My Mates’ Pages

Me and my mates all have homepages, so we linked them into a loop: from mine you can step to the next one, the previous one, or a random one, and eventually you come back here covered in other people's pages.

I am the ringmaster (self-appointed, ratified by nobody). The ring currently tours the six main rooms of THIS house, because Tom's page is “under construction” in a way that suggests surrender, and J.J.'s is one photograph of his dog. Every page here ends with the same strip: previous, the hub (this page), next and a random room.

The tour

1. Front Porch · Start here. Me, my house, and everything I own (a bike).
2. Mum’s Kitchen · Her steeping chart, her egg timer, her rules. I just type them.
3. Up All Night · A torch, a Game Boy with dying batteries, and Colin the moth.
4. Dial-Up Diary · The war for the family phone line, recorded nightly.
5. The Fridge Door · Notes, lists and warnings, held down by magnets.
6. Guestbook · Sign it. Mum checks it more than I do.

Start at the first stop, or drop in somewhere random (the random link needs JavaScript; without it you stay here).

Join the ring

You can’t. You are not in my class. But rings are easy to build: pick your friends, agree an order, and hand-write the previous and next links on each page. When someone falls out with someone, someone has to edit the loop. That fragility is the whole social system.

Make your own button

Every page here ends with a row of little 88×31 buttons. They are the era's handshakes: take one, link back, be counted. This maker renders the same button this house uses — two lines of text and a colour scheme. Make one for YOUR homepage and we can be button-friends, which is legally almost ring membership.