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The Microsoft Agent Ring

From Agentpedia, the Microsoft Agent encyclopedia
The Microsoft Agent Ring
The Microsoft Agent Ring's home page in August 31st, 2005.
URLhttps://msagentring.org (Defunct)
FoundedSeptember 1997
Successor(s)The Microsoft Agent Frontier Ring
Language(s)English
Owner(s)Gordon Scott Bell
LaunchedApril 6th, 1998
Written inHTML, CSS, VBS

The Microsoft Agent Ring (TMAR) was a web-ring for sites that were related to Microsoft Agent. It was created in September 1997 and became its own site on April 6th, 1998. The two most popular sites connected to the ring were BellCraft and La Cantoche.

Pages (1998 - 2005)

Welcome

Home

The Home page, as its name suggests, is the default page of the Microsoft Agent Ring. It contains information about the ring, a brief description about what Microsoft Agent is and what web-rings are, as well as press-releases from Microsoft. It also contains the information about the site order of the Microsoft Agent Ring as well as the contact for Gordon Scott Bell.

Agent Setup

The Agent Setup page (formerly known as Agent 2.0 Setup) contains instructions on how to setup Microsoft Agent. The first step contains instructions on how to install Microsoft Agent. The second step contains instructions for installing the Lernout and Hauspie, TruVoice TTS engine, as well as a list of many other installers for TTS engines. It also contains the 3 TTS voices released officially by Microsoft, like the Sam voice.

The optional third step contains the instructions for how to install the Microsoft Speech Recognition Engine, which allows Microsoft Agent Characters to listen to commands from the user and perform actions based on them. The optional fourth step contains the Speech Control Panel, which allows users to customize the settings of the compatible speech recognition and TTS engines installed on their system.

The fifth step contains a link to the Microsoft Agent Ring character gallery, as well as a short guide on how to download Microsoft Agent characters.

Character

The Download Gallery page contains the character gallery of the Microsoft Agent Ring. Not only does it contain a combo box which allows for listing the characters by page number, it also allows for listing characters of a specific category, such as animal characters, human characters, other types of characters, and Microsoft's official characters.

Download Stats

The Download Stats page lists the statistics of each character in the agent gallery. It contains the name of the character, the average amount of downloads the character receives per day, the total amount of downloads of the character from the site, and the date which the character was added to the gallery on.

Ring

Intro

The intro page contains the script for the well-known Microsoft Agent Ring Intro. Besides for the ring intro script, the page is mostly just a white webpage with black text containing the Gordon Scott Bell copyright. If the user is still on the agent intro webpage, even after it finishes, characters such as Birdie, Spaceman, Gourdy, Claude, and Max will show up post script.

Statistics (2001-2005)

The Statistics page is a redirect to the Ring Surf page of statistics for the Microsoft Agent Ring. For each site in the ring, it displays the index of the site, the amount of people who have viewed their webpage, and the name of the website in the web-ring.

Support Forum (2001-2005)

Main article: BellCraft (website)

The Support Forms page is a redirect to the support forums on the BellCraft site, which has support forums for MASH and DeskBot.

List Sites

The List Sites page (formerly known as List All Sites) is a redirect to the sites list of the Microsoft Agent Ring on Ring Surf. On December 12th, 2005, before the 2006 UI change, the Microsoft Agent Ring had a total of 55 sites in the ring.

Applications (1998 - 2000)

The Applications page lists all applications created by ring members of the Microsoft Agent Ring. The most popular application in the list is the Microsoft Agent Scripting Helper.

Links (1998 - 2000)

The Links page contains links to websites which design characters, such as La Cantoche, E-Clips Animations, and Rayflex Animation, as well as links to the official Microsoft Agent Home page and the Microsoft Agent Support Newsgroup.

Ring Logos

The Ring Logos page (formerly known as Logos) contains 6 different logos (12 if the light and dark versions are counted as separate) that ring members can use on their site. There are also links to the agent hat ACFs which allows members to embed the agent hat characters into their website.

Search Ring

The Search Ring page (formerly known as Search) allows for users to search for a site in the Microsoft Agent Ring. Users can choose if they want to find any word that is in the phrase, all words that are in the phrase, or exact phrase matches in the site description and/or site name or keywords. However, after the year 2000, the search options from the Search Ring page has been removed with all that is left being a textbox and a search button.

