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assfog's avatar

Why is everybody addicted to this website?

Asked by assfog (26points) October 1st, 2010

I got referred by a friend and he said everybody is addicted. What is so great about it that you spend hours on it?

Observing members: 0 Composing members: 0

31 Answers

shpadoinkle_sue's avatar

It’s very much a community. People help each other and get to know one another in the process. It’s fun to see what kinds of fun answers and questions people can come up with.

Vunessuh's avatar

The community. You make friends with other users and want to come back to communicate with them. There have been weeks at a time when I didn’t participate on the q&a aspect of the site, but rather just spoke via PM daily with other users.

Asking and answering questions can be pretty addictive, especially when the question asks for an opinion from other users. People really do like talking about themselves and expressing their personal opinions or talking about who they are as an individual. If you notice, most questions on here ask for others to talk about themselves in some way, shape or form and those are the questions that normally get the most answers. I suppose it’s because we know ourselves better than anyone else and we like to share that with others. Eventually, people don’t want to be known as just an avatar and username – we peel back layers and reveal a lot of information so people know us on a deeper more personal level, while knowing that we’re in control regarding what and how much people know about us.

There are also questions that ask for advice or for some factual information that mostly only contains one possible answer, and the feeling of helping someone out and knowing that your words could have possibly made life easier at that moment for them is always nice. Especially when they express their gratitude either on the thread or via PM.

So in other words, we talk about ourselves and we help each other and sometimes we help each other by talking about ourselves. That alone is enough to make most people come back.

Lastly, while everyone says the lurve doesn’t matter, I would have to disagree and say that a lot of people find points and receiving awards to be important. I’ve personally never seen a q&a site thrive without some form of “rewards” system. It is a strategic, major part in ensuring that users log in everyday. Upon logging in, you see which of your questions and answers have received GQ’s and GA’s and how that has contributed to your overall score. You get to see how close you are to receiving your next high points award. You get to see how many awards of each you’ve received.
I mean, let’s face it: It feels good to know that someone or multiple people have liked your question or answer. It’s also fun to have the ability of rewarding other people for their efforts and increasing their score as well. We also get points just for logging in two days in a row and being added to a fluther. So we need to stop kidding ourselves and say it doesn’t matter because it does. When you’re a newbie at a q&a site, the community around you isn’t strong enough to ensure you stay because you’ve yet to get to know anyone. It’s the rewards system that does it. Any owner/creator of a q&a website knows that.
To you personally, it may not be more important than having discussions and helping other people, but it is one of the major components in making sure a q&a site is successful.

Oh, and every time you reach a lurve milestone, they send you a muffin basket. That’s why I’m here.

augustlan's avatar

The quality of the questions and answers. The lack of spam and trolls. And most of all, the fantastic community. Welcome to Fluther!

Cruiser's avatar

They serve the best hors·d’oeuvre at Happy Hour of all the Q & A sites.

chyna's avatar

We get to wear halloween costumes.
Really, the community is fantastic, the moderators do a great job of keeping the trolls and rif raf to a minimum and we get a lot of good questions daily. You get to choose what questions you are most interested in, social, general or meta, and answer or not.

JilltheTooth's avatar

Welcome! Hang around, play fairly nice, and see for yourself why so many hang around for so long!

@chyna; I’d wear a costume but I don’t have thumbs! Woof

assfog's avatar

I see so in your real lives nobody gives you rewards or a good pat on the back so you seek it here on a cheap website.

JilltheTooth's avatar

@assfog : Great response to the welcome we gave you. ~ No one will force you to stay on this “cheap website”.

assfog's avatar

Thank you
I sense that you want me to leave. But it has already grown on me.

jrpowell's avatar

@assfog :: If you plan on sticking around and being a member of the community I would suggest making a new account. This one is already tainted.

assfog's avatar

Now why would I do that then you guys wouldn’t know It’s me.

chyna's avatar

An ass by any other name… is just another ass.

JilltheTooth's avatar

@chyna : yeah, smelling like a troll. Ah, well, it happens <sigh>

jrpowell's avatar

Is this Zach? It has been a few years. You should start a band. Call it Tenacious T.

Dog's avatar

<Alert>

JilltheTooth's avatar

@Dog: Your teeth are shiny today. Good girl.

Sarcasm's avatar

@assfog Could you tell me some websites that do reward in real life? I can’t believe I’ve wasted my time on this site that only has virtual rewards.

JilltheTooth's avatar

@Sarcasm : What? The check’s not in the mail? I feel so foolish…..

cookieman's avatar

Fluther sends me cookies all the time.

Dog's avatar

Dr.J does my dishes every night.

chyna's avatar

I must be low man on totem pole, Dr. J never does my dishes, nor do I receive cookies.

augustlan's avatar

@chyna Me, neither. Maybe we’ll get all the pancakes, though! ;)

JilltheTooth's avatar

Hey, I’m not getting cookies, my dishes are still dirty, and my check still hasn’t come! @augustlan , please put me down for a short stack. (And, yes, I know which pancakes you mean!!) ;-)))

chyna's avatar

Chocolate chips in mine please.

cookieman's avatar

How about a Fluther Pancake of the Month Club?

Sarcasm's avatar

I’d like to have more than just one pancake per month.

skateangel's avatar

Well I haven’t been here long but everyone seems pretty nice and helpful, and also funny:)

augustlan's avatar

@cprevite @Sarcasm Pancake of the Week? The Day? The Hour? :D

chyna's avatar

I love how this question went from being a bit snarky about Fluther to food! That’s just how us jellies roll. We can turn any situation into food and pancakes. I need more than one a month also.

JilltheTooth's avatar

@chyna : ”...jellies roll…” lol! Lurve you for that! Now I have a craving for pastry.

cookieman's avatar

@Sarcasm & @augustlan: Given most jellies, I’d say we need an Involuntary Pancake of the Hour.

Just walking along when…BAM pancake

@chyna: See and @assfog is missing all the fun.

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