So you've just discovered a kick-ass webcomic—say, Homestuck, 8-bit Theater, Looking for Group, xkcd, or Frazz—and you want to jump right in and read it with the rest of 'em. But hey, there's like 500+ pages/strips/entries in the archive! You've gotta get through this huge backlog if you want to fully experience this comic!
This is the onset of the archive binge. Its symptoms include, but are not limited to: a predisposition to spend free time staring at a computer screen, internet traffic directed only at single site for as long as weeks at a time, the tendency to laugh at odd intervals, and back, colon, and eye problems in severe cases. Its causes are well known, and can happen frequently to an internet user.
Whether the webcomic is inherently humourous or intriguing, has an epic storyline (or multiple), or simply was recommended to you by a friend or acquaintance, something about the webcomic strikes the patient as something they wish to be a part of and be informed about, so they choose to begin catching up on everything that they've missed so far. The best advice to avoid this affliction is to stay away from appealing webcomics that you've never heard of before, as you'll surely fall prey to the archive binge.
A related phenomenon to the webcomic archive binge is the browsing surge one experiences upon finding a new website to read. The most common offenders are TVTropes, Cracked, Wikipedia (to an extent), and, of course, Everything2. The fundamental drive behind these sites is that a large bounty of information is presented to the reader in an interesting and readable format. Like the webcomic flavour of archive binging, this too requires an element of intrigue or interest, although it is easier to foster in a website whose content focuses on words than on images, arguably. (At least it is to a person that doesn't mind reading.)
Another phenomenon stemming from the archive binge is the panic that may set in when faced with a huge archive to slog through in order to get properly acquainted with the comic. Just goes to show, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing.
Glowing Fish says, "There is also the archive withdrawal, the creeping sensation of loneliness when you realize that you have burnt through your archives... and have nothing left to read." I can't say that I've encountered this—or, if I have, that I was able to differentiate it from boredom—but this is also a possible occurrence. You can get very meta about archive binges, because to inveterate net-surfers, this is just one of many aspects that must be managed, with regards to divvying up your time effectively.
Archive Binge also happens to be the name of an online tool meant to ease the effects of archive binges. It constructs a custom RSS feed that you can update at your own pace, which goes through the archive sequentially, providing you with the strips as an up-to-date reader would have seen them, only at a faster rate. It is nearing the end of its life, and it is moving, along with all of its functionality, over to Comic Rocket, at http://www.comic-rocket.com/. It requires you to register an account, and (allegedly) features over 10,000 indexed webcomics. They're also working on a mobile app to provide the same service on the go.
[IN12#20]