Join Our Ring

The Join Our Ring page allows for sites to join the Microsoft Agent Ring. In order for people to join, their site must meet the above requirements, such as including Microsoft Agent 2.0 technology on their site. Their site must also be creative, interesting, and updated on a regular basis; their site must not contain any sort of offensive content, and more. If they meet the requirements can submit a join request by entering the name of their site, the URL for their site, their full name, e-mail address, the password they want for the site, keywords they want for the site, and also the site description. In 2001 and afterwards, join requests are no longer made on the Microsoft Agent Ring site, and users are instead redirected to the Ring Surf join page for the Microsoft Agent Ring.

Members Only

The Members Only page allows existing members of the ring to login with the password they have provided and modify the site name, URL, description, keywords, or password. After the shutdown of the Microsoft Agent Ring in 2017, the Members Only page after a user is logged in is now lost media.

Pages (2006 - 2007)

Primary pages

Home

The Home page, as its name suggests, is the default page of the Microsoft Agent Ring. It contains information about the ring, a brief description about what Microsoft Agent is and what web-rings are, as well as press-releases from Microsoft. It also contains the information about the site order of the Microsoft Agent Ring as well as the contact for Gordon Scott Bell.

Agent Setup

The agent setup page contains a tutorial on how to install Microsoft Agent to either begin development on scripts and/or programs, or get programs that utilizes it to work.

The Download Gallery page contains the character gallery of the Microsoft Agent Ring. Not only does it contain a combo box which allows for listing the characters by page number, it also allows for listing characters of a specific category, such as animal characters, human characters, other types of characters, and Microsoft's official characters.

Intro

The Intro page is very similar to the one from 1998 - 2005. However, the page is black, with the text being white.

Statistics

Like the one from 2001 - 2005, the Statistics page is a redirect to the Ring Surf page of statistics for the Microsoft Agent Ring. For each site in the ring, it displays the index of the site, the amount of people who have viewed their webpage, and the name of the website in the web-ring.

Forum

The Forum page allows users to discuss about Microsoft Agent through the BellCraft site.

List Sites

The List Sites page lists every site that were part of the Microsoft Agent Ring.

Ring Logos

The Ring Logos page contains 6 different logos (12 if the light and dark versions are counted as separate) that ring members can use on their site. There are also links to the agent hat ACFs which allows members to embed the agent hat characters into their website.

Join Ring

The Join Ring page allows for sites to join the Microsoft Agent Ring. In order for people to join, their site must meet the above requirements, such as including Microsoft Agent 2.0 technology on their site. Their site must also be creative, interesting, and updated on a regular basis; their site must not contain any sort of offensive content, and more. If they meet the requirements can submit a join request by entering the name of their site, the URL for their site, their full name, e-mail address, the password they want for the site, keywords they want for the site, and also the site description.

Members Only

The Members Only page allows existing members of the ring to login with the password they have provided and modify the site name, URL, description, keywords, or password. After the shutdown of the Microsoft Agent Ring in 2017, the Members Only page after a user is logged in is now lost media.

Secondary pages

Help Installing Characters

The Help Installing Characters page provides a guide on installing Microsoft Agent characters.

Pages (2008 - 2017)

Primary pages

Home

The Home page, as its name suggests, is the default page of the Microsoft Agent Ring. It contains information about the ring, a brief description about what Microsoft Agent is and what web-rings are, as well as press-releases from Microsoft. It also contains the information about the site order of the Microsoft Agent Ring.

Setup

The setup page contains a tutorial on how to install Microsoft Agent to either begin development on scripts and/or programs, or get programs that utilizes it to work.

Characters

Due to the character gallery being broken, BellCraft suggests that viewers head over to the BellCraft or MASH character downloads page to get the characters.

Logos

The Logos page contains 6 different logos (12 if the light and dark versions are counted as separate) that ring members can use on their site. There are also links to the agent hat ACFs which allows members to embed the agent hat characters into their website.

Join

The Join page redirected to the Ring Surf join page for the Microsoft Agent Ring. It allowed users to join the Microsoft Agent Ring by logging into their Ring Surf account.

Members Login

The Members Login page allows existing members of the ring to login with their Ring Surf password and modify the site name, URL, description, keywords, or password. After the shutdown of the Microsoft Agent Ring in 2017, the Members Login page after a user is logged in is now lost media.

Secondary pages

Help Installing Characters

The Help Installing Characters page provides a guide on installing Microsoft Agent characters.

