The Ben Browder Portal has now passed the two million visitor mark!!! The evolution of the website has been with the assistance and contributions from Ben Browder fans not only in the United States but Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Russia, Scotland, South America, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and the Ukraine. And it all started with a show called Farscape.

Farscape is the first fandom that ever caught my attention. Never before have I felt so attached to a television show, cast, or a fandom community. The show itself was remarkable in its complexity. The abrupt cancellation of Farscape left me stunned. When I read the press releases that came from the SciFi Network that disrespected the fans, I began to feel rage and I needed a positive outlet for those emotions. That’s when I discovered the Farscape fandom. There was a call out on the internet for fans to let our feelings be known and I could not resist. Within days I was picketing SciFi’s offices in Universal City. I mailed things to their corporate office. (Who can forget the “Crakers DO matter” campaign?!) And soon I met fans who were involved in what I learned to call fan press.

There were a lot of talented people creating pins, banners, posters, billboard sized ads, comics, email campaigns, post cards…. That’s just about the time I met the fans who planned to interview the Farscape cast at the Saturn Awards. I volunteered to carry cables while Ben Browder was interviewed by Tiriel and I was hooked! I started sharing my adventures with on-line friends and the idea of creating a Ben Browder website was born. A website that will stay current on Ben Browder news and show off his past projects. Plus I wanted to continue working (and playing) with some of the talented people that I met in fandom. The website would give me a way to showcase some of my favorite fan art that featured Ben Browder.

It was an idea that literally kept me awake for a couple of months. When I did sleep I had dreams about the website. I decided that the concept was just too good to let go. I had to get it out of my head and into the real world. I didn’t have a clue how to build a website but I knew a lot of talented Ben fans. With the encouragement of my fan press mentor, Tiriel, I started the process by putting together a team to turn my vision into reality in 2004. The first site was called Ben Browder Guide but it was short-lived due creative differences in the team. After licking my wounds, and having learned some valuable lessons, I started the process again.

Taking a slightly different approach, in the fall of 2005 a brand new website was built with the help of Ixchup. The original Ben Browder Portal. The very first step from dream to reality. At this point my website was a lovely but empty vessel that needed to be filled. Content was not a problem because one of the main points of the website is to celebrate the talented fans of Ben Browder. We had just finished the Save Farscape campaign and Benaholics are very generous with their work. My collection of fan art was more than enough to get started. Keeping track of articles and interviews was easy. But I didn’t have a clue as to how to run a website!

To the rescue came another Scaper by the name of Leviathan. I learned how to build and edit a website with her invaluable guidance. She spent the first half of 2006 virtually holding my hand while I immersed myself in how to build the site, edit video clips, Photo Shop editing, and making screen caps. Leviathan also added a video gallery, a photo gallery and a Screen Saver to the Portal. By the end of 2006 I was Captain of my own ship and webmistress of my own website. It was again updated and upgraded in 2008. It’s 3rd incarnation. That time I did the work all on my own and I fell completely in love with this hobby.

Being part of fan press has given me opportunities to do things that I can’t imagine would have come into my life any other way. I have interviewed Ben at several conventions, on the phone, and red carpet events including one that was on an aircraft carrier! These amazing experiences have been shared with my friends both at the events and on-line. I have no professional connection to Ben or his management. But I was blessed to know Ben’s long time manager Hank McCann. God rest his soul, Hank always treated this fanjirl with nothing but kindness and respect. The same can be said for Ben as well.

Along the way I have been blessed to work with lots and lots of fans. People with talents that easily rival professionals. I have spent endless hours building, maintaining, and managing the website. But I have only taken 2 or 3 pictures. Truthfully, I’m a lousy photographer. I’m too busy arranging things and I’m infamous for forgetting to even unpack my camera. I am grateful to the fans who have contributed content through the years for me to manage including photographers Chi27, Gravastar, Kate Ritter, Kimber007, Marti, Mrgtrxu1, Musicalgal, Nette, OneillTwoll's, Panic, Pkgrl, Purple, Scaperjirl, Rhoboat, Shippy Chick, Surf Widow, Topher and Txodo. The Portal has also showcased some of the best fan art that featured Ben and his characters. Truly talented artists like Auna, CamFan, Captain Aeryn-Sun Crichton, Eirenne, Hermine, Kazbaby, KJ, Lil Jamie, Loby (LobsterOnMyHead), MitchellGroupie, Patti Wells, Scorpsik, and SpriteLady.

The 4th incarnation of the Ben Browder Portal is in the works! Much of the fan art has been archived as the site gets prepped for new projects. Rebuilding the Portal is a massive task because there are more than 5,000 pictures of Ben in the convention and screen cap galleries. More than 300 clips are in the video gallery. Then there are the articles, interviews, bios, and etc. Time and technology wait for no fanjirl. We need an entirely new website. Ben’s fandom keeps growing and The Portal needs new digs to showcase his talents to the thousands of visitors that we get each month. So much bigger than I ever dreamed! But we are talking about Ben "The Man" Browder and a talented fandom. Clearly a winning combination. The new site will be gorgeous and totally worth the work.

I am the gatekeeper, but the Portal is not a one woman operation by any stretch of the imagination. Chi27, Musicalgal, PKgrl and Tiriel have taken this journey with me from day one. And Shester “talks me down” when fandom insanity threatens to step on my one last nerve. Love you ladies!!!

As the Portal passes the 2,000,000 visitor milestone and Ben Browder moves on to new projects, I’m looking forward to meeting new people and Ben’s fans here on the Portal are looking forward to having more fun.

Thank you for supporting my little corner of fandom!

Kim Carl aka LAScaper