a Web Ring for identical twins

Monozygotic Ring -- a Web Ring for identical twins
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Some identical twins sites found on the net [ babies | grown-ups ]

Mission Statement
There are many existing webrings for twins, e.g. Twins Web Ring and Twin Ring. However, there is none dedicated SOLELY to identical twins. I searched WebRing.org and found none. Identical twins are very special type of people, they deserve a web ring of their own. This ring is created to link webpages ABOUT / FOR / OF identical (super)twins. The topic on twins is not sufficient to qualify for membership, the site must be about twins as persons.

Identical twins of all ages are welcome here.
When Yahoo! took over the webring system, they assigned this ring under the category "Twins' parents" by mistake. I have been trying to get this error corrected for months, but Yahoo! told me I am stuck with it because they have no way to correct the mistake. Please let me emphasize that this webring is NOT only for parents of twins. Identical twins of all ages are welcome to join.
I have a theory. The "twins experience" is something very special. For the twins' parents, the experience is fresh and new. They are so excited and enthusiastic about it that they build webpages and join webrings in order to share it with others. On the contrary, for the twins themselves, either they are not old enough to build their own webpages, or they have lived the experience for so long that they lost the enthusiasm to share it with others. I need someone to prove my theory wrong. The evidence is quite visible, so far the websites joining this ring is rather lop-sided.
The ratio (as of Sept, 1998) is 9 sites representing 18 Babies vs. 7 sites representing 10 Grownups.
I'd like to clarify that this ring desperately needs some websites about grown-up identical twins. Don't let the current member composition or the errorous category fool you. Both babies and grown-ups are welcome here.

How a webring works
Click here to find out the official definition of what a web ring is.
To put this in layman's terms, a ring is formed when "A" links to "B", "B" links to "C" etc. and eventually the last one link back to "A". However, this simplistic approach does not work when linking web sites together. Because each site is managed independently and if one site goes down or a link is misplaced, the whole ring collapses. The concept of a webring is to have each member of the ring links to a central dispatch center so that visitors can get to the next member site in the ring with just a click.
Instead of relying on each member to link to each other's sites, each member links to www.webring.org and specifies the ring id. The webring service then helps the visitors to get to the next, previous or a random site in the specified ring. The members don't need to keep track of any missing links in the ring. The webring service and the ring manager (aka me) will maintain the ring.
To make this work, your site has to add some HTML code to establish a link to the ring. And then I'll approve your membership in the ring. The webring will then take care of the rest.

Why you should join
Click here to see the formal invitation from the ring manager.
As you can see from how the ring works, the ring will not form successfully without the members' participation. At the time of this webring's creation, someone pointed out to me that the most popular web rings for twins, Twins Web Ring and Twin Ring only had 50 and 33 sites respectively. And since identical twins belong to a much smaller subset among all twins, I may have a hard time getting this ring established. I agree this is an obstacle for me. Yet, I would like to turn this obstacle into a challenge to all you identical twins out there. This ring is made exclusively for you, only you can make it successful. Please join if you qualify. On the other hand, if you found a webpage about identical twins and you believe it should be added to this ring, please let me know and I shall invite the site owner to join us.

How to Join
The minimum criteria for inclusion in this ring are

the contents of the pages must carry information and/or photographs of identical twins.
I expect many identical twins, parents or friends of theirs (kids and adults) will use this ring to meet others identical twins on the web. Therefore, the contents must be suitable for viewers of ALL AGES.
If your web site has multiple pages on different topics, you should link only your twin page to this ring and optionally have a link back to your personal or business home page. The objective is to let the visitors follow the links to meet the identical twins in this webring without much searching around.
Most important of all, of course, your web page must include the link to this ring to make it work. (see next section for instruction)
I have seen some web sites managed by identical twins, these sites do not contain any information about twins or themselves, yet they still include their sites in some twin ring just to advertise for their business. They do not belong in this ring!!

The sign up process is simple
Visit http://C.webring.com/hub?ring=idtwins&list and click on "Join this ring", then follow instructions provided by Yahoo!.
I can summarize the procedure here for those who want to find out how easy it is before deciding.

You need a Yahoo! ID to manage all your webrings at a centralized location.
If you don't have one, you will be asked to sign up for an Yahoo! ID first.
Follow the simple instructions at the URL above to enter information about your web site.
One of the most important information is the URL of your webpage. Please specify your twin page as the entry point for this ring. Unless your site is totally dedicated to twins, the front page of your site usually contains material covering numerous topics. Your visitors must make an effort to search for the information they are looking for. Since you can assume all the visitors of this ring are interested in identical twins, your visitors would enjoy their visit more if the first page they see is about twins. Your twins page can then link back to your regular home page in case your visitors are interested in other topics. It is not a bad idea to have multiple entrance pages to your site and each is tailored for a targeted audience from various webrings.
Once you have set up all your webrings, you can manage all of them by clicking the "My Rings" link at the top of the page.
Click on "Get Nav Bar" to get the HTML code for your Yahoo! webring navigation bar. Cut and paste the code into your web page. Please put this navigation bar on the page where you registered your URL with the webring system. You only need to paste this line once, because it will expend to include all your webrings in the same box. The standard Yahoo! nav bar looks like the following on your webpage.

You can click "Manage Site" if you need to change your web site information later.
After your website is submitted to the ring, it is not part of the ring yet.
I'll receive an email about your site, then I'll visit your site to check if it satisfies all the membership requirements (contents, links etc.). If everything is setup correctly, I'll activate your membership and your site becomes part of the ring.

Notes to the old members
If you were a member of the ring before August 2000, you probably need to login to the webring system and update your ring information and the navigation bar on your website. The process is very simple. you login with your Yahoo! ID and then you associate all your old webrings with your Yahoo! ID. Once you have done that, you can manage all your rings on the "My Rings" page. The old way of navigation seem to work for now, but Yahoo! may stop supporting the old mechanism. It would be safer if you replace the old navigation block with the new Yahoo! webring nav bar.
I personally chose to keep the old webring banner on top of the new nav bar because I found the Yahoo! nav bar too plain. Here is an example on how I combine the old banner with the new nav bar code.

Here is an example of using the old style HTML code:

This site is a member of the Monozygotic Ring -- A webring for identical twins
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Alternative banners:
Before Yahoo! standardized on the navigation bar, this ring used a set of different ring banners.
You can still put one of these banners together with Yahoo!'s bar.

48K bytes, 24 frame animation, 450x80, 8 bit color, white background, frame optimized.

61K bytes, 24 frame animation,450x80, 8 bit color, transparent background.
6K bytes, Single frame, 450x80, 8 bit color, transparent background.

Disclaimer
The manager of this ring is not responsible for the contents of the member pages. This ring is targeted to audience of all ages. If you see a member page that contains inappropriate material and should be removed from the ring, please notify the manager. The manager of this ring reserves the rights to make final decision on whether to deny or cancel anyone's membership to this ring.