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How has SOFU changed/ruined your life?

For me, in one simple way - I want to vote on EVERYTHING.

I read comments on a blog, and I want to say "Yup, I agree" or "Wrong!".

If I were to ever design/write any kind of website/software with comments, they would be just like SOFU's...

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    I missed a train once trying to finish an answer. It didn't ruin my life though, and I'd say you have a bit too much invested if you feel it is capeable of ruining your life...
    – Colin Pickard
    Sep 18, 2009 at 19:04
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    related: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/addiction
    – Helen
    Sep 18, 2009 at 19:07
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    @Jared - Not just blog comments; TV shows, restaurants (vote to close), shopping and products (meta), conversations (flag for moderator attention), politics (closed - exact duplicate), co-workers (flair), schedules (6-8 weeks), meetings (community wiki), pet choices, breakfast cereal... everything looks like a future Stack Exchange site.
    – Robert Cartaino
    Sep 18, 2009 at 19:57

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I totally agree on wanting to "+1" everything.

As for how else it's changed my life... people have never asked me to wear sock puppets before... I've never had people interested in when I sleep, etc...

Basically I transferred my newsgroup addiction to SO, so there's not quite as much change in terms of time as you might think... although I do generally spend more time on SO than I did on the newsgroups.

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    I would upvote if I didn't reach my cap, but I can agree on the addiction transfer. I just killed my IRC/MSN/Twitter/Facebook addiction and then bang SO arrived.
    – BinaryMisfit
    Sep 18, 2009 at 19:08
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    +1, completely agree with this post
    – jonskeet
    Sep 18, 2009 at 19:24
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I have virtually zero tolerance for traditional, threaded-style discussion now.

Unfortunately, that's 95% of the information online.

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    I came here after frequenting daniweb.com for ages... Could never go back to that style... plus the experts were rude.
    – Carson Myers
    Sep 19, 2009 at 8:35
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    Same here. Whenever I visit an old forum, I'm bored by the tons of unnecessary information, and always looking for the downvote button.
    – Pekka
    Aug 11, 2010 at 10:39
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I spend too much time creating Photoshopped images as gags, only to find out that the questions they pertain to have been closed. Thanks, Meta! You ruined my life!

Jon Skeet's Newest Book http://img268.imageshack.us/img268/5088/linqso.png

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I often see food sitting out on the counter (that isn't mine) and think to myself, "This should be Community Wiki..."

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    Just "edit" it enough times.
    – balpha StaffMod
    Sep 18, 2009 at 19:20
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Life... What life? According to my wife I need one.

Seriously thought I can relate to the voting thing. I actually wanted to do this on a specification document I was reading at work today.

Positives

  • More attention to detail when providing information
  • Improved ability to search for information
  • Learning new technologies
  • More critical of information
  • Only look at the Trilogy as a source of information

With regards to the last one. I will skim other forums or sources of information, but spend time reading a Trilogy post.

Negatives

  • No time left during the day
  • Distraction at times
  • Wanting to close conversations as subjective and argumentative

I must admit I also enjoy the interaction on Meta, although at times it can get out of hand.

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  • Totally agree with you on this one ;-)
    – Ivo Flipse
    Mar 31, 2010 at 17:19
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I spend too much time making graphs based on data dumps.

But it is fun, I can't help myself.

alt text http://lanai.dietpizza.ch/images/stack-overflow-graph.jpg

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    So wait, the purple dot has a happy face? And a tail?
    – random
    Sep 19, 2009 at 0:54
  • Probably another case of spending way too many cycles on Meta. Yet again.
    – random
    Sep 19, 2009 at 11:39
  • Yup. Sorry, I don't have your supreme paint skillz. Is the tail too small?
    – Stu Thompson
    Sep 20, 2009 at 7:49
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    Creature first, then we'll work out if the tail is the correct size.
    – random
    Sep 20, 2009 at 8:43
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The good news is, there are some places that do have voting! If you frequent places like slashdot or YouTube. But I have to agree, I constantly think to myself: "I agree with that comment! +1" though sadly, I can't.

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My future self was stalked and brutally murdered because of Stack Overflow.

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    I find it suspicious that Welbog didn't reveal the identity of your future stalker. What is future-Welbog trying to hide?
    – Bill the Lizard
    Sep 18, 2009 at 19:50
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It hasn't ruined it because (hopefully) I know better -- but I have found some very thoughtful and helpful answers / discussions from time to time, and it's fun to weigh in on the easy ones.

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I started thinking that it would be nice to be able to edit (already sent) emails in my webmail client (to enrich / correct them, etc...).

Don't think I had that before using stackoverflow.com.

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Stack Overflow hasn't ruined my life. That's TV Tropes' role.

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StackOverflow, SuperUser and Meta hasn't ruined my life...I mean, not by now...but at the next deadli...HOLY S&$% THAT WAS YESTERDAY!

;)

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The free telerik tools are nice...

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I asked a technical question on Google groups a couple of days ago and i'm still waiting an answer!
I really CAN'T accept it anymore.

Thanks Stack Overflow to have ruined my life.

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