The Mandelbrot Set guidelines....

all of these journals include personal art or photographs....
On a frequent or daily basis. Personally, I find journals which include the writers' artwork or daily pictures of themselves or their surroundings to be among the most enjoyable to read. They are like scrapbooks, galleries, and yet another window into the writers' lives. Daily or near-daily photographs and artwork are included or linked to in every or nearly every entry. Currently, these can be old artwork or photographs by the writer, old or current photos of the writer, or current art or photographs by the writer. Some exceptions are made for outstanding journals which include a lot of photography and artwork other than their own (like a scrapbook) provided a decent portion is their own. Just having these images is not an auto-in, simply one of the requirements.

*This is the big one, guys. Don't submit your journal to this ring unless it includes new images in most if not all entries.

a lot of love and attention goes into these journals....
And it shows. These journals are important to their writers and they put a lot of time and attention into them. Not everyone has the time or inclination to put a lot of effort into their journal, and that's fine--but these writers do.

these journals are unique....
And original and have oomph. It's hard to say what oomph is--it's something extra which makes me think, oh...wow. These journals reflect their writers' own tastes and their writers put effort into creating something all their own. They are the electronic version of carefully hand-crafted books. They stand out among the crowd.

these journals are beautiful....
Whether they are elegantly simple or graphically intense, the design and graphics of these journals are beautiful homes for their writers' words. My own personal tastes will bias me heavily here.

these journals are written by adults....
Although a journal up to the adult standards of quality of this ring will not be discriminated against. But unless I find one, I will not respond at all to queries from writers under the age of 18. I don't find many adult journals I want to include in this ring and I've seen no teen journals which are up to the standards I'm setting, and I just don't have the time to plod through the tons of mediocre teen sites which get submitted to every webring no matter how strongly it explains its standards. Unless you truly feel that you would be accepted into this ring, please don't take up my time. In return, I won't say "absolutely no" teen journals. If I'm besieged, however, this rule will change, and you can blame your contemporaries. I am sorry, but I feel I need to state this very strongly after seeing what's happened to other webrings which allowed teen submissions. No offense, guys, I was a teen once, too. Not so long ago.

these are journals which I have read for at least a month....
Because I don't want to make any rush decisions, and I want to have a very good feeling for what the "usual" is for each journal. Because I should enjoy these journals enough to read them for this long if I'm going to include them, and because this ring is primarily by invitation. Therefore, the application process can take as long as a month, unless I decide straight off that a journal isn't what I'm looking for, or I choose to do some of my evaluation based on archives. No one should try to please me. This is not a probation period. I just want to really take time to get to know a journal before I make a decision on it. I reserve the right to do this in real-time when I please instead of always just delving into the archives.

these journals post frequently and have a lot to say....
Although there will be some exceptions, these journals should generally update at least twenty times per month and the entries should be at least an average of 500 words long. And, of course, there should be quality as well as quantity.

these journals have been around for awhile....
One month minimum for exceptional cases, generally these journals are at least three months old. Time has at least had some chance to temper and test these journals, and these journals have had some time to mature and evolve, and they have shown some staying power.

these journals are brave enough to apply despite all the harsh sounding guidelines....
In order to keep from hurting people's feelings and pride, I felt that it was necessary to detail just how picky I intend to be. I intend to only choose the best journals, and I don't want anyone with a great journal which doesn't match these particular guidelines or my particular tastes to feel dissed or hurt. Please don't feel hurt or angry if your journal is not what I'm looking for to place in this ring. There's a lot of great journals which I read on a regular basis which I don't feel qualify for this particular ring--I'm just being extremely picky here and being picky on the basis of specific (but somewhat flexible) guidelines. On the other hand, these journals did not get into this ring because I was a softie. So please at least consider whether you put a lot of care and attention into your journal and whether it might meet the guidelines before submitting. Thanks.

...and I do make exceptions.
Rules were made to be broken. The most important guideline here is the daily or near-daily images guideline, however, so please don't apply if you don't use images at all.

Exceptions I make aren't made to be nice to friends, exceptions I don't make aren't meant as snubs. I've written these guidelines out carefully like this, explaining what I like best about journals, so that people's feelings won't be hurt if they're not accepted into this ring. Inclusion in this ring is not meant to be a measure of prestige, not being included in this ring does not say anything about the quality of your journal--there's over 600 journals out there in the English language alone, and I'm only chosing a handful of journals out of those. So not being included doesn't mean anything at all. Although my goal is to include the journals I think are among "the best", you have to realize that my idea of "the best" is an opinion, based on my own personal tastes, nothing more.

If I do make an exception, it's because I feel something about the journal is so ultimately wonderful that it doesn't matter if they only rarely include images or only rarely update. Most likely I'll only make major exceptions in the cases of journals I personally invite, so don't be hurt if I don't make an exception for you.

And finally, we're all human. Despite the exacting guidelines, I'm pretty reasonable about technical difficulties, hiatuses, "life stuff", and so on. I've experienced them all, and am not a martinet.

If you've read the guidelines and are interested in joining this ring or would like to see how some sample ring fragments look, you may check out the logo page and/or submit your site. Please do not add the ring fragment to your page unless you receive a letter accepting your journal into the ring.