quality ring where I was member 595. That's why I activated an automatic randomization feature that mixes the ring up every 90 days.

Increased Page Exposure
You'll eventually see the effect of having 20-350 quality sites where you don't need to search for the fragment.
My moviegoer's site has been featured in three articles and has over 210,000 page views since early 1996. I'd like to answer the question of what happens when you place some of the most interesting sites of the internet on one webring and continually add new sites. Eventually someone will stumble over it and write an article about it. I've pushed daily page views in the thousands for a short period of time with each article written on my site. The same can be done for this ring.

Cool Webring Interface
When we added Alycia's site, I noticed that our webring fragment detracted from her presentation. Immediately, I contacted a few friends and we brainstormed on some ideas on how to clear up the mess. I wrote up three designs and had some friends create rough drafts. From there, I contacted a wizard in graphics design and we created a streamlined fragment. Its a design I've never seen so I guess its a first.
The webring fragment is 4.3k and not like any webring interface ever designed. Take some time to look at member sites and try out the controls. Even the edges have commands tied into them. Its the smallest design we could develop that maintained all the functions of a normal sized webring. Also, its designed to display well on any background. One of these days, you'll see many knock offs but for now, we're the only ones to use it.