Ring Intro

The Ring Intro page is the same to the one from 2006 - 2007, with not much noticeable differences.

Reaction to Microsoft Agent discontinuation

Following Microsoft's announcement of discontinuing Microsoft Agent, BellCraft Technologies discontinued the web-ring, breaking it entirely. A later announcement stated, "This website will remain for historical reasons and to still provide access for existing Windows XP users around the world."[1]

However, despite the message stating that the Microsoft Agent Ring site will stay up, it ended up becoming defunct and turned into a redirect to the BellCraft website.[2]

  • The Microsoft Agent Ring home page from 2001 to 2005.[3]
    The Microsoft Agent Ring home page from 2001 to 2005.[3]
  • The Setup page from 2001 - 2005.
    The Setup page from 2001 - 2005.
  • The Character Gallery from 2001 - 2005.
    The Character Gallery from 2001 - 2005.
  • The Character Stats from 2001 - 2005.
    The Character Stats from 2001 - 2005.
  • The Logos page from 2001 - 2005.
    The Logos page from 2001 - 2005.
  • The Search page from 2001 - 2005.
    The Search page from 2001 - 2005.
  • The Members Only page from 2001 - 2005.
    The Members Only page from 2001 - 2005.
  • The Microsoft Agent Ring home page from 2006 to 2007.[4]
    The Microsoft Agent Ring home page from 2006 to 2007.[4]
  • The Setup page from 2006-2007.
    The Setup page from 2006-2007.
  • The Character Gallery from 2006-2007.
    The Character Gallery from 2006-2007.
  • The Logos page from 2006-2007.
    The Logos page from 2006-2007.
  • The Members Only page from 2006-2007.
    The Members Only page from 2006-2007.
  • The Microsoft Agent Ring home page pre-2001.[5]
    The Microsoft Agent Ring home page pre-2001.[5]
  • The Setup page pre-2001.
    The Setup page pre-2001.
  • The Character Gallery pre-2001.
    The Character Gallery pre-2001.
  • The Character Poll page pre-2001.
    The Character Poll page pre-2001.
  • The Applications page pre-2001.
    The Applications page pre-2001.
  • The Links page pre-2001.
    The Links page pre-2001.
  • The Logos page pre-2001.
    The Logos page pre-2001.
  • The Search page pre-2001.
    The Search page pre-2001.
  • The Join page pre-2001.
    The Join page pre-2001.
  • The Members Only page pre-2001.
    The Members Only page pre-2001.
  • The Microsoft Agent Ring home page post-2007.[6]
    The Microsoft Agent Ring home page post-2007.[6]
  • The Setup page post-2007.
    The Setup page post-2007.
  • The Character Gallery Index page post-2007.
    The Character Gallery Index page post-2007.
  • The Logos page post-2007.
    The Logos page post-2007.
  • The Help Installing Characters page post-2007.
    The Help Installing Characters page post-2007.
  • The Member Login page pre-2001.
    The Member Login page pre-2001.
  • The Microsoft Agent Ring logo.
    The Microsoft Agent Ring logo.

Trivia

  • The Microsoft Agent Ring had a total of 56 characters before it was discontinued.
  • In 2025, the Microsoft Agent Ring would be revived with the release of The Microsoft Agent Frontier Ring.
  • It is most likely that the Roving Cowboy character was removed from the web-ring due to the site it came from leaving the said web-ring.
  • Besides the ring logos, the ring also had Microsoft Agent characters of their hats which ring members can use on their site.
    • However, after the site became a redirect to the BellCraft website, the original agent hat characters have been lost media since.
      • Fortunately, in 2025, Fuego Dragon Puppet made replica recreations of the lost agent hats for the TMAFE Ring.
  • Along with BellCraft, the Microsoft Agent Ring also finally shutdown on November 2nd, 2025 with it leading to a blank page saying "The service is unavailable."
  • TMAFE submitted a financial offer through a domain agent on December 2nd, 2025 to acquire the old msagentring.org domain, with the offer currently pending.

References

  1. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20131031074952/http://msagentring.org/
  2. ↑ https://msagentring.org
  3. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20050731093942/http://www.msagentring.org/
  4. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20060424152404/http://www.msagentring.org/
  5. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20001026153900/http://msagentring.org/
  6. ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20080901051012/http://www.msagentring.org/
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