I think my first webring is ready to launch!! This post is pretty much a copy-and-paste of the webring page on my site.

The Modern Celtic Languages Webring aims to:

• Promote the active use of Celtic languages online.
• Connect Celtic language speakers across the web.
• Resist the globalisation of English/Anglo-American culture and English-language hegemony, which replace and erase our own cultures and languages.
• Assert our existence as minoritised peoples, whose cultures and languages are still here and alive.
• Show the world that an "inclusive society" doesn't mean we should all be made to speak English in order to make the English monolinguals feel included - we should instead be proud of our cultures, and show the world that differences are good and should be celebrated across the world and online. Differences do not divide us. The world and the internet should not be a homogenised, English-speaking culture.

Requirements to join:

• Websites only. There isn't a way to embed the webring widget on social media like Twitter, Facebook, etc.
• You must use at least one of the six modern Celtic languages somewhere on your site, i.e. Cymraeg, Gaeilge, Gàidhlig, Brezhoneg, Gaelg, and/or Kernewek (note that any orthography for Kernewek is fine). You do not have to be a fluent speaker, just someone who is willing to use the Celtic languages on the web. Your entire site does not need to be in a Celtic language, but ideally your Celtic language content should be obvious and easy to access from your homepage.
• Your site does not have to be focused on just Celtic-related things. The content of your site can be pretty much anything: from Celtic language resources, to personal blogging, film reviews, and whatever else it is that you do. 18+ websites are allowed, as long as your homepage has a clear warning that you have adult content on your site. Sites containing hatespeech and bigotry will not be allowed.

How to join:

1. Embed the following code into your homepage, or somewhere else easily accessible on your website like a links page. The webring won't work if the widget is hard to find.

2. Fill in the form below and reply to this post with it! (Or e-mail it to me at twitchcoded@gmail.com)

• Your name/nickname:
• Site name:
• Site address:
• Site description:
• Link to site button:
• Celtic language(s) your site is written in:

personally i find it weird when people say "you can tell who's from the usa online because they're the only ones who don't have their country in their bio because they have a baseline assumption that everyone is american, and everyone who's not american puts their nationality in their bio because we'd hate to be mistaken for americans" (ok i don't actually know how many people say this, but i've seen some people on tumblr believing in it). but like that's just. not true.

like some people just don't want to do that. not because we're american. but for idk privacy reasons? like yeah you probably won't get doxxed just by putting your country in your bio, but when it's a small country like wales where i live (population is 3m) then it really narrows down where you might be. if you mention you live in wales and that you went to waitrose the other day, then well there's only 4 waitroses in wales so it really begins to narrow it down even more (don't ask why waitrose was picked as an example.... me and some friends were googling how many there were in wales idk). even our largest city cardiff only has a population of 300,000 so like you can't even mention what city/town you're from without it dramatically increasing the risk of people doxxing you, whereas people from larger countries seem to be happier to mention what city they live in.

and yeah i list that i'm welsh/cornish/scottish/irish on this site, but i only put that information on sites where i don't care if someone irl sees that site and links it to me. it's a specific combination of cultural backgrounds that nobody else i know has. irl people have recognised my online accounts before and linked them to me just from me putting my cultural background in my bio. and when i start to add my disabilities and gender stuff to that then well it's even more obvious.

like yeah i don't want people to assume i'm american (or english) bc i want to resist the globalisation of american/english culture/language, and i'd be dead before i'd put 'uk' in my bio, but also just people are allowed anonymity. if you're assuming that someone who doesn't put their country in their bio is american and that there's no reason for minorities to not include their country, then that also feels very assumptive?

i feel like it would be so much easier to talk about celtic nations online if the general online population understood that england ≠ britain ≠ the uk ≠ the british isles

i remember someone i followed on tumblr received an ask where the asker was going "i thought welsh people were english bc i thought england was the island and britain was the country with london etc".

i also feel like since there's been welsh, scottish, and cornish people online recently saying "don't say britain when you mean england", some people have taken that to mean "never say britain and only say england", when we just mean "stop talking about britain like it's one homogenised culture where everywhere is england".

i'm not really interested in engaging with anything where "british" is:

a) treated like one homogenised culture (that homigenised culture ALWAYS being english and ignoring the minority languages/cultures/nations here)

and b) it's completely ignored that the modern useage of "british" is very much a political term that begun existence with the acts of union. i.e. not the useage that just implies britain as an island, or the "british isles" (although i think we should retire those geographical uses since it's just such a political term that at worst has connotations of cultural genocide of the non-english nations of these isles at the hands of the english). or british being used to mean common-brythonic-speaking peoples and their language. something something, that quote "britishness is a political synonym for englishness which extends english culture over the scots, the welsh, and the irish". and i would add that cornish could very well do with being added to that quote.