Webring for Pixel Dolling sites

[TheFrugalGamer]

I haven't come across many on this board who are into pixel dolls, but I think this definitely fits into the web revival spirit we have here. Plus, I'm just kind of proud of my work and want to show it off 

I'm making a webring for dolling sites! Currently it's only got my dolls page and the site itself, but I want to see if I can get a good collection of artists and fans to join in because I know there are a lot of them out there!

https://pixelcuties.club/

If you're not familiar with Pixel Dollz, you've probably seen them floating around somewhere. They're pixelated hand-drawn people who are built on "bases" - blank bodies and heads that are made by artists and redistributed to folks who want to use them. They're usually pretty small (about 100px high or so), but more recent ones are larger due to the bigger screens we have now. I used to be into them a whole lot when I was younger, and when I dipped back into the web revival those were some of the first things I got back into. It's known for being kind of a "girly" old internet hobby, but recently has been recognized as a legitimate internet art form (and it's for everyone, not just "girls"!).

Edit: Welp, I just realized we have a Webring subforum. Does this topic need to be moved? I'm sorry! 

[dotmidi]

Hey, this is really fun I am loving this pixel dolls thing!  Do you know any other good pixel dollz sites I could visit

[TheFrugalGamer]

I have a links section on my links page that I try to add to when I have time. I'll probably reach out to some of the folks about seeing if they want to join eventually:

https://www.thefrugalgamer.net/links.php#dollzLinks

[Necrosia]

Hello, count me in!!
I am currently planing to write a wiki on dolls, the article on dollzmaniabackup is pretty good but I want to expand more on it! :D

We dollers are hiding here:
https://pixellounge.boards.net/

I just recently (last week, literally) came with this idea of trying to bring dollers and oldweb fans together since a huge deal of dolling back then was having your own site so I love your webring idea very much! I'd love to collaborate more and work together if you are interested!

[TheFrugalGamer]

Oh, I'd love that! And I totally just signed up for your forum too, I didn't notice you ran that until you mentioned it.   

[Necrosia]

 
I will spam the webring in the discord and forum when I am done working today (I also need to join it myself) buahaha
Just recently we did a forum collab dollmaker, the name sounds cheesy but basically everybody did a lil something and we created a huge dollmaker.

I`m sorry if I seem super excited but I am just so happy to have found a fellow doller who can code and create stuff too and is super into it, lets work on all sort of projects together 

( I sent you a lil something there as a welcome gift, it doesnt show on mobile tho )

[TheFrugalGamer]

Holy crap, that dollmaker is awesome!!! You all did a wonderful job with it, and I like how it's kind of unisex by default. And thank you for the boost on the webring!

Thank you for the welcome gift also! There's so much to explore over there, that I think I'm going to devote tonight to looking through all the art and games. Seems like it's a great community!

[Necrosia]

@TheFrugalGamer
I was looking into joining the webring as I never did so before and I was wondering if there is any way to join without injecting javascript into my page? I realized this is common practice but I was wondering if there is any other way, maybe can I just link to the webring page?

[TheFrugalGamer]

You know, I hadn't actually thought of that! Yes, I think a link back should work for now, but in the meantime I can look into setting up a non-javascript version. I could probably do it with frames and some php, so the processing would all be server side. Do you mind using frames on your site?

[Necrosia]

I have another idea, I had it yesterday during insomnia so I didn’t have the time to test it out but let me know whatcha think.

This idea requires 0 javascript, 0 frames, 0 php. What if instead of using code to make the redirection to other members we used the host configuration? I am not sure if this is something all hosts allow people to do but its worth a shot.

Let's say you are member number 1, your site is Banana.
Your assigned address at the webring would be https://pixelcuties.club/1
when someone tries to access pixelcuties.club/1 they would be redirected to banana

You would place a link to pixelcuties.club/2 regardless of who it is or if it already exists.

Later I join the webring, my assigned address is https://pixelcuties.club/2.
My website is Melon
when someone tries to access pixelcuties.club/2 they would be redirected to Melon

When members join or become inactive its as simple as changing the address being redirected in the host.

If I become inactive the admin can simply change pixelcuties.club/2 to redirect to Tofu, the site of the newest member.

