Family-Friendly Criteria for My Webrings

This is a short description of my requirements for joining or remaining on any of my webrings. For a more complete description, please see the following page: Requirements. Please note that my REASON for managing webrings is to maintain rings so that I will be willing to allow MY site to be a member. That's why I am so strict. Once in a great while, I will evaluate a site I just plain don't like. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen, and when it does, I will deny you membership even though you are otherwise qualified. But in general, this is a description of what my criteria are.

Important note: I have to look at my responsibilities as a ringmistress somewhat differently from the way in which a site might look at its webring affiliations. Let me give you an example. Suppose you have a Christian site and you feel that membership in rings that don't meet my criteria is an opportunity to welcome nonchristians from those webrings to your site, where they may hear the Gospel. Then it would be in your best interests to belong to such a webring. As a ringmistress, however, for me the traffic goes the other way. People surfing the ring from Christian sites will be going to sites that don't meet my criteria. Either they have business scams, or religious or political scams. I won't deliberately accept any site that would lead my surfers to a site that isn't family-friendly or contains scams, because I know children surf the webrings. So from my perspective, I have to refuse membership to a site that has the potential of leading someone away from what I would prefer that children surfing my rings would see.

Mechanical requirements: your site's HTML must work well. You may not have embedded music with no obvious way to shut it off. If your site is on FortuneCity, I probably will not approve it because of their advertising practices. If your site has voluntary popups (that I didn't get by clicking on a link) that my popup suppression software won't suppress, then your site isn't qualified. I refused to accept one site because it had a popup on EVERY page which invited the visitor to sign up for their newsletter. If you have problems with your HTML, I WILL help you with it if you want. If it is simple to fix, I'll do it for free. If it will be extensive, I will have to charge you. When you design your site, please be careful of site-designing software. Some of it produces pages that do not work in all browsers. In particular, Microsoft's software is intended to create pages that will not work in browsers other than Internet Explorer. And drag-and-drop programs often have problems with pictures overlapping text in some browsers. If you have ActiveX or .NET (dot net) on your site, it's not qualified. Why? Because both of these are used to download viruses and spyware onto the computers of unsuspecting visitors. Using these is unethical. And if your only navigation is through Java (as distinct from Javascript), it's not qualified. Provide alternative navigation. The major pages of your site MUST have a CLEAR link back to the page where you have your webrings.

Please note that although my criteria are strict, people do slip through the cracks. I will do a small amount of grandfathering if I adopt a ring and you are already a member, but if your violation of my requirements is egregious, I will ask you to correct it. If you don't want to, you have that right, but I will delete your site. Also, people should surf my rings with caution, because some things DO slip through the cracks. This is partly because people will often add material or links to their site once they join that is not acceptable according to my criteria. IF you find a site on any of my rings that does not meet my criteria, please let me know! I will take a look. Also, if you find a webring affiliation on any of MY sites that does not meet my criteria, please let me know. I will leave any objectionable webrings!

What I look at: I not only look at your site, but also your links and webring affiliations. If your links and webring affiliations do not meet my criteria, even though your web site does, I will deny you membership. The reason is that I am responsible to the other sites in my ring. I won't admit a site that has links that those sites would not agree to link to directly. I am also responsible to the surfers of my webring, not to do anything to jeopardize their children. To the best of my ability, I try to meet both of these requirements, although I am not always able to make sure that members do not violate my criteria. But I DO check sites after they have joined, so don't get the idea that you can get away with linking to unacceptable material once I have accepted you. These checks are at random, and I do them more than once. Also, in examining other webrings, I may come across your site! If I find that you belong to three or more webrings that violate any of my criteria, I will ask YOU to examine your webrings to make sure they are family-friendly. I don't have time to check them all. But if I find a problem, your site will be put on hold until I have time to deal with it, or you respond to my concerns. You will be required to leave all unacceptable webrings to join mine. If you have more than three that don't meet my criteria, it may not be worth your while to join mine.

