Feature Article: Reality TV Fans

By Mary Beam Editor/Webmaster - RealityTVfans.com

RealityTVfans.com first came into existence in September of 2000. Because I work as a beta tester for a software company that develops portal products for web sites, I was working on a new version of their Dynaportal software, and the easiest way to find errors, and whether things are intuitive or not, is to have a web site that is running on the software.

At the time, I was heavily hooked on Big Brother 1, and it was towards the end of the show, and people on a messageboard I frequented were wondering what was going to happen to all of us when the show was over. I decided then and there that I would create a reality TV site. I didn't want to focus on just one show, because when that show ends, the site kind of dies. I knew there were a bunch of new shows coming out, so I decided to try to cover all of them.

Yeah, I didn't know what I was getting myself into! Anyway, RealityTVfans.com was born. We're a news portal for many reality TV related articles, but we also publish a lot of our own original content, such as interviews with show contestants, and editorials and recaps of the shows themselves. I currently have about 30 authors that write for the site, completely free of charge, as we are non-profit, and plan to stay that way. I have several people covering each show, because sometimes someone is unable to do a recap because of illness, being out of town and so on, plus it gives the visitors different perspectives on the shows.

I would have to say two of my funniest authors are Agnes K. and Jennifer B., who have covered Making the Band, Bands on the Run and Fear Factor, respectively, Agnes covering the first two. I highly recommend reading their recaps here, as I think they're funnier than the shows themselves, and so do a lot of our members and visitors.

Our messageboards are probably the second most popular area of the site, only behind the news section. Many of our posters have been with the site for almost a year now. We have school teachers, such as Queen and Dreamgirl, law enforcement officials such as Grundy and c_u_n_jail, housewives & foster moms like LuckyLyn Sticky, and Looking for Reality, and even our own resident anti-reality TV critic by the name of Infidel in the Temple. We even have our own professional psychologist by the name of Loner. And believe me sometimes we need him! There are so many great people on our boards, it's impossible for me to name them all, so I've just mentioned a few that have been around since the beginning.

The majority of our posters are from the US and Canada, but we do have some foreigners visit occassionally. The age range is from teenagers to 60+. Our community focuses on the shows, and the contestants, and not each other, as I have so often seen on other boards. Civility is a must here, and we won't tolerate poster bashing. Of course, the occassion twit comes in, but they don't stay for long when they see we don't play their games. I'm proud of how my moderators handle things and the many intelligent and witty people we've attracted to the boards for these reasons. Everyone is entitled to an opinion on our boards without fear of being ridiculed or slammed. Of course we have the exceptions of racially, sexually, or just plain mean opinions that we just delete. :)

Some of us love the shows, and some of us love to hate them. Everyone is welcome, even though the title of the site says 'fans'. If you want to vent, then come on in. It's how we all cope with our frustrations in the land of Reality TV. The site is completely interactive, in that people can submit announcments, reality events, letters to the editor, and www links directly through the 'submit' links throughout the site. Registered site members have access to a self-publishing account where they can upload their articles for publication on the site, after I go over them of course! They also have access to build their own personal or fan site, or whatever really, right through their account. It's all point and click, so no html, programming, or graphic skills are necessary. It's a good way for everyone to get to know eachother. We're all about community and sharing information here.

Another popular area of the site as of late is our mailing lists. One of our newer members JT5292 aka Jackie, is a admitted Big Brother fanatic and she compiles all the live feed highlights for the day into a summary that is sent out to the many members on the Reality TV or Big Brother mailing lists. This has become an extremely popular list, as we are gaining more than 100 people a day to this list. People who didn't purchase the live feeds can still keep up with what's going on in the house thanks to all the posters hard word and Jackie for spending several hours compiling everything.

We also are very 'Reality TV Site Friendly'. In other words, we love to help drive traffic to other sites similar to ours and have them return the favor. We link to many articles throughout the day from other reality sites, which saves the surfer time, and keeps them coming back for more. I really don't like the competitivness that I see with some of the reality TV sites, so I didn't want RealityTVfans.com to be like that. I feel we only link to the best articles and sites on the Net, and will continue to do so. We even have a section in our News area for 'Friends of RTVF' where we publish links and excerpts from other reality sites, and they in turn advertise our site on theirs. It all works out.

We run contests during different reality shows also and give away decent prizes. Our current contest is for Big Brother and the prize is a digital camera, although it's now closed to new players. There's also a live chat area where people meet to discuss the shows in real time, usually after a show has aired. It's very easy to use and doesn't require registration.

All in all, the site has surpassed any hopes I had for it. It certainly is a lot more work than I ever imagined, but I get a lot of help, and that really makes it easier. The positive feedback I get from visitors also makes it all worth it. We think we are one of the better sites on the net for this genre, and we hope others do too.

Favorite Poster: Joker's Update's Stark

Stark is one of our favorite Updaters on Jokers Update board. Very detailed conversations are transcripted in a style that are both informative and enjoyable. A welcome respite from the inumerable NTs (No Topics), one liners, or even worse the blank pages where NT wasn't placed on the topic line.

We salute you Stark, and all the other Big Brother live feed updaters that give us real information.

Have some trash? Send it to us!

If you have some good scoop on the reality web scene, send it to us at realitytrash@realitytrash.5u.com and we will try to get it into our next issue.