Fansite Spotlight: Richard Chaves Fans

I was a fan of Richard Chaves (or more accurately, Lt. Col. Paul Ironhorse, since I'd only seen him as that character at that point) when watching War of the Worlds as a little kid, back during the show's original run. I never joined any fanclubs or mailing lists at the time (though I see now that there were tons, with plenty of fans too), but I'm making up for lost time now, at a great little corner of the 'Net devoted to enthusing about and admiring Richard and his wonderful acting.

There's the fansite, Richard Chaves Fans, that's been fully updated and is ever-growing with new content as it's discovered or donated. And there's the Fan Forum, where I've been enjoying getting to know other RC fans, all of whom I've found to be friendly, interested, and highly creative (the STG we have running there has kept me thrilled :) ). And then there's a Fanlisting too, which is basically like a directory of fans of RC. All three are created by and run by a consummate RC fan, and real fun gal, Lynda Vazquez.

If anyone needs a refresher course or introduction to Richard and how talented (and AWESOME!) he is, I made a video for that express purpose:



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Overcoming the Stalker Issue

I feel it's necessary to bring this up, cos a fellow RC fan voiced her concerns to me that one reason why we haven't been getting very many members at the forum may be: the fact that RC had to drop out of the public eye, due to dealing with a stalker back in the late 90's, might be making some fans too uncertain about showing their fan-ness for him.

I have to admit that I was a little wary myself of joining, cos I tend to have a very over-enthusiastic personality, and I didn't want that to be mistaken for the sort of unkind type of celeb-obsessed attitude. But let it be said right here: even though fans and stalkers do share a somewhat similar mindset, they do NOT act the same - fans admire and enthuse, and yes, enjoy coming to an actor's public appearances, but stalkers stalk - big difference. So I figured that as long as I was always respectful and kind in my adoration, then I wouldn't have to worry about getting confused for something I'm not - and never ever would be!

We can assume that Richard himself has gotten past whatever misery the stalker caused, since he's been to a convention since then, and he didn't look like he was in any way trying to avoid fan attention. :D So let's put the incident behind us too. I want to get to know the other RC fans out there, and I don't want some jerk's stupid actions to ruin a fandom that's precious to me. And after all, what would Richard think if he decided to google his name so he could see what his fandom was up to, and saw us being all nervous and guarded instead of rambunctiously squeeing about everything we love about him? So c'mon: RC fans unite! Come join the fun!