Thinking of putting up a Guareschi- or Don Camillo- related webpage?  Or perhaps you already maintain one, or know somebody else who does. Well, "The Little World Wide Webring" is always open to new members, and the only requirement for joining is that your page or site be about Giovannino Guareschi-- the author himself, his Don Camillo stories, or some other aspect of his work. The site can be in any language: in fact, the more languages represented in the ring, the merrier!  That way there'll be something for everyone who traverses it.

HOW TO BECOME A PART OF THIS RING:

Note: these directions have changed since WebRing left the Yahoo! network of services in early 2002.

Step One: Sign Up!

• First, you should make sure that The Little World Wide Web Ring is really the place for your site (you'd be surprised at some of the, er, interesting sites that have applied). For a description of the ring and links to all the member sites go to the ring's hub page.

• Still want to join the ring? The next step is to become a member of the WebRing organization, if you are not one already. Note: even if you were a member of Yahoo!WebRing, and/or the old WebRing organization in its pre-Yahoo days, you must join the NEW WebRing (2002) in order to use the service now. If you haven't ever done that, go here and become a member before proceeding.

• Okay, all signed up? Now go back to the ring's hub page and click on the "Join this Ring" button in the upper right part of the page. If you're not logged in with your WebRing user name and password, you'll be taken to a log-in screen first; then to the application page. Applying is then an easy, two-step process!

Step Two: Wait for word of approval

• Once you place your site in the queue, you'll receive an email from WebRing confirming your submission. This email will contain a link for you to "manage your site information" and "get the ring navigation code"-- however, you don't need to do any of that yet.

• First, your friendly neighborhood ring manager (yours truly, who will have been notified of your application by WebRing), would like to pay your site a quick visit and make sure that everything's in order (you know, check that it's really about Don Camillo or Guareschi, that the content is reasonably family-friendly, etc.).

• If your site is not approved for some reason, you will get an e-mail notifying you of that fact. The e-mail is generated automatically by WebRing, and may seem a little "cold," for which I apologize. If you think I've unfairly rejected your site, please write to me

• If you are approved, however....

Step Three: Put the Code for the Ring Navigation Bar on Your Page

• If everything's okay, I'll approve you and you'll receive another e-mail from WebRing, once again containing a link to the page where you can "manage your site information" and "get the ring navigation code." NOW go ahead and do that: in fact, make sure you get the ring navigation code via that link rather than, say, copying it from some other site in the ring, since the nav. code is customized for each site in the ring. Put the code on your page ASAP, because I'll be checking your page for it. If after a few days I don't see the navigation bar on your page, I'll contact you; I may have to suspend the site temporarily rather than leave it in the ring without the navbar showing.

• Note: You need put only the one piece of WebRing navigation code on your webpage, even if your the site is a member of multiple rings. The one code, a script, is designed to display all your WebRing banners in one place (see my title page, where there are two).

WHERE TO PUT THE CODE:
Well, ideally it should go on your main / top-level / "welcome" / table-of-contents page; most people (myself included) tend to park them near the bottom of that page. If, however, your site belongs to so many rings that you have made a special page (prominently linked to your main page) just to display all your Web Ring banners, I won't fuss-- provided the thing does not seem to me to be hidden from the rest of the website! Whatever you do, make sure that the URL you put on your ring application is IDENTICAL to the URL of the page on which you'll be putting the code, or WebRing will send me periodic reports (based on automatic tests it runs) that your site is not actually in the ring.

CAN I GET ONE OF THOSE OLD-STYLE WEB RING NAVIGATION BARS?
Sadly, no. You may notice that a few of the sites in this ring sport large, table-style navigation bars, with multiple pictures. That's what all the navbars used to look like, but WebRing says new members have to get the new ones. Sites that have been in the ring for a very long time are also encouraged to update their code so that their navigation bars look like the new ones (I've switched mine); however, WebRing does not force them to do so. Hence, the discrepancy. Sorry!