@hertg @shellsharks I literally had this toot bookmarked so I could come here and blather on about the #Indieweb, I just had to finish lunch first. But glad hertg beat me to it!
I think webrings are set to make a huge comeback, and they certainly have many federated/social qualities. Webrings are one component of the larger Indieweb, which has many other mechanisms for socializing and discovery!
For example, take a look at this writeup - "RSS blogrolls are a federated social network" (https://alexsci.com/blog/blogroll-network/). It talks about how a #blogroll can extend a regular #rss feed, adding federated "discovery" capabilities to an indieweb site. It's a cool idea! And vibes very much with what you're talking about here. I'm actually working on fixing up my own blogroll in the spirit of what this article talks about.
So yeah, build a site, be part of a web ring, make yourself a blogroll, link to other peoples sites.
Also @mttaggart , if you're spinning up a webring, I'm in.