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I’m asking this question because, I have plenty of questions, such as:

  1. How do I know if he did…
  2. It is possible to gain the skill to get whatever you want from others, no matter who he or she is? And if yes, how can I gain it?

For now just 2 of’-em I have. And I’m asking this question so that in future I can prevent the down votes from occurring.

Question: Are these types of questions which I gave you examples, are permitted to discuss in Interpersonal Skills?

Just in curiosity.

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    Both of those questions have short explanations, with links to more in depth explanations of why you cannot ask those questions. Every time your questions are closed we link you directly to the guidelines for what is considered on-topic. Since you still don't have any of the badges for visiting the help center, I cannot believe that you are actually willing to learn what is on-topic. Please stop asking to get these questions opened without reading all of our responses to your previous questions Oct 25, 2018 at 18:53
  • Hey, that’s totally different!
    – Alex A
    Oct 25, 2018 at 18:54
  • Maybe, you haven’t read properly with understanding this one
    – Alex A
    Oct 25, 2018 at 18:54
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    For what kind of things you can ask about here, I'd suggest taking a look at the help center, specifically "What topics can I ask about here?". If you have a specific question and you're not sure if it's on topic or you want some help making it perfect, you can always post it in The Sandbox first to get feedback from the community before jumping straight to the main site.
    – scohe001
    Oct 25, 2018 at 18:56
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    The reason you get "on hold" is because they are not permitted, so the answer to this question is "no, clearly we put those on hold and told you why not already" Oct 25, 2018 at 18:56
  • I don't think this is a duplicate, as the other question appears to be about a specific post, whereas this one is asking for feedback on other potential question topics.
    – Em C
    Oct 27, 2018 at 15:49

1 Answer 1

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It's a bit difficult to assess the examples from just a sentence or two, but I'll assume you would include the details if they were posted on the main site ;)

  1. How do I know if he did...

I'm not sure what sort of answers you would be looking for here - it would probably depend on the what was the thing that he did (or did not do). You'd also need to explain why "Just ask him" won't work.

For instance, there's a big difference between something like, "how do I know if my friend told me the truth about what our other friend did?" vs. "how do I find out who stole my lunch?". The key issue is that you need to identify a goal and interpersonal-related skill or problem that you need help with.

My first example could probably be edited to be on topic by instead asking something like "how do I confront Friend B about the thing that he may have done?". Now the question is focused on resolving the conflict, and you're asking for advice with confrontation when you don't have all the facts.

The second would be more difficult to shape up because "identifying a lunch thief" isn't really an interpersonal skill. You'd need to figure out what interpersonal skills you would be exercising to handle the situation and what your end goal is (have your boss / teacher deal with it? talk to the thief and ask why they keep stealing it? etc.)

  1. It is possible to gain the skill to get whatever you want from others, no matter who he or she is? And if yes, how can I gain it?

Also very broad, but it sounds like it might fall under the category of "social engineering"? There was a meta post about that back when the site had just started, but I don't think we've actually had any questions about it, so I'm not sure if the community still feels the same.

A kind of related topic might be "pickup", and the top answer there suggests that the subject matter is not appropriate for our site as it would violate the principles in our Code of Conduct.

If that's not the sort of thing you meant - it might be a "How do I convince X to do Y" style question. That post gives some good examples of how to rephrase questions to focus on improving your own skills rather than forcing someone else to change.

So again, I think the acceptability of this example would really depend on what your end goal is.


If you're interested in turning either of these into post-able questions, we have a number of resources you can check out! From least to most detailed:

  • How To Ask, the standard Stack Exchange protocol.
  • What topics can I ask about here?, the help center page that we've customized with IPS-specific guidelines on what is and isn't on topic here.
  • How do I write a good question?, our entry for writing questions, which lists elements that should be included with your questions
  • The Sandbox, where you can share and revise a draft question before posting on main
  • And last but not least, chat is often willing to discuss whether a topic sounds like it could work for the site and even brainstorm some ideas
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  • I’m just given’ as a example. Not necessarily to be a question here. So that you may have an idea of what I’m referring to
    – Alex A
    Oct 27, 2018 at 16:31
  • Can you please do me one favor?
    – Alex A
    Oct 27, 2018 at 16:33
  • @AlexA no problem, in that case the links in the last section can help you figure out whether a particular question is a good fit here, and how to write it up :)
    – Em C
    Oct 27, 2018 at 16:57

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