Thank you. That was how I meant it... simply suggesting a hack to my life that worked out really well for me.

The hostile reaction was a bit of a surprise.

When I read the post I didn't get a very sanctimonious feeling out of it.

But quotes like these are not at all defusing the hostility:

> "Like with most things it's easy to slide down a slippery slope. One glass of wine turns into two and then you've polished off the rest of the bottle."

You've gone from "here's a great idea" to "if you're not doing it my way you're on a slippery slope to hell", and I think that's the tone people are objecting to.

I did generalize there, and in my head I was speaking to the original audience of the post which is people who like to party... and to that audience I think those words hold truer. There are obviously a lot of connoisseurs of wine & drink here who took my words directed at their casual consumption.

And definitely wasn't trying to suggest that not drinking was a slippery slope to hell.

It seems to me that with each caveat your target audience just keeps getting smaller and smaller.

Take me for example - I might be your stereotypical partier. My default Saturdays are at the club and I hit up bars often - but I'm very rarely drunk, and in fact I'm stone sober nearly all of the time. The people I go with are also the same. We get up to crazy shenanigans regardless of how much alcohol is in (or not in) us.

The problem with your thinking here is that you assume everyone in the club is like you, but the truth of the matter is that most of us leave our binge-drinking-plastered-constantly days behind us fairly soon after college.

There is certainly an audience for your post - people with addictive personalities who can't achieve that (very, very wide) middle ground on alcohol consumption. And power to you and them. But you started out addressing to all alcohol consumers. Then you took a step back and addressed this to just "partiers". And now you must take one more step back and realize that you're really addressing a subset of partiers at that.

This.

Hmmm. Well, my strong negative reaction to it started with the last three words in the title.

Note how different "I haven’t been drunk in 3 years... and I’ve been partying way more than you" comes across, when compared to something like "I haven’t been drunk in 3 years… and I’ve been partying a ton!"

As soon as you mention "more than you", you're making a direct comparison of your behavior to your readers' behavior, and that not only comes across as judgmental, it invites criticism from anyone who behaves differently and prefers it. (Like, for instance, me - I enjoy a quality beer or wine, but for me your social life, drunk or sober, would be the ninth circle of hell.)

>The hostile reaction was a bit of a surprise.

Its a bit of a strange state of affairs when a sober person announces that fact to people who drink. There's actually a great cracked article that explores this dynamic (I'll post this and then edit with the link if I can find it). When someone who drinks is told by someone who doesn't that they don't drink, they have a hard time not perceiving it as dig against them for drinking, or a 'holier than thou' kind of statement.

Given the prevalence of drinking in society, its easier to explore the concept in regard to marijuana. I can't even count the number of times I've said something along the lines of "you've never smoked? come smoke a bowl?". When the culture you're a part of has the idea that everyone is going to do it some time, with some sort of frequency (be it very very low or every night) hearing people against it completely is is a bit... odd to deal with. Its like finding out the person you're hanging with has completely opposite political views as you. Even if you're both OK with it and want to move onto a new topic of discussion, its awkward.

edit http://www.cracked.com/blog/7-things-you-dont-realize-about-...

I found the post more of a great philosophy of a life approach -- even outside the "sober vs not" theme. Sometimes hostility from others who are not sober can come from the turn of an introspective eye (conscious or subconscious) to themselves. Meaning, seeing someone else sober, can make one question their own lack of sobriety, even if no chronic problem exists (alcoholism, etc.) Some cog. therapy stuffs. Found it in myself (inebriated) and with friends / others (when I am sober). Its interesting to see the reactions or non-reaction when one "thinks" you are intoxicated, when not, and those same people in a different setting knowing you are Not intoxicated.

Not sure why you're surprised after including a baity and condescending title.