Hi @Beofett. Are you here?

@funkymushroom Yep. Hello :)

You had offered me the opportunity to discuss matters with you, and I wanted to take you up on it : )

@funkymushroom Certainly! What would you like to discuss?

You have made some great points about "soap boxing", and I wanted to know whether there is a line between "soap boxing" and recognizing that the poster is not asking what they need to be asking?

Great question!

I have given a considerable amount of thought to this point. Example....(Exaggerated for effect)....Q. I am thinking of drowning my puppy. My question is whether I should do this in a pool or in a tub?

Is this a case where we should just..."answer the question"? (I hope you don't consider this "confrontational", there is no way to discuss a matter like this subtly: )

And I really wanted your guidance on this...

I think we are now touching on an area that goes a bit beyond soap boxing

please bear with me a moment while I look up some potentially relevant meta discussions...

appreciate it

It appears there is a gamut here...with the one side defined by my puppy question, and the other side defined by the "true" soap boxing questions.

@funkymushroom agreed. I'd go so far as to say they are completely separate categories

From what I can find, our meta discussions have focused primarily on controversial subjects.

I was looking at questions of the pattern: Q. [Make Statement X][Ask Question Y]. A. [Question the validity of X]. If this is too broad a pattern, then I will just back off and take it as such.

I guess Controversial subjects is where this is most likely to happen.

For some background, early on in the beta, there was quite a bit of argument over the gun debate I just linked, as well as co-sleeping.

These topics are a bit more in the "grey" area than your puppy scenario, since there are sizable contingents of supporters on both sides of each issue, whereas few (hopefully) would advocate actual puppy drowning

I see your point. The more controversial questions I suppose are easier to get consensus on.

My initial thoughts would be something along the lines of "if you feel that something is truly dangerous or illegal, flag the question for a moderator, downvote, and possibly limit yourself to a single, reasonably polite comment explaining your concern"

Fair comment.

I definitely feel a comment is more appropriate for this than posting an actual answer, though.

Again, fair comment. Well met.

The actual question in ...er...question : ) was what kind of medidation techniques can be recommended for a 4 year old. My experience, given that I have two kids, is that they have the attention span of a ferret on cappucino, and that Meditation may not work.

however, once we get into the realm of moral or ethical concerns, rather than safety or legal, I think ignoring the question altogether is best, but if that isn't an option, then a comment and/or downvote should be sufficient

When the original problem was help getting a 4 year old to sleep, how much freedom should I feel to offer a technique that I have tried and works that I believe would help the original poster?

Given that your point that I should have added a comment, and not an actual answer is noted.

@funkymushroom Yes, I remember that question. I actually think there are mediatitve techniques (as opposed to full meditation) that might be applicable to that situation, although I have no direct experience

I think we may agree that the question itself, in that case, was somewhat poorly formed, in that it presupposed a solution that may not have been the only option.

In that case, maybe a good tact would have been to post what you think should have been the question as your own question. Then you could post a comment to the meditation question saying "Here's a relevant question that might be helpful to you".

@Beofett Good Idea.

this way, you can open up, in the proper format, a full discussion on what you feel might be a better approach to the problem as described, without the potential for derailing what other people might feel is a useful contribution on meditation

@Beofett Understood.

Well, I appreciate you taking the time to discuss this. Thanks for the chat.

I need to go.

@funkymushroom It's been my pleasure. If you ever have any other questions, or just want to chat, I'm usually here during the week

Thanks @Beofett