Web Ring

The Web Ring (My Kind of Internet)

Before algorithms decided who got seen, the web was stitched together by people. We had these things called Web Rings — a gloriously simple idea where independent sites just… linked to each other. No sponsorships. No feeds. No corporate glue. Just one creator pointing to another and saying, “Hey, this person’s worth your time.”

That’s what I’m building here —

my own small Web Ring. Nothing fancy, no secret code, no blockchain nonsense. Just a list of people and projects I think deserve attention because they do the work. For now that includes folks like Zack Henderson Training and OCR Kings, and more will come as I keep finding others who walk the walk.

This isn’t nostalgia. It’s maintenance. The modern web keeps trying to bury the real stuff under engagement metrics, and I’m just over here running a shovel in the opposite direction. A Web Ring is how I keep the signal connected — creator to creator, site to site, human to human.

The idea isn’t to “go back.” It’s to go real. If you’re reading this, you’re part of it — because the only algorithm that matters is people choosing to share what they love.

This whole site, Post Illusion Press included, is written by a human for other humans. No sponsors, no clicks-for-sale, no bots pretending to care. Just a few of us keeping the web alive, one link at a time. Over time, the intent is to build on this model using open source technology to expand the reach of web ring participants.

References

Casey, C. (1998). Web rings: An alternative to search engines. College & Research Libraries News, 59(10). https://doi.org/10.5860/crln.59.10

Alimohammadi, D. (2009). Did Webrings die? An exploratory study. Internet Research, 19(3), 275–286. https://doi.org/10.1108/10662240910967205