Learn English – What do you call someone who is addicted to a Q&A website

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I was looking for a term for someone who is addicted to a Q&A website but I came up with general terms like nethead, cybernaut, netizen, internet addict etc. You can think of adjectives like contributive, helpful or even devoted but they are also too general and they don't cover the "addiction" and "internet" part of the question.

Although, I'm tempted to call this person fanatic:


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Anyway, I think there might be an online slang term for this specific type of person. For example, there is ask-and-run for someone who posts a question on a Q&A website and never checks back. (Related question: What do you call a Q&A user who posts a question but never checks back?)

It seems like it is a common phenomenon as there are a lot of Q&A websites nowadays:

There are questions asked related to Stack Overflow addiction:


Quora has a section for this phenomenon:
http://www.quora.com/Quora-Addiction


There are questions on Yahoo Answers about how to stop Yahoo Answers addiction:

So, is there any online slang term for this kind of user?


Related question:
What do you call a person who is always online on the Internet?

Best Answer

New and Improved; Made-Up Definitions:

Altruistic Vampire -one who subsists on the dopamine released when they help another; for whatever personal motivation: an addict of altruism; someone addicted to answering questions online. -Similar and often found in conjunction, though not to be confused with: Stack Exchange; Rep-Whore.

Cyber Vampire -one who subsists on the dopamine released when they telecommunicate with other people; someone addicted to interpersonal relations which can only be found online.

Until I looked it up, this is what I thought Help Vampire meant (apparently it means ne'er-do-well).

Any 'new' word is just window dressing for the word addict. Like this 5yo question that seems to be getting along just fine: How addicted to Stack Overflow are you?.

Internet traffic tracking sites have a category for addicts. IIRC, of the two SE sites that are on the top 100 list, ~50% of its users are addicts. I hope I can safely make the assumption that way more of that 50% are altruistic than help. Therefor I just call myself them (for good or evil) a

Stack Exchange Addict.

For a definitive answer we'd need to know why they're addicted; are they a rep whore or one of the two vampires? We need more information to narrow down this obsession. However once we have it, we no longer need this mysterious all encompassing word for "someone who is addicted to a Q&A website".

Although fitting, I believe it would be a stretch to call them trolls. It would be immediately misunderstood; crossing this bridge requires you to read my answer to your question.

We're all trolls. It just depends on which side of the Schwartz you're on; the Up side or the Down side.