I'm the guy who gave that answer referenced by OP. I'm pretty new to the "Interpersonal Skills" site, but would like to respectfully ask some questions about the citations requirement.
I can totally understand the need for citations on a hard science site. "I feel like..." would not be the start of a good answer on the Physics site. On this site, however, it seems that feelings should be paramount.
For the question referenced by the OP, wouldn't it be valuable to get several answers describing how different people would handle the situation? Then let the voters decide which approach is likely to work best. My answer actually has the most upvotes. There are 3 downvotes, perhaps because of lack of citations.
Another answer of mine about cheating in board games is an accepted answer with 162 upvotes and 0 downvotes (at this time). There are no citations in that answer either.
I have read What are the citation expectations of answers on IPS Stack Exchange?. It says that subjective answers should be backed up...
Back It Up! means that your answers must be based on either:
- Something that happened to you personally
- Something you can back up with a reference
Sometimes I have what I think is a great idea for navigating a social situation, but it has never happened to me personally. I've never had someone else paint my miniatures (I don't even paint miniatures). I've never caught someone cheating at board games.
So my choices seem to be:
- Don't answer. (but people seem to like my answers and think they are good advice.)
- Find a story somewhere else about a similar situation. (but there won't be a similar story if my idea is original.)
In short, shouldn't we judge the quality of an answer on this site by upvotes rather than by citations.