WebRing Adoption Agency
In October 2002, WebRing changed the manner in which Ring Adoption requests were being handled, so as to expedite adoptions. Adoptions are now automated, meaning the system makes all the decisions. This section exists to attempt to keep up with the constant changes to the adoption program and help you understand the complexities of the system.
How to Qualify for Adoptions
The system uses a program to determine if an applicant is qualified to manage a particular Ring, by giving every Ring and User a score. The User's score is based upon current management, membership, and account details. Each Ring has a score based upon the number of active sites. When an adoption is to occur, the score of the interested user is compared to the score assigned to that Ring. Use the chart below to see what size Rings you are eligible to adopt.
The scores to adopt and corresponding "penalty" are shown in the table below:
| Ring Size | Under 5 | 6 - 15 | 15 -25 | 26-50 | 51 + |
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| Score | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 |
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| Points | 1 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 |
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The final column, called "points" refers to the temporary adoption penalty assessed for adopting the Ring. These penalties are reductions to your score that regenerate at a rate of 1 point every 7 days. The reason for these points is to make adoptions more fair by slowing the rate that more qualified users can scoop up bigger Rings. Another little-known deterrant to Ring collecting is the frequency limit to adoptions. Each User ID can only acquire one new Ring every three days. If you are in line to receive more than one Ring, you will get a random Ring at that rate until you've received all Rings you are supposed to get. There is no transfer order based upon time pending. Thus if you are waiting on a specific Ring, stop applying for more adoptions.
This holds true for both mass adoptions (where there is more than one invitee) and one-to-one transfers (where only one person is invited, such as a transfer between IDs belonging to the same person.) Also, with 1-2-1 transfers, the score chart above is essentially not in effect. If your ID has been singled out to receive a Ring, only an exceptionally low manager's score (-29 or lower) can prevent you from acquiring the Ring. If this happens, the Ring will remain as a private adoption until either your ID qualifies or it is converted to publically adoptable and awarded to another User.
How to Find an Adoptable Ring
Any Ring with the ID "adoptable" showing as the RingMaster on the hub page is potentially available. You can find them by luck, or by doing category searches in the directory. When you find a category of interest, perhaps Book Genres, click the "adoptable" link in the pink box. Your Book Genre listing will change to listing only adoptable Rings in that list. You can move into subcategories that show as having adoptable Rings and see only the available Rings as well. Due to the quantity of adoptable Rings and the constant changes to the group, there is no master list of adoptable Rings.
You may also receive an email inviting you by either the WebRing system or former RingManager to assume control of the Ring. By acting upon the link in the email you are asking to be considered for adoption. There is no opting out, so if you weren't interested you shouldn't have clicked, and the remainder of the process is up to the system.
How Adoptions Are Processed
Once you've located a Ring, you can determine whether you may attempt to adopt it and how to proceed by reading the steps below:
- An adoptable Ring is managed by user ID "adoptable" with a designation of being either a PRIVATE adoption or PUBLIC adoption. Read this page to understand more about private adoptions.
- If you are interested in adopting the Ring, click the "Adopt This Ring" link in the left column and follow the instructions.
- At this point, the system takes over, querying the Ring every 19 minutes for the next five days to locate other adoption applications for that Ring.
- At the end of five days, if there is at least one qualified applicant, the system must make a decision
- if there is only one qualified applicant, he is named the new manager
- if there is more than one applicant, each applicant is "weighted", with the highest-scoring manager getting more weight than the lowest and everyone else in between. The 'weights' are like entries into the drawing. Heavier weighting results in more entries. Applicants who also hold membership in the Ring get additional consideration.
- The system then selects at random a new manager and informs all applicants of the decision.
- If there isn't at least one qualified candidate, the system continues that every-19-minute query until there is one (whether a new applicant or the previous one becoming qualified), at which time the Ring is awarded.
The automated program is also tweaked to look for the following to ensure there is no attempt to beat the system:
- Joining a ring just prior to or after applying to adopt in an attempt to boost your weighting
- Changing automated management settings of existing Rings just prior to or after applying to adopt in an attempt to increase overall score temporarily.
How to Get & Read Your Score
Your score is determined by a long list of various membership and management qualifications. Details on these can be found by following the "Need More Info" link that follows this list.
- Number of Rings managed (multiple Rings work in your favor until you reach twenty five. At twenty six, the reductions begin.
- Verified email address (unverified is very bad and will result in dire consequences)
- Navigation Rating of the rings managed. Ratings UNDER 80 lose a point, while 85-91 gains a point with an additional .5 for 92-100. This is an average score, not a per-Ring score. You won't gain 3 points for having 3 Rings between 81-90 but lose 1 point for having a Ring at 50. It's an average of all Navigation Ratings. If your Ring has pending or suspended memberships that have been left in those queues for a period of time, this will count against your overall Navigation Rating.
- Overall size (counted as active memberships) of the Rings you currently manage (over 25 counts in your favor, as does over 100)
- Number of your own MEMBERSHIPS PASSing the checker (FAILing memberships lose a point. If you have MORE FAILing than PASSing, lose another point. Another point lost if you FAIL in your OWN ring!)
- Number of total memberships also is considered (over 125 results in a point reduction).
- Whether you hold memberships in Rings that are not your own is counted in your favor.
Here is what a sample scoring page looks like:
Need more info?
ID: USERID, score=-41.6 (max 11 - 5.5 for sites, 5.5 for Rings)
Breakdown:
Site Membership contribution: 5.5; Ring Management contribution: 2.9
Reduction for unverified email address -50. VERY bad
Active Sites: 74, Passing: 74, Failing:
mlipp HAS Site(s) outside of own Ring(s) - good.
mlipp HAS medium size (>25 Sites) Ring - good.
Overall navigation rating of all Rings managed: 99.2307692307692
Rings Managed: 27
- (reduction for "too many" Rings: 0.35)
- (bonus for "good" number of Rings managed: -- max of 1)
You've probably already realized that in order to get a higher score, you need to abide by the suggested rules for Ring membership and management. As a member you need to have your Navigation Code placed so that it PASSes the checker. As a manager, you need to enforce that same rule as well as show that you can promote Ring growth and demonstrate membership experience in your own memberships in various Rings.
Note also that the two biggest potential reductions come from unverified email address and too many Rings managed. The unverified email address penalty alone is sufficient to ensure you cannot even receive a transfer of a Ring from another ID let alone qualify for a public adoption.
Find your score by entering your ID below (this is the same form that WebRing uses and will open a WebRing page with the results):
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