A webring is a convenient system of linking together a group of similarly-themed sites in a circular fashion. The link on one member site leads to the next, and so on until you arrive back where you started. Different links can also take you backwards or to a random site in the ring with equal ease.
The Orca Ringmaker uses a central hub system to make creating and managing a single webring fun, easy and reliable.
If you have a website which matches the theme of this ring, you can easily request that your site be added by clicking the "Join Ring" link in the Control Panel. Select a username and password (alphanumerics only) for your account and then just fill out the form with your site information.
The webmaster running this web ring may have enabled the Image Authentication section of the Add Site process. In this case, an image containing some lines and numbers will appear along with a small input box. To confirm your application, just type the numbers you see into the input box below the image.
Once you've submitted your site, you will receive a fragment of HTML code which contains and/or delivers the navigation bar for this ring. You will need to paste this code on your webpage at the URI you submitted with your application.
Once the navigation bar is active at your site, a ring administrator will review your application and, if found acceptable, will approve your site for membership.
If you've submitted a site, whether or not your site has been approved, you can log in to your account using the Control Panel. From here you can click "Edit Details" to bring up your personal member control panel where you can change almost any element of your account, and even remove your site from the ring altogether.
If your site has been approved, you can change your account status freely between Active and Hibernating. When your site is hibernating, clicks from the ring will not be directed to your site. Use this feature when you expect your site to be down or under construction, and don't want to break the ring.
The Orca Ringmaker also keeps detailed statistics which you can visit either by clicking the "Statistics" link in the Control Panel, or one of the small icons next to each Site Title on the Ring Hub. The icon links will reveal in-depth statistics about each site in the ring. Make sure you check them out to keep track of how your site is doing!
A "Hit" is recorded whenever a user arrives at a site because of a Ringmaker link. Arrivals via the Ring Hub links and from Navigation Bars on other member sites will all add Hits to your site totals.
A "Click" is recorded whenever a user leaves a member site via a Ringmaker link. Direct Clicks from the Ring Hub aren't recorded, only those from member Navigation Bars' "Next", "Previous" and "Random" links. Because of this, the Clicks totals are accurate reflections of how much the Ringmaker Navigation Bars are being used.
Essentially, total Hits are how many visitors a site is receiving because of ring membership, while total Clicks are how many visitors a site is generating for the rest of the ring.