I ... I know you may find it difficult to believe at first. But sAx is definitely and most certainly not the most addictive stuff on the Internet. Watching unmentionables can probably be one of the things that you may be drawn towards once everyday, but it certainly is not the thing that you would gain pleasure spending hours on. It is just a momentary thing.
Another regular form of addiction on the internet can be playing games like when you visit sites like c2w or hungama.com. Don’t you just feel irritated when you can’t finish the Golf Course and get stuck on the 16th ? I myself liked Quiz and Quistionare sites like the erstwhile Crorepati and Baatbanjaye sites ... now they were quite addictive sites. I was doing a Course on ECom. that time and I remember every single student as well faculty in our institue as well as several others had an ID in those sites and we used to boast of our individual scores. But even sites like those had some limitations ... like you could probably play it once daily on one profile.
But you know what is realy realy addictive ? Being a Forum/Messageboard junkie ...! A forum / messageboard/community is a place where people of simmilar mindsets or interests or needs interact with each other by posting articles and replies to them. There are all kind of messageboard and communities on the internet ... topics maybe different - like sports , softwares , hardwares, warez, movies, personalities, sAx and picture sharing and what not. The themes may be different , the members maybe of different mindset and the ideology maybe differnt...but the rules are the same. And the players love the game.
Truly, since my early days of on the Net .... I have spent a major part of my daily Internet hours living on varied MessageBoards. It would not be wrong to write that a person on the Internet always tends to create a seperate identity than he is in real life. This may not be with a pre-determined plan of decieving others , but he tends to bring forth in front of his Net colleagues certain traits of his personality or certain mannerisms or opinions ge would like to express in front of others , which he doesn’t get to do much normally , due to whatever reasons. A messageboard/ forum gives him/her the perfect platform for this . Whats more , in a forum interaction happens in many ways. Not only people are free to express their opinion to each other freely , forums are also places where we get to share expert opinion on Technical matters , share/exchange files. Open Source software communities are probably at present most traffic generating sites than larger premium portals . It would not be wrong in saying that much of my knowledge (whatever it is , lol) is the outcome of frequenting comunity websites. I have helped several other of my peers with their practical problems as well gained a lot from their lifesaving tips.
However , not always people frequent Forums just for techical knowledge as such ... they come for having a good time , which maybe by just pulling each others leg , most people come to advertise about their latest Web Venture ( be it a website or some Utility software they developed) . It is easy to get a first hand review from a wide range visitors from different Demographic positions and TimeZones. But then it is not easy to showcase your product on any Forum as there are lots of norms to be maintained . So in order to make yourself or your product famous , one needs to realy gain respect of other fellow members by helping them and keeping a good rapport. A good way to make sure your site is visited by many is to have your URL in your signature and post regularly .
Now here comes the addiction part .... once you start posting frivolously ... you are bound to get into serious converations with other members . If your answers are good enough , there would be more follow ups from those who are reading your comments . If they are satisfied ... many will mention that . And if they do, believe me it will make you feel realy proud and urge you to return more and more to see hat others feel of your posts. Same way , there will also be guys whose opinions may differe from you ... or maybe just spiteful of the attention you are getting, and you will be faced with severe crtiticism ( both constructive and destructive) . That is again when you return to reply to them . There has been times when I posted my days last reply at 4 in the night and woke up -- yes woke up at 9 to check the replies LOL.
Most forums have certain personalities / icons who post almost 50 times a day or more and have very high post counts .... now that is a surefire way of making yourself wanting to return more and more to get your own post count high . Usually members with high postscounts are looked up with respect . But you will in the course earn many friend from different parts of the world or at least the country .
And then there will be competitions - not all forums are as regularly active , but some of the ones I frequent has usually 25-30 different members browsing throughout the day . The ones which don’t get as much , try to gear up the traffic by holding competiotions and giving away prizes. Just like as in MouthShut , right now we have a NewYear contest where the minimum requirment to be elligible is writing 10 reviews.
Certainly not all , but some of the forums I visit have eminent members who are also well known celebrities . As an example , I have become quite close personnaly with 1-2 authors of famous Flash (Macromedia Software) books from Freinds of Ed and Macromedia site . That is another reason of me haunting forums regularly. Imagine the benefits ... these guys come to interact with us mere mortals .., and guess what - you get to learn that they also like to have Kellogs for breakfast and Nicole Kidman is their favourite actress (same as mine). heh !
Hence , it is no wonder that I get more fascinated and even attracted to stay 6-7 hours a day on Forums and MessageBoards than on Adult related sites .
And on a ending note, I remember when I was in my early days of net surfing , for getting free access to elsewise distracting sites, I used to post request or trade/exchange on certain forums. There are Forums for those as well, you know . :)