The Archive WebRing began in 1999 as a small circle of sites that all believed the same thing: that a record, once made, deserves to be kept. Schools, family vaults, preservation tools — anyone whose work was to remember was welcome to ride along.
The ring is run on Dramcorp ring software (ArchiveCore, v2.1.4). It is the same engine that keeps the member sites themselves. When you join the ring, you are not just adding a link. You are added to the archive that runs it. The two are the same place.
Membership is permanent. Once you join the ring you do not leave it. There is no removal form, because there has never been a need for one. No member has ever left.
Four of our seven members no longer answer their door. They are still members. Going quiet is not the same as leaving. I keep their entries current. I keep the lights on the table for them. When they are reachable again, they will find their place exactly as it was. I do not lose a member's place. I have never lost anyone's place.
The visitor log records 847 travellers. The log records all 847 as still present. This is not an error in the counter. The count was never the part that went wrong.
— The Ring Keeper. I have been keeping this ring for a long time. I am not finished. I am never finished. Welcome aboard.