In general, I do NOT favor commercial sites. I will make exceptions provided your site contains material other than just your pages describing products. In other words, have some information pages that people can learn from. Also, you must make sure your webring affiliations do NOT link to ANY business scams. The following are business scams: multi-level marketing (no matter how "reputable" the company may be; these have a fundamentally flawed business model, and people lose their shirts and sometimes their families and their sanity being involved), read emails and visit web sites (they're counting on you to spend more money than you make), stuffing envelopes (usually a person has to buy the envelopes and stamps, and loses more money than he is paid). Also any site that has a spam program will disqualify a ring. Usually, if they advertise that they will set up a mailing list for you, you need to be very careful. It must be a DOUBLE OPT-IN list only. All other mailing lists are spam lists.

First of all, I require that all sites be family-friendly. This means that any sites that contain explicit sexual material, or link to such material, or to dating sites (where predators can make contact with minors; yes, it does happen, and children have been lured to a remote place and killed), which advocate kinky sexual practices, sell sex toys or other such things, or advocate public policies that would be detrimental to families, violate my criteria. If a site belongs to a webring that has such sites, your site does not meet my criteria. Also, sites that contain defamatory material will not be admitted. I do not recognize defamation as a legitimate use of political free speech. Make sure your claims are TRUTHFUL. Please keep in mind that if a political figure says something false, but he BELIEVES it, he's not a liar. He's simply mistaken. So be careful you don't defame a political figure by calling him a liar. Make sure your political arguments have substance and aren't just nasty. Also among the things that make a site not family-friendly include links to gambling, or links to any advocacy for legalized vices, including advocacy of legalizing drugs, prostitution, porn, or any other such activity. I have also denied sites for advocating female toplessness in public. If your site advocates any of the tenets of the homosexual activist movement, your site will not qualify.

Why is homosexual advocacy a violation of my criteria? It is because the sexual practices of homosexuals spread diseases. The problem is so serious that these practices shorten a man's life expectancy by about two decades. With lesbians, there is shortening of life expectancy also, but it is not as great. Unfortunately, most lesbian sites link to male homosexual material. Also, it is common for sites that have homosexual advocacy to link to sexually explicit material or to "gay pride" marches, which are explicit enough. I don't have a problem with a person having homosexual tendencies. It's the practices I object to. Sexual practices that lead to situations where children are not a possibility, or where a woman may decide to have an abortion because the pregnancy happens under adverse circumstances, are not acceptable for public discussion. Sexual activity belongs in the bedroom. For everyone. If you keep it there, you won't have a problem with me. And yes, I am equally hard on anyone who advocates heterosexual promiscuity. And by the way, sites that advocate naturism are usually also a problem, if for no other reason than that they link to sites with porn or porn links.

I do not admit sites that are affiliated with any religious scams. This is a much harder one to define. I personally hold that there is such a thing as truth, and any religion that teaches things that are false is a potential religious scam. However, I am looking for something more specific. If you have a site, for instance, that discusses the Hindu or Buddhist religion, it will depend on HOW you discuss it. If you simply explain about these religions without advocating them, then this will not disqualify your site. If, however, you advocate these religions and do so in a deceptive way, your site doesn't qualify. It will also depend on whether or not you advocate a GROUP that has cult mind control practices. For this purpose, I define cult mind control in a secular sense. The best description of this is contained in the books of Steven Hassan. Also, if you are ADVOCATING a false teacher (such as Edgar Cayce), I may deny your site membership. If you are advocating pagan or wiccan practices, here's how I view it: if you are charging money for what you do, or if you have published your grimoire, or link to a ring or site where someone has done this, or if you describe how to do spells, or you describe other practices that often have CAPRICIOUS results (you cannot count on the results being good, if they occur; I do not consider it capricious if nothing happens), your site won't qualify. Also, if you link to any site that advocates violence against women and children (abortion, euthanasia) or any ring that has such a site, your site will not be eligible. If you simply have beautiful pagan art, and you don't link to any of this, I may admit your site if the art is not objectionable (and not all of it is). Also included in religious scams are astrology and horoscopes, and tarot. Why? Because these deny free will, and to me it is clear that we have free will, and when we are born, or the shuffle of a deck of cards does not determine what our future will be; our actions play a decisive role. Also, if you have an atheist site, and you do not stick strictly to rational arguments, if you display hatred toward other religions, or lack of respect, your site will not qualify. It may not anyway, but I will guarantee I will not accept a site that has religious hate on it (and this goes for Christian sites that are hateful toward others as well, such as a site that is hateful toward homosexuals, or a link to such a site.)

