How can we include the terminology of interpersonal skills into our site?

Question

The following question got me thinking about scope

What's the difference between being introvert and being shy?

Personally I'm keen not to narrow our scope to situational questions. As this meta question hints at How many questions do we need about politely asserting your boundaries?, there can be a limit to how many times someone asks "How do I say no?", and I'm concerned that we may limit ourselves out of enough scope to sustain a viable site.

I'm wondering if there is a way we can include the terminology of interpersonal skills into our new site?

Thoughts?

Answer 1

Terminology clarification is a great concept.

Terminology could become part of our FAQ page -- or incorporated into the help pages somehow.

This way, any future new members will have easy access to how the community defines terms that may not be immediately obvious, or may have more than one interpretation.

Answer 2

To borrow terminology from the Area 51 site, I think in general we will want this site to be aimed at a "Avid Enthusiast or Prosumer" (as poorly as that applies to this site) - not because those who know they are "beginners" at interpersonal skills don't belong her, but because we'd love for everyone who is a part of this site to quickly learn skills and gain confidence so that they would soon feel as though they are "prosumers". It would be fantastic if this site really will help people develop good human interaction abilities.

Becoming a "prosumer" like that is more than just skills - we all need non-skill knowledge as well. We need to be aware that people think differently. We need to know that some people have brains that process their life differently to others - that some have Asperger's or Autism, and others are so-called "neurotypical". We need to know that while communication can sometimes be slightly difficult between those with ASD or those who are neurotypical, and that that difficulty goes both ways, neither prohibits the possibility of good conversations, good relationships, and healthy social lives.

We need to know that some people have personality disorders such as narcissistic personality disorder. Being a "prosumer" of interpersonal skills doesn't mean you're a qualified psychologist or counsellor, but it does mean being aware that personality disorders exist, knowing a couple key characteristics, and knowing how to encourage people to get help from professionals.

Being a "prosumer" means helping those who come to this site by being able to categorise certain behaviours and giving them the commonly used labels. It means being able to identify when someone might be "gaslighting". It means recognising "victim blaming".

Being a "prosumer" means having a well-rounded competency in the area of interpersonal interaction, and it is impossible to have such a well-rounded competency without knowing the language of the field. To reuse phrasing I thought up for another site, we want this site to concern both the theory and the practice of interpersonal skills. So questions about terminology fit into this site because they serve that goal: well-rounded competency.

Answer 3

Personally I'm keen not to narrow our scope to situational questions I'm concerned that we may limit ourselves out of enough scope to sustain a viable site.

For what it's worth, on Workplace we've been getting thousands of questions with a similar restriction and I am continually amazed how many different situations there actually are.

I would not use that as a good reason to start expanding scope.

Answer 4

Terminology should be kept at a meta question. Please do make one. And linked to in Help page will be useful too!

Users (especially new ones) should not be bothered with knowing correct terminology, as they might not be an expert. It's a job for expert (you, not me - yet) to edit to correctly reflect the actual terms used by experts.

Look around at other sites. There might be someone that asked a question about how to use Office Spreadsheet, when he actually meant Excel. It's our job, these sites are moderated by us.

As a user hang around for a while, they will pick up what's going on and learn the correct terms.