I mean, I’m kinda just re-inventing moderated webrings, aren’t I? But, you know … maybe it is time to get all retro up in here?
Honestly, I didn’t ever participate in webrings back in the day. But I think the way I’m thinking about approaching this is to have Fraternity offer a layer similar to a moderated webring, sort of.
I’ve never been willing to just do plain link exchange because that got icky and SEO-spammy fast everywhere, so I’ve avoided it, but I’ve been trying to do Fraternity better. Certainly, trying.
I’m not sure if I’ve ever mentioned this, but I was partially inspired to do it originally by find out that WitchVox was gone. I remembered how WitchVox used to have directories of trads and groups, and I’ve wondered if that was still something that would be useful. Part of that would make more sense in Hermeneuticon, like full and informative entries about trads, but there’s also something else, a kind of curated directory element that didn’t have a place yet, or, at least, I’ve toyed with doing in various ways over the years before (like the old featured supporter links and such on the main site, and the mostly now defunct community layers of Hrmtc Underground) but wasn’t currently doing until adding Fraternity.
So, in addition to staying tuned to the Fraternity section as a resource, I’ve also started a
Fraternity list under my Twitter account as a a Twitter-specific companion in support of this idea. Currently my idea is to list the twitter accounts of those people or entities that appear on the section at the library.
Now, I need to be clear that this isn’t a free-for-all. My thinking about this is that I will keep this battened down. Whilst I cannot guarantee that people listed or that listing people is necessarily any kind of endorsement, I will try to curate this.
I’m very happy to engage in solidarity and mutual support, but I’m no one’s bitch. I’m the sole arbiter of the library, and won’t suffer anyone thinking otherwise. There’s no way to get listed without going through me, and having a frank talk about it all, so think I’ll have it in well in hand, as I am wont to do. But, I will require that people I list engage with me with ongoing respect and reciprocity.
And, after all, that’s an entirely rational and reasonable expectation, I think.