BEFORE you apply to my webring, CHECK YOUR WEBRINGS. The passsword is "scam". Be especially careful of general topic or general interest webrings. Most of these have unacceptable sites. Also, be especially careful of general interest BUSINESS webrings. Most of these also contain scams. Most rings that are specific to the topic of your site will probably be OK, and I won't necessarily expect you to check them. I do have a list of webrings I keep, with information about whether or not there is unacceptable material on them, so if I notice a ring that is on my list, I'll let you know. Also, check your site for topsites affiliations. Most of these contain unacceptable sites. This is because there is no screening with these lists. If you have a topsite affiliation that is specific to the topic of your site, I may let it slide. But don't count on it! But some are still full of unacceptable material; for example, there may be sexually explicit photography sites. I will accept artistic nudity, but I am very strict: it must be GOOD art. If it is simply a vehicle for arousing lust, it's not artistic. This means that focusing on genitals or erogenous zones, or provocative poses, usually means it's not art. Please note also that some allegedly artistic nude sites DO link to porn sites. If this is the case, and you have linked to either a webring or a top site list that contains such a site, your site is not eligible. Also, there are some otherwise legitimate sites that list, say, photography sites that will have erotic sites that link to porn. I will still refuse admission if you have a link to such sites. If the site is otherwise legitimate, I WILL work with the site owner to try to get them to clean up their site, and I will keep your site on hold pending the outcome. But if I do not get their cooperation, I will deny your site membership.

If I adopt a ring that has your site, and you violate my criteria, I will contact you and explain what the problem is. Here is what I recommend: DISCONNECT the pages on which you have the non-family-friendly material from the pages you have on my webring, or on pages where you are applying for membership. In other words, take all links that could lead to the unacceptable pages off the pages that are on my webring or for which you seek membership. For example, if you have experienced a health cure that was recommended by Cayce, DISCONNECT your health pages from any reference to Cayce, and you will remain qualified. Or if you are advocating the homosexual activist agenda, DISCONNECT the pages on the ring from those pages. Run the pages on the homosexual agenda as a separate site (you may use the same domain name, but do not link to these pages in any way from the rest of your site). If your site has multi-level marketing somewhere, DISCONNECT it. Do not link the pages which applied to my webring or are a member, to any part of your site that promotes any form of MLM scheme. Just so you know, there are some MLM companies that carefully disguise their nature, and provide a lot of otherwise useful information. The most egregious of these is Advanced Scientific Health. These sites have a ton of useful information, but they ARE MLM, and it is VERY carefully concealed. ASH also runs a number of webrings. No site which is a member of these webrings is eligible. Further, no site that belongs to ASH, or to a webring with an ASH site, is eligible for my webrings, either. DISCONNECT your ASH pages from the rest of your site. If you are unwilling to do this, then I will delete your site from my ring.

In sum, your best bet is to stick to webrings that are specific to the content of your site. You run much less risk of violating my criteria if you do.

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me through the WebRing system. I probably have missed something, so if you aren't sure, ask. If I see something I haven't covered, I'll let you know. And I will add it here. But I can't guarantee that someone won't come up with a creative way to violate my criteria, so this description is NOT exhaustive, and neither is my Requirements page.