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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?

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    Maybe they're called a SEx (Stack Exchange) addict.
    – Jim
    Commented Dec 1, 2014 at 4:42
  • Are you looking for a "slang term whose only definition is 'addicted to a Q&A website'?"
    – Mazura
    Commented Dec 2, 2014 at 8:22
  • @Mazura: Correct. But there can be details of course.
    – ermanen
    Commented Dec 2, 2014 at 16:46
  • How about a "selfie-net junkie" Q&A websites are also about displaying one's knowledge, gaining recognition/approval and winning some form of reward i.e. rep points.
    – Mari-Lou A
    Commented Dec 21, 2014 at 9:18

4 Answers 4

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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.

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    Anyone addicted to Yahoo anything is an idiot. -Stack Exchange FTW
    – Mazura
    Commented Dec 2, 2014 at 8:06
  • Great answer Mazura. I will wait for a while to see if I will get other answers.
    – ermanen
    Commented Dec 2, 2014 at 16:52
  • 4
    My friend suggested that I am a Stack Head.
    – Mazura
    Commented Dec 6, 2014 at 3:07
  • Actually, Stack Head sounds pretty appropriate.
    – JoséNunoFerreira
    Commented Dec 22, 2014 at 11:18
  • Arron- "I've been addicted to (stack|crack) overflow for 45 day, and lovin' each one or them."
    – Mazura
    Commented Mar 13, 2015 at 22:55
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+100

Having grown up in the 60's and 70's, and surviving all the addictions of the 80's and 90's, I'm ready to settle down and be a

Stackhead

Stack

NOUN

1A pile of objects, typically one that is neatly arranged:

"The screen on my MacBook pro 4, is cluttered with stacks of windows, each stacked with 12 tabs of StackExchange pages, so that I can easily move from question to question. Of course, my desk is swamped with stacks of dictionaries, thesauruses and sundry reference books, because stackexchange has stacks of questions to answer."

Head

NOUN

The head regarded as the location of intellect, imagination, and memory:

"I have all the irregular verbs in Webster's Ninth Collegiate Dictionary conjugated in my head."

informal A headache, especially one resulting from intoxication.

"I woke up this morning with a splittin' head, and my wife had the gall to turn the lights on."

a person who is addicted to any or all mind altering substances.

"I started as an egg head, worked my way through pot head, meschead, acidizer and crack head, so I have just enough brain cells left to be a stackhead."

NOT!

: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/stack

: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/american_english/head

: http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=head

Cred to Mazura who suggested the phrase at 3:07 on Dec 6.

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  • Bounty is such a rush! If had read the comment by @Mazura, I might have demurred, but I have now conformed to CC-BY-SA
    – ScotM
    Commented Dec 24, 2014 at 20:13
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obsessed
this is 36 characters. I counted it.

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    Please review the help center's guidance on writing good answers; fuller explanations are preferred, with suitable references and examples.
    – choster
    Commented Dec 24, 2014 at 1:28
-1

A pedant; or in your particular case a, 'cyber pedant'.)

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  • There are a few sources on Google with "cyber-pedant" but couldn't be sure if it is used for this sense. Any further explanation? (not my down-vote)
    – ermanen
    Commented Dec 2, 2014 at 2:01

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