This way even people with only deviantart accounts can join since they need to only place a common link in their journals.

Watcha think? I will have to try it out by myself.

[TheFrugalGamer]

Hm, I'm not sure I follow. Do you mean via the .htaccess file in my webhosting? The other way would be via custom domain records, which I can do, but it's a bit tedious, and I'm worried about the long-term maintainability. If it's via the .htaccess file I could probably do that--I'd just have to look into it because the last time I delved into those I couldn't make everything work and I had the wrong commands lol   

[doubleincision]

YES i would love to join this ring. i will abide by the rules, though— i gotta get my own dollmaker up and running again before i join thank you for the dose of motivation!

[Necrosia]

@TheFrugalGamer
First and foremost I think it can be pretty rude of me to come here on this thread and tell you how to do stuff and flood you with unsolicited opinions so please forgive me if I sound condescending!

To justify myself, I personally don't like the idea of having to inject third-party javascript and css into a page to simply join a webring, it feels too dangerous for no reasonable motive, I am well aware this is how most webrings do it but I still don't think it justifies the risk.

Dollers these days don't have websites, sadly! Most of them are on deviantart and those who do have websites are using wordpress and other engines so having javascript or frames as a pre-requisite cuts out a huge chuck of people. It would be lovely if our peeps could all go back to having their own handmade site but before that can be a reality I feel like the entry bar for the webring should be as low as possible (not on quality, but on technical prerequisites).

I also realize my opinion is pretty biased because I am taking in consideration only the folks over at Pixel Lounge and not the other spare lost dollers out there but exactly because Pixel Lounge is the biggest active community right now it's a good place to start and proceed to fish the other lost dollers in the wild.
            
Those are my motives, they are all with the best of the intentions to unite the doll people but I realize it can also sound pretty condescending so feel free to ignore what I am writing here, no hard feelings 

That being said, here is the actual solution prototype I came up with:
The webring: http://webring.chosenfantasy.com/

Member 1 will be assigned the following link: https://webring.chosenfantasy.com/members/1/
Member 1 will place a simple image or text on their site with mapped links over it sending who clicks it to member number 2 link
Member 2 will be assigned the following link: https://webring.chosenfantasy.com/members/2/

Inside each member page I am simply doing this:

Code

 <?php echo "<script>location.href='http://member.site;com/';</script>"; ?>

The problem webrings try to solve with javascript is that the last person who joins doesnt have anyone else to link to yet and members can go inative so in order to not have people having to update their links and codes everytime theres a change webrings centralize it on a js file which is a good solution but it can be simplified even more I think.

This way I proposed anyone can do it, even members with basic deviantart accounts since they are able to place links and images on their profiles. The member number is always increased +1 so the last member can simple link to member N+1, the webring admin simple has to map that link to the next new member when it arrives, before that  webring.chosenfantasy.com/N+1 can simple link to member 1, closing the chain until the newest addition!

I hope I made sense 

[TheFrugalGamer]

@necrosia No need to apologize! Folks asking for new features is how I learn a lot of things, and I know a lot of folks don't like external javascript, even if it's not a problem I have myself. I'd like to be able to accommodate as many folks as possible, both because I like to be inclusive, but also because like I said, it help me to learn things.

Also, sorry for the late reply! I took your suggestions, and I decided to make them work with PHP, because I wanted a few more features out of it. After a lot of searching for different terms, and doing a lot of testing, I think I've got it! I now have a non-Javascript version up on the Join page; it just requires the user to change an ID variable in the link codes to reflect the member number they'll have. I'd like to make it even easier, but I'm not sure how to do that just yet.

But basically, it's similar to what you've posted, only the links are located here:

https://pixelcuties.club/prev.php?id=1
https://pixelcuties.club/next.php?id=1

Eventually I'll get the random button working too (that one's only on the JS widget for now), but it will require some more work. Also, both your site and Pixel Lounge are on the list now because I needed more sites on the list to test with 

[Necrosia]

Awesome, thank you so much!!! 

Do you want me to send an email asking to join as per written on the rules or may I consider myself a member already? XD because I just added the webring to my link pages