It's done. I can't believe it's finally done. I've been working on this in mostly secret for so long, and I'm so excited to share it with y'all!
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@mttaggart hello! I like this, but I am completely unaware how to implement it in my writing projects
@sharan It's admittedly pretty early days for adoption for all but experienced web administrators, but please watch this space! The goal is to refine the protocol and its usage to make it simple for everyone!
@mttaggart Unless this is easy to do for us simpler folk, this will be just another case of why the masto/fedi folk scratch their heads and wonder why so few of their non-tech friends aren't here. Or, it's the reason apple has market saturation... it's easy to use. I love the idea. Would like to see a firefox extension that allows for applying as well as validating. And an easy way to add my site. Perhaps a central repository with a searchable fully tagged database would be useful as well.
@mttaggart webrings are a great idea but do we really need more tech? Web rings were just a few hyperlinks in webpages, do we really need more new tech in something that wants to be human?
@mttaggart love it. The old webrings were a wonderful, simple thing.
@mttaggart Oh I am so here for this
@mttaggart you talk about "a little humanity in our technology", but I'd rather get "a little technology in our humanity" =3
I'll check out the code, seems intriguing
@mttaggart unexpected The Expanse / Farscape crossover.
@mttaggart @happyborg #webring
Just adding a hashtag here.
@mttaggart Congratulations, I think it's a great idea and is totally worth a try!
@mttaggart Cool effort, thanks!
Just fyi, not sure if it was mentioned already: the first link in the article doesn't link to the source code, but to the article itself.
@mttaggart hell yeah, I'm very on-board with this idea! Watching this space closely
@jtig @shellsharks@shellsharks.social @shellsharks@malici.ous.computer Indeed, this was undertaken in part following a conversation we had!
Looks good! But there's a problem: Big Tech's stranglehold on the internet itself. I'd certainly go for Ringspace as a user/creator, but the government or Big Tech can disappear Ringspace in the blink of an eye.
We need an alternative to the internet itself. Long ago I read an article about small, cheap, easily manufactured boxes which could be plugged into power outlets and connect to each other via various methods, forming something like what the internet was originally intended to be: a means of communication that would resist damage and major disruptions.
Of course nothing came of that. But as long as Big Tech and the government have the power to cut off the internet (and they do), their boot will be on our necks.
So...good idea, and well worth implementing. But we need more.
@mttaggart Holy shit WEB RINGS! Fuck yeah!
@mttaggart This looks awesome! I'm one of the people who helped with the Xanadu Project that started way back in the mists of time...back...back...back to the 1960s. Eep! I'm ancient!
@mttaggart this sounds very interesting. I definitely will try it. But I want to say here that I don't think, any technical innovation, even the most genius one, will solve this problem. The fediverse, ringspace and many other such "things" are tools. We have certainly alteady demonstrated that we can use these tools within small circles of activists and people with good technical skills to create some "nice spaces" for us. But: we need to act as a society and that means laws.
Fun facts about this project:
- All hand coded (of course)
- Written in Rust (of course)
- Raw SQL instead of ORM
- Raw JS browser extension
- Took like four years off my life
@mttaggart "Raw SQL instead of ORM" 💙
@mttaggart BTW. https://soatok.blog/2025/12/17/the-revolution-will-not-make-the-hacker-news-front-page/#auxdata might help with PKI risks (still reading https://ringspace.net/protocol.html#threat-model as I toot this)
@mttaggart I really look forward to seeing how this goes.
@mttaggart Hey, cool idea, thanks for sharing! I like the identity and reputation concepts.
Seems like a lot rests on the Ring Server. Thoughts about reputation management in a world with a lot of competing Rings? eg, Assume folks start up many malicious rings, whose only purpose is to provide a veneer of legitimacy to malicious sites. Any mechanisms to delegitimize them?