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Context is crucial ! 
Uniqueness . . .
It should be evident to us, by now, that meaning not only is derived in context, but also will vary (however slighly or however strikingly) according to the different contexts within which whatever we interpret may find itself.
Let us finally consider a WebRing. Regarding each individual site member of that Ring, the Ring plays a contextual role. The Ring, itself, in turn, is made of the sum of individual members, along with a few other factors.
The context within which each site will emerge is a defining factor, as far as how we experience a particular site, member of that Ring. Starting with the overall experience we'll derive from visiting the site, to what we derive from the visit, what we are focusing on, as we visit, our opinion of that site, etc., the experience at stake will at least be tainted, when not controlled by the overall "colors" of the Ring, so to speak.
And what provides these "colors" to the Ring? It is not possible to name every detail involved, but here are some: the name of the Ring, the purpose of the Ring, the main theme(s) the Ring is devoted to, as well as the overall sum (though of course not a mathematical sum!...but rather a semantic sum) of all site members of the Ring, as already mentioned.
Every new member site that comes into a Ring alters a bit the entire context comprising the Ring, as also does every member site that might leave the Ring, as a direct result of its absence.
Now let us suppose an example, which allows us a more concrete image of what we are discussing.
Let us suppose, thus, two Rings, one devoted to parties and celebrations, and one devoted to literature, for example.
And let us now take one page that holds membership in both of these Rings: this page, on Lewis Carroll and his Alice, makes reference to Alice's unbirthday, among other references, offering a number of interesting thoughts related to birthdays and unbirthdays and their respective celebrations.
If you are surfing the Literature-Ring, and you choose to visit (or happen to land on) that Alice-related page, you will certainly derive quite a different experience from the one you would have, were you, instead, surfing the Parties/Celebrations-Ring and, likewise ended up visiting Alice's page, whether by chance or by choice!
Remember the traffic light? the teal color? the dog? the two lines? the water? words in the dictionary vs. words in sentences?
It is no different regarding Web sites withing Rings: change the Ring (i.e., the main context) and the same Web site will offer a different experience -- even if you do not visit other sites in that Ring: for the very theme of the Ring acts as contextual information and therefore affects at least the hue, if not the entire color of the experience you will derive.
Moreover, as you are surfing a Literature-RIng, your inner (emotional/intellectual) disposition provides yet another context which will interact with what would be an "absolute meaning" for that Alice-page. And this context is obviously very different from the one you will be carrying within when you are surfing a Parties/Celebrations-Ring. The experience you derive is, therefore, by no means alike, even if you and the Web site are, each, the same – that is, in principle, as we have seen in this section.
"Upon those who step into the same rivers,
different and again different waters flow." Heraclitus (more quotes)
Heraclitus would no doubt approve of my not making use of the newly added "uniqueness rating" as a weighing factor, when I review submissions to the Rings I manage.
This new rating is based on an absolute approach, its value hence restricted rather to the realm of statistical data than sufficiently vast to include the realm of experience. Experience, in contrast, i.e., the life we feel as 'real,' takes place in a relative world, as the examples we have examined in this section help illustrate.
In behalf of fairness, especially, it is relevant to mention, in the current discussion, that both absolutism and reductionism do have a place and usefulness in the world, alongside modern scientific and philosophical thinking. It must also be added, however, that this place in the world is earned by qualified reductionism or absolutism.
"Analysis, with its reduction from complexity to simplicity, is traditionally a useful way of doing science. [...] Qualified reductionism therefore has its place, but when it pretends to offer an exhaustive account of nature, then misrepresentation and confusion result." David Peat, emphasis my own (see MieNet's The Future: Fiction & Fact...where are we heading? for related comments).
Peat's words say it all: the new "uniqueness rating" now standing on every Ring Hub, unfortunately generates more confusion than informs, however well-intended (I have no doubt) its motivation will have been.
It may well turn visitors away from many exciting Rings, whenever potential visitors interpret that new rating as meaning that it'd be rather a waste of time to try surfing the Ring!
I am saddened at the possibility that WebRing's newly instated "originality rating" could reveal itself, in the long run, as rather a disfavor to many of its Rings, many of their Sites, and ultimately to itself – of course without ever being intended this way, needless to say – as a result of a rating that offers an absolute, reductionist approach to its Ring members and their respective Site members.
Experience, as we have seen in this section, bears indeed little in common with an absolute appoach, whatever the realm of life. Logic, as has also become evident in the examples we have examined, often fails to mirror experience.
This newly added rating can easily induce the visitor to a misrepresented mental image of the Ring (s)he has come to visit and surf, as well as to a misrepresented evaluation of the Web sites available for visiting, in that Ring.
Thus my having clearly added to every Ring description that quality, more than anything else, is what matters in all MieNet's Rings.
"Context" Ring Memberships
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