Love bombing
Overview
Love bombing is showering a target with excessive praise, affection, and attention, all packed into a short period. The term is used in the context of romantic relationships, but it also shows up between fans and creators on social media. At first the person doing it looks like an "enthusiastic fan," but in some cases they're hiding an intention to control the other person psychologically.
Love bombing in a question box
In a question box, a case where one particular sender keeps sending praise almost every day can count as love bombing. Over-the-top praise like "Your answers are genius," "Meeting you changed my life," and "I love you so much" arrives every day.
Even if it feels nice at first, it can gradually turn into pressure: "I have to live up to this person's expectations." In some cases, when the praise stops, you get anxious and start worrying about the sender's mood.
How to tell love bombing apart
The points that separate healthy praise from love bombing are frequency, intensity, and demands for something in return. Someone occasionally sending "Nice answer" is giving healthy praise. Someone sending "You're the best" almost every day and complaining "I'm sad you ignored me" when you don't answer can be showing a sign of love bombing.
If you sense an unspoken demand behind the praise, like "so I want you to answer every one of my questions" or "so I want special treatment," you need to be careful. Healthy praise doesn't ask for anything in return. Love bombing uses praise to plant a sense of obligation in the other person.
How to deal with it
The basic way to deal with love bombing is setting boundaries. You don't need to answer every question full of excessive praise. Even when you do answer, keep it to a short reply like "Thank you," and don't hint at a special relationship.
A question box is a place for one-to-many communication, and you shouldn't let it grow into a one-on-one relationship with a particular sender. Sticking to the principle of treating all your followers equally helps protect you against love bombing. If it makes you uncomfortable, one option is to keep skipping that sender's questions to put distance between you.