[note: The Armitage Army site has closed since I wrote this piece, and I have written even more about the Army and have come to think it’s an interesting phenomenon.]
I’ve talked about web alerts a couple of times now, so I figured what the heck I would go ahead and just talk about the elephant in the room. The one whom I smell anyway, because frankly, I can’t see him. But his smell sometimes is overwhelming.
When someone puts ‘Richard Armitage’ somewhere on a web page, the page/site automatically gets an instant boost on its hit count. Yes, yes, I already said this, but obviously, I’m saying it again. Now you would think that everyone would love getting a boost in their hit count, but I guess there are some who don’t like it. They want to be loved for themselves dammit and not because some actor in England whom few have seen is on their page! And yes, they think we’re all nuts. Then there are the “professionals” who definitely think we’re all nuts if their questions to RA are any indication.
Some of you have suggested to me that I don’t like the Armitage Army question because it makes me feel bad about myself or about the fandom. Actually, the question really is boring to me unless RA has a funny answer and is not bugged by it. I long ago gave up feeling funny about being a fanatic. You’ll see from my coming diary entries that I abandon any sense of propriety about this business except I draw the line at sending my underwear to him. The ONLY reason I’m anonymous really is because of my family. They are not quite ready for me to make a public fool of myself. Those are their words and not mine. I do not feel a fool, but out of respect for them, I’m behind this facade.
And speaking of facades (no, I have never in my life started so many sentences with ‘and’; it is liberating!), there are ways to keep yourself from being seen when you look at these alerts. Mostly I remain unseen. Oh, I’m seen some (when I know I’m among friends), but most of the time (when it’s some obscure site or a professional’s site), I am in stealth mode. It’s not because I’m ashamed but because there is something about those counters and the collection of their key words that just pisses me off. LOL! See I told you this blog might prove I’m insane, insane like a fox. You can’t be a techie for years and just lie down and submit to being counted. It doesn’t work that way. If I were really crazy, I wouldn’t even be talking about this. Would I? ;-)
Okay, okay, I know there are the clearinghouse sites such as RichardArmitageNet or RichardArmitageOnline or RichardArmitageCentral or The Armitage Army that do a lot of trolling on the web, but people, they are providing a wonderful service so they’re justified, and when they go somewhere, they only account for one hit. The rest of us are the mob. Why aren’t we satisfied with just waiting for what those sites can provide? Oh, you do rely completely on them for your information? Well, I’m not talking to you. :D As much as I love those sites, and I’ll continue to give them love in this blog, I’m not satisfied because, well, that’s just me. I’m impatient. Very impatient. Always have been about some things. How do you think I was able to retire so young? Not by being patient. Really, I blame it on my ADHD. You think being a kid and having that is rough? Try being an adult!* But I digress, and really if I didn’t, this blog would not exist!
So where does that leave all of us who like to troll the web for junk about Richard Armitage? I hope that someone, somewhere really is monitoring the increased web activity about him. We really aren’t nuts, and it only takes one or maybe two viewings of North and South or Sparkhouse or even Robin Hood (well, his parts anyway) to vindicate all of us!
Screencap of RA in Star Wars courtesy of Ruth at BookTalk &More. By the way, that’s just a great blog. Forget RA; it’s a great blog. Oh, and are we sure that guy on the left is RA? The one in the upper right hand corner kind of looks like him too. Or maybe that guy is one of us?
*I’m really not making fun of people who have ADHD. I do have it, and thankfully, I know it now. Wish I had known sooner. Before everyone just thought I was bi-polar. It’s truly a miracle I got through school much less had successful jobs without understanding what was wrong with me. Yeah, I know it’s the diagnosis du jour, and honestly, I thought it was a load of crap. But it explains a lot about me. I’m textbook even down to being misdiagnosed as bi-polar.
edit: I should amend this to say that not everyone thought I was bi-polar. I’ve spent most of my life trying to cover up my erratic behavior and doing such a good job of it that people other than my immediate family thought I was extremely sane. God Bless SO. He’s a strong man and never boring. He actually doesn’t care if I’m anonymous or not. He thinks this is funny as hell (well, the things I’ve let him read ;-)). It’s the “little” SOs who would have a hard time with it. That, and I would never do anything to make SO look bad. I surely hope he doesn’t look bad so far!
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RAFrenzy 
I’ve stopped looking at my RA google alerts because there are just way too many of them and I don’t have the time. (Especially lately… I don’t even have time to blog!) By the way, that pink-squared Naboo fighter pic is the best one I’ve seen of RA in “Phantom Menace” where you can actually tell it’s him.
The google alerts just go in the queue with all the other stuff I read, which most has nothing to do with RA.
Yeah, that picture is the first one I’ve seen where I know it’s him. I just thought the guy on the right was hilarious, and it does look a little bit like him.
I don’t have Google alerts for anything, maybe if I did, RA certainly be one of them. What I do is first thing in the morning (first thing upon turning on th elaptop) is check all the blogs I have bookmarked, does it count?
I don’t think people think we’re crazy or at least no more crazy than other big actor’s name…Just as I don’t get why the ‘professionals’ should think us nuts they must see things like that with other people/hobbies/discussion themes, that’s why the question is annoying/boring to me….Or maybe I live -happily- in denial :P.
OML :)
Hey, meant to comment on this one when you 1st posted. Just wanted to say thanks for the blog shout-out! And I’ve got to give my friend Kaye credit for the Star Wars pic…if memory serves when we were both in the early stages of discovering Richard Armitage and exploring his work she set out to get a screen cap from SW for my blog (I’m technologically inept that way, haha!!).
Please tell Kaye I said thanks. :)
@OML,
Let me see, uh, this response is about 5 months late.
If you’re in denial, I’m assuming it’s a happy place. :D
I don’t have Google alerts for RA. I use a private browsing mode when I working online.
Karima, Private browsing mode doesn’t update the browsing history on your system; otherwise, you can be seen by those websites who choose to track you.
I know thant, Frenz.
The only important thing is that my web browsing activities don’t leave any trace on MY computer.