29
votes
Accepted
Is it ok to ask questions about issues on Stack Exchange? If so, where do we draw the line?
Interpersonal Skills is not the "court of public opinion" of Stack Exchange.
If you have a serious grievance with the users, moderators, or community managers on this site or any other site in the ...
- 14.2k
21
votes
Why are questions that involve langauge being shut down?
Your question is about language, not Interpersonal Skills. There are other sites on the network for questions about language, words, and what they mean. Those sites even take requests for specific ...
- 33.9k
19
votes
Accepted
How to tactfully remove the word "tactfully," tactfully?
I think "Tactfully" is a helpful word that can and should be used in some titles.
Using the word tactfully can help a question writer express that their question is not just about doing __, but about ...
- 7,123
15
votes
Should we edit titles that are not sufficiently descriptive?
Clickbait titles, particularly on Meta, are not useful or helpful. We need to be able to know what the question is to some degree based on the title of the question.
One of the CMs addressed this on a ...
- 14.2k
13
votes
How should we handle third parties editing hypothetical questions?
As the original asker I felt the edit was unfair.
The edit makes it look like the situation has happened to me. And much worse situation could appear in another edit for some other post. I don't ...
- 529
12
votes
Accepted
For questions, should we assume politeness is required?
No, saying that solutions must be polite is not good policy. You cannot assume politeness is a prerequisite of every situation. Various levels of confrontation are also interpersonal skills.
In your ...
11
votes
Accepted
Differentiating on and off topic - How?
TLDR: None of the topics mentioned in the question are off-topic per definition. The bickering about these topics, including bickering about answers and edits, IS.
It is, most emphatically, NOT a ...
- 33.9k
11
votes
Accepted
Sandbox for Proposed Questions
Answers containing graduated questions will be deleted. This is designed to be a repository for all those questions that have graduated. It is a community wiki answer, so add in your question here, at ...
10
votes
Is it ok to ask questions about issues on Stack Exchange? If so, where do we draw the line?
Questions about learning and applying skills are on-topic.
Questions about specific Stack Exchange grievances need to be taken to either Meta Stack Exchange, or the SE staff.
- 1,167
10
votes
Accepted
How do you vs How should I
This is a quirk of the English language. If you go to tech support to ask, "How do you unlock this iPhone?", you're not typically expecting a literal response like, "I don't unlock it; the phone is ...
10
votes
Is it ok to ask questions about issues on Stack Exchange? If so, where do we draw the line?
The Stack Exchange's meta support site was created to deal with social issues as well as technical. While such questions may involve interpersonal concerns, I'm going to ask that we don't split these ...
10
votes
How can users ask private questions anonymously on this site?
If you're afraid that your account may be traced back to you in real life, you could consider making a second account:
You will want to make sure your login credentials and contact emails are ...
- 33.9k
9
votes
What do we do with questions asking 'is X cultural appropriation'?
Now, we do not allow questions asking whether or not something is racist or not, because those questions are basically unanswerable.
I don't know that this is true... I do know that those questions ...
- 54.8k
8
votes
Questions posing as Interpersonal Skills problems that really are not
Communicating with a rude or offending party is an interpersonal skill as is appealing to a third party like a landlord or police officer.
The problem isn't really with the question, it's with the ...
- 54.8k
8
votes
How should we respond to questions where the OP needs professional help?
We need to take this seriously.
We're dealing with people's lives. Frustrated, upset, depressed, suicidal even - we have no business dealing with that. I think Shog9 put it best when he said
I ...
- 1,098
8
votes
Should we encourage people to just ask questions on main rather than asking about topicality on Meta?
Yes.
And then discuss them and edit them.
Gentle reminder that the most-used reference for what is on-topic here are the questions that folks encounter on the site: what they find in Google, in ...
- 97
8
votes
Is it rude to ask if it's rude to ask? - or: What to do with questions asking "Is it rude...?"
The problem with "is it rude" questions is that they are often asked by someone looking for validation -
I did this thing and I was told that I was wrong to do it - is it actually rude or not?
We ...
- 14.2k
8
votes
How can users ask private questions anonymously on this site?
For this, You may create a new anonymous account which is not linked to any SE site. This way, your question can't be traced.
However, remember you shouldn't be using this account to interact with ...
A JMod
- 7,744
8
votes
Accepted
Should we invite hurting users to come discuss it in chat?
Should we invite hurting users, whose question is off-topic, to stop by the chat and talk about it in a more casual way?
I'd say No.
Chat isn't supposed to replace questions/answers on main or meta. ...
- 33.9k
7
votes
Could we show a little more interpersonal skill in our moderation?
Not sure what you want here, but no, I'm not going to stop close-voting questions just because they're dealing with hard stuff.
Sometimes these questions aren't perfectly phrased because the ...
- 33.9k
7
votes
Accepted
Community wiki questions on IPS
On IPS, we're all about the details - details for the cultural setting of the problem, the circumstances under which it is taking place, the particulars of the people involved, etc. We really need ...
- 9,005
7
votes
IPS-Related Questions Without Clear IPS Goals, Valid Only in the Case of a Definitive Answer
Should we take a blanket stance on these types of questions, and if so what should that stance be?
I'm going to advocate against having 'identification-request' type questions. It's going to be hard ...
- 33.9k
7
votes
Provocative Words, Specificity, and IPS.SE
The real issue with a provocative word isn't whether or not the word is actually rude/offensive/bad/etc... The issue that is relevant to IPS (which Tinkeringbell pointed out in a comment) is the ...
- 9,052
6
votes
Differentiating on and off topic - How?
I have the same question. I was struck by "Relationships" being off topic. Isn't part of the whole point of having interpersonal skills to preserve relationships, however shallow or transient they may ...
- 24.8k
6
votes
How should we edit questions that are an XY problem?
I think that if there really is an XY problem with a question, it should be put on-hold as 'unclear what you're asking' AND leave a comment asking the OP of the question if they are asking about X or ...
- 33.9k
6
votes
Accepted
Should we allow questions on dealing with depressed/suicidal friends/colleagues?
TL;DR: Close these questions as off-topic and (maybe) point them to a canonical question-and-answer.
My main reluctance about these questions is the consequences for when folks get answers wrong. I ...
- 9,005
6
votes
Can we ask questions that are based in a standardized environment?
It could be very likely that an answerer suggests something contrary to what the OP’s environment recommends.
This is up the writer of the question: We already ask people to mention what they have ...
- 33.9k
6
votes
Accepted
Where should I ask "What do I do?" questions?
No, SE is a question and answer site, not an advice column. Questions asking "what do I do" are not a good fit for the Q&A format that SE implements. The reason that they are not a good fit is ...
- 9,052
5
votes
Should we encourage people to just ask questions on main rather than asking about topicality on Meta?
This site is young and has only a few hundred questions. Conversations about scope do better when there's some actual data or at least experience to work with, so being able to see how actual ...
- 17.2k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible