This section is designed to give you a detailed explanation about the new Single NavBar Display, including what it does, how you can benefit from it, and why it was necessary. The single navbar display is a member/visitor OPTION that increases load time of a page with many memberships, simplifies navigation, and saves bandwidth. How it functions: If someone is already navigating a ring, THAT ring ONLY will display on the stack for each site (when the member has that ability enabled.) If a visit is NOT originated from another ring, the designated TOP (first) ring in the stack will display (again, when the member has the ability enabled.) YOU control the ring that displays by determining what ring is at the top of the stack. Promote your own that way. In BOTH cases, there IS a link to the full stack flanking the visible navbar. Visitors can easily view ALL rings. How it operates: Members can toggle it on/off individually in the global/U# edit screen for each stack. Current default is OFF. Visitors can toggle it on/off in their account info section. Current default is OFF. If an ON visitor visits an OFF stack or an OFF visitor visits an ON stack, the ON will always win. ON is set by default to users who are NOT logged in or do not have an account. The Single NavBar and full stack are generated by two separate machines. The machine displaying the Single NavBar copies from the machine which displays the full stack. It does not always copy the most recent version of the NavBar or membership status. This means an old NavBar may display on the Single view, while expanding the stack will reveal the updated version or a membership on the Single view may read suspended, while the expanded view may show active. It takes additional time for the Single display to catch up; until it does, expand the stack for the updated NavBars. What it displays: When logged in If neither the stack nor your membership are configured to display a single navbar the entire stack will display normally. If either the stack or the user's membership is configured to display a single navbar, the single navbar will be shown preceeded by "(LOGIN ID), this site is a member of the WebRing" and followed by "View a complete list of WebRing memberships here" with "here" being the clickable hyperlink to the entire stack. Note, if the user is not navigating a ring on a particular stack, the single navbar will be preceded by "LOGIN ID): this site is a member of the WebRing If the stack is comprised of a single-navbar there will be no link beneath the stack to click for more rings. When not logged in Whether the stack is configured to show a single navbar or not, only the single navbar will display preceeded by "guest, this site is a member of the WebRing" and followed by "View a complete list of WebRing memberships here" with "here" being the clickable hyperlink to the entire stack. Note, if the user is not navigating a ring on a particular stack, the single navbar will be preceded by "guest: this site is a member of the WebRing If the stack is comprised of a single-navbar there will be no link beneath the stack to click for more rings. What it accomplishes: It saves bandwidth. As the latest Status Report indicates, the bulk of the 1GB of bandwidth served per hour is through navbars. Saving bandwidth saves money, which can be better put towards other areas. Not all visitors to your site come from WebRings. Displaying a full stack each time the page loads, whether for WebRing users or not, uses a great amount of bandwidth. This hides the bulk of the stack from those who may not even have an interest in viewing it. It WILL speed up load time of navbar stacks on pages, especially for large stacks or those displaying navbars that still attempt to remote load images. Many members are 'embarassed' by suspended ring bars and irritated by 'pending' ring bars that do so for an extended period. This will eliminate both from being visible ON THE MEMBER PAGE. It makes the ring being navigated EASY to find, as it's not buried among other bars. This is ESPECIALLY helpful to the novice user who may need help keeping track of the ring he's visiting. It benefits the manager by keeping traffic on his ring. When his ring is easy to find, people continue their visit. This in turn benefits the members, by giving them additional traffic when the visitors continue their journey. Still confused? See the FAQs for Single NavBar Display. Give it a try before passing judgement. It has good points and bad. But it's not as horrible as it may first seem. Did you know you can customize the text and link beneath your single navbar display? Yes, it's true, use HTML, even tables, to attract attention to your entire stack. Included in this enhancement is the ability to display the full webring stack on another page within your site!. See this page for the 411 and view the single navbar at the bottom of the WRUG index page to see how it all works and looks!