• Have a website of your own which meets the guidelines (see below)
• Have basic understanding of how to edit your page to include the net ring HTML fragment and include the graphic if you choose to use one (which means you must be able to upload the graphic to your own server and adjust the code to reference it)

While the ring managers are happy to assist you if need it, we are not usually able to give detailed instructions on how to fix certain things which may be related to your site or server. Do please feel free to ask if you're having trouble, though.

Guidelines for joining A Time to Heal are:

• Site must have clear and specific material of specific interest to Christians who are dealing with issues of recovery from such things as childhood abuse, divorce, domestic violence, substance abuse, eating disorders, psychiatric illness, assault, trauma, or any other sort of wounds of the heart or soul. Personal testimony, poetry, original prayers, links, etc., all fall into this catagory.


• Personal homepages must belong to Christians who have experienced recovery from the sort of things listed above or who minister to same (or both).


• Personal homepages should have some Christian content (talking about your own faith would fulfill this guideline), but need not be overwhelmingly or predominantly "about" Christianity.


• This goes without saying, but sites may have no links or content or graphical images of an explicit nature which may be offensive to the general majority of moderate, mainstream Christian people. We don't mean "Nothing that will offend the extremely conservative" (we are quite moderate in our position, so that's the position from which we manage the ring). What we do mean is: no hardcore erotica, no drug advocacy, no obscenity (very strong language, etc.), no "hate" material, no racist material, and so forth. Controversy is not the issue here; inappropriate material for a Christian healing and recovery ring is.


• It is not a requirement that a personal homepage site be distinctly recovery-oriented or specifically Christian-oriented. So long as the owner is a Christian and is in recovery from some sort of wound of the soul, this is acceptable. By being on this ring, you are saying "I'm in recovery." However, please do not be offended if we ask you to please explain why you feel your site is appropriate for the ring. This is, unfortunately, a necessary thing sometimes these days, due to the number of inappropriate sites we have submitted to the ring. We do not like rejecting sites, but we have had to be a bit selective of which sites we choose to admit to the ring in recent months.


• The net ring graphic/HTML fragment must be placed in a way that visitors to the site can easily and quickly find it, such as a very clearly marked "rings" page link. Visitors shouldn't have to go through more than two pages to find the graphic/HTML fragment, and they shouldn't have to try to guess where the fragment will be. If at all possible, we actually would prefer that you put it on the page you submit. If that's a rings page, that's okay, so long as there's a link back to your main site. This is not, strictly speaking, a requirement, but it does make our job a lot easier and make using the ring easier, as well.


• Commerical sites should send an email before putting their site in the queue. We don't necessarily object to commercial sites and there are a few high-quality commercial sites in the ring, but many of the ones submitted are more commercial than help. Please allow us to look your commercial site over before you go to the trouble of adding the HTML fragment. We want sites that have something to offer other than the product or service they're selling.


• We do not judge the merit of a site by its page design, its graphical presentation, its site navigation, or its theological position (other than going by the basics of our own statement of faith). We don't necessarily "agree with" everything everyone in the webring writes on their site, and we don't feel we must. Christians come in all shapes, sizes, colors, ages, nationalities, levels of education, levels of conservativism and liberalism, and life experience. It's not for us as ring managers to argue over the theological correctness of doctrine, and so we don't. So long as a page doesn't conflict with our own statement of faith, we don't worry about it. (On a side note, if a site submitted had material on it which was really way out there or noticibly heretical or severely doctrinally unsound, we might have to object, but so far that's never happened; there have been several "controversial" sites in the ring over the years, as well, because we feel that people have a right to speak from their own experience, understanding, and faith, within guidelines).


• While there are many excellent and worthy Christian sites on the web, this ring has a very specific theme and intended purpose. General Christian sites, education sites (such as for schools), evangelism sites, and other types of Christian sites may or may not be appropriate for the ring. The point of this ring is recovery and related issues with a Christian aspect. Please keep this in mind before you submit your site.

What we have always envisioned is a ring of sites which would be of interest to Christian people who are part of or who serve the survivor and recovery community, all in a ring which will help them find these resources easily. The point of adding personal homepages is to allow Christians in recovery to find others who have been there, and possibly to gain some inspiration from these other folks who are walking the long road to health. We're hoping for a mix of many different kinds of sites with different orientations and points of view, including personal homepages.

Your site may be removed from the ring (or queue) under the following circumstances:

• The ring managers are unable to contact you via email (if your mail is returned as undeliverable, for example).
• You fail to make required changes to the HTML fragment on your page (it is very uncommon that we ask people to make changes, but it has happened).
• Your site changes in such a way that it no longer fits the guidelines for ring membership.
• We visit your site and are unable to find the required ring graphic/HTML fragment either because it's not there or because it's not in a location which is easily found (and we do look around the site).
• Your site remains in the queue more than two weeks without you adding the ring fragment.

In the years we have been managing this ring, we have sadly learned that some people join things and then just sort of drop out, fail to act responsibly, and otherwise care very little about the commitments they've made and how their actions will affect others. Yes, a webring in a small thing, but it's still something which requires a bit of effort and care on the part of the members, as well as the part of the managers.

So if the above comments about having sites removed seems harsh, please just consider the work and effort the managers have to put into making sure everyone on the ring is doing their part and maintaining the integrity of the ring. We'd like to be nicer and happier and give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but there have been plenty of times that we've bent over backward and gotten absolutely nowhere. Please know that we are generally pleasant, fairly tolerent, very approachable, and mostly understanding, but we do sometimes have to act in the interests of the ring. If that means we have to remove a site from the queue or the ring, we will do it.

Download the new logo!

JUST CLICK TO OPEN THE
IMAGE IN A NEW WINDOW

• Download a copy of the NEW ring graphic (immediately above) to your own hard drive.
  • Please do not link directly to the image on our server. We have a redirect in place that will give you only a blank image. Please upload the image to your own site.
  • If you are on WebTV or some other system which prevents you from downloading and re-uploading graphics, please contact the ring managers and we'll give you some options, including using a transloader and using a text-only code.
  • If you would like to use a "text only" version of the ring code, you may do so. Please contact the ring managers once you have added your site to the queue (see below) to get a copy of the text-only code.
• Unfortunately, at this time the ring has been closed to new sites (except you can still join!). We've done this because of automated spam that is being submitted to the ring (why on earth they think it will do any good at all, I cannot imagine). Until this problem can be fixed, we're going to be manually submitting sites to the ring. Don't worry, just contact us and let us know your URL (web address), the name of your website, a brief description of your site, a temporary password, and your email address, and we'll set it up and email you with how to get your code set up, etc. We hate to do this, but at this time there's no choice; there are multiple spam sites - many of them highly offensive - being submitted per week.

You may edit your site information
(for sites in the queue as well as in the ring) here:

about the ring :: join or edit info :: contact managers

A Time to Heal is part of the Shoshanna ministry site
and is made possible by RingSurf.

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