@Beofett There's a new user Marie Hendrix who's posting some good stuff. But I also noticed that she states her background and uses it as credentials for answers on a range of issues -- I think it's good practise to state one's background, but where's the limit when it's going too far?
@TorbenGB I've been looking at her posts (and agree they're pretty good). I think its okay to state background so long as it is relevant to the topic. If she starts saying "As a speech therapist, I suggest you get strollers with 3 wheels," then it might be going a bit too far for me
@TorbenGB My opinion: I'd rather leave it for now. We've talked about attracting more experts to the site, and I think its appropriate for professionals to identify themselves as such, so long as they don't overdo it, and we don't start seeing trends of mediocre answers getting upvoted simply because a professional answered
@Beofett @HedgeMage @cabbey I'd like to put this proposal in meta into our site FAQ. Objections? I did see HedgeMage's comment that the format will change, but I think we need an official reference concerning what's on-topic and what's not.
@TorbenGB I think it is a good proposal. However, I have some concern with the statement "Please note that opinions shared here should be backed up either with a reference, or experiences that happened to you personally."
@TorbenGB Reviewing my own answers, I see that I failed to meet this standard quite a few times, and on some of my highest voted answers.
I guess it depends on how strictly we intend to keep to that rule.
That bit is actually the only thing already in the FAQ :) I think it's mostly to avoid empty unbacked claims of "research shows that...". We're not bound to enforce it, but we can't enforce it if it's not stated.
For what it's worth, I am not a parent but I was doing research into this site (and its competitors) so I've been participating because I know where the info is. I think if we keep opinions to comments (as occurs on other SE sites) and if we endeavor to find corroborative evidence on similar/competing sites, we'll serve as the expert and the definitive source. More professionals would behoove us, though.
@AarthiDevanathanΨ In all honesty, some of our best questions/answers rely upon pure opinion ("what is the best way to explain 'left' and 'right' politics to a child", "Is it reasonable for parents with small children to use the disabled toilet?", etc.). However, they are the minority of topics. Most of the rest can, and do, benefit from evidence and supporting references.
btw, am I the only one getting errors when I try to access questions?
We have seen some very emotional and subjective postings, both in answers and in comments. IMHO they're generally not helpful as-is because they generate much noise, but they can often be distilled into valuable content.
@AarthiDevanathan, what is that character? Reminds me of astronomy, but not exactly? (Google... ah, Neptune! Almost.)
Agreed; opinions are valuable. I do believe, however, that we should emphasize corroborative evidence over hearsay and anecdotes. The goal is to build a community of experts (a la Babycenter or TheBump) with a community wiki Q&A component. Balance is key, basically.
@TorbenGB I saw that! I'm working on figuring out who we'd like to bring into Parenting long-term; it's not my current assignment (that's DIY) but hopefully it'll be one in the future.
@TorbenGB It's a Psi, the Greek letter. (You may have seen it on a few Frat/Sorority shirts or rings.) It's to indicate that I'm a SE Employee - CHAOS Team member to be exact! And thanks -- just tryin' to improve the site! :D
@TorbenGB I responded to say that yeah, they fixed it... only to find that it was broken again and I could see, but not respond :P But yeah, I think its fixed now
Sorry I don't see such shirts over here; that's a US thing. So the Psi is like the mod symbol, but for staff? What's the CHAOS Team? Sounds like an interesting blog topic!
@TorbenGB Oh gosh I didn't realize you were Austrian! It's used in mathematics somewhere, or perhaps physics, as well. I'm a SE employee hired to, well, help promote and improve our "younger" sites. Last week I did a performance evaluation on Parenting.SE, and this week I've been assigned DIY.SE to improve. It's pretty cool, and we're hoping for a blog post soon. We have a Parenting.SE blog?
@Beofett Absolutely! I've been answering questions entirely based on my childhood experiences and by surfing through TheBump, BabyCenter, and WhatToExpect.
@AarthiDevanathanΨ No we don't have a parenting blog; I discussed with HedgeMage and we agreed that a blog needs a steady stream of high-value content, and we just don't see where the energy and content for that would come from - at this time!
@TorbenGB Part of it is that I forget (often) that Europe is still largely ethnic nations; I'm accustomed to how we refer to each other in civic nations.
@TorbenGB I really want to meet HedgeMage. She sounds awesome, and I lived in her part of the country for several years. As for blog topics -- this community will need to be bigger (and with more experts) before that's a realistic option, I think.
Oh, yes, and there was some weird problem there for a few minutes. We in the office were joking that someone kicked over the server again.
I like Google+ because it feels less virtual when people aren't hiding behind androgynous avatars and callsigns. But OTOH I understand and respect some people's wish to remain anonymous.
@TorbenGB Basically the opposite of an ethnic nation; being an X-ian isn't about race so much as naturalization. Me and a group of students at university were chatting about this towards the end of my last semester. It was really interesting to see how attitudes about "Us vs Them" differ around the world, and how it can be hard to see the other side when the definition of "us" is so ingrained.
@TorbenGB Agreed. I have a ~second life~ online that I keep separate from my Real Life. But since this is part of my job, I don't mind at all, not really.
@TorbenGB Essentially. I'm hesitant to always use America as the example, just because it starts to sound sanctimonious. England has been transitioning to a civil/civic nation for about a century, slowly but surely. Being British is becoming less about race, per anecdotal evidence I've heard.
I think you could say much the same about many European countries (and also AUS and HK come to mind!), with people entering from Eastern Europe, Africa and Middle East. In the very-long run, I think it'll be a more mixed world than what it started out with, and IMO that is a good thing. We just need to learn how to get along!
This is true! It's a slow-but-steady process, but you're right; as our world gets smaller, the intermingling is bound to happen. It'll be interesting to see our world in 50, 100, 500 years and marvel at where we started. :)
@AarthiDevanathanΨ I just read that the Star Trek series invented the iPad 23 years ago. Now it's on everyone's desk... I can't imagine that the tech evolution will continue to speed up -- when do we stop being able to keep up? (Yesterday?)
I will be traveling with two kids in a car this upcoming month, and I would like to play some games in the car with them. I know the game where you look for different license plates, and the alphabet game where you work y our way through the alphabet by looking at road signs and such.
I have he...
weeeell, it's not really parenting, I have to agree. But don't we already have a similar question? Something in the travel tag - I need to take a look.
AHEM! That other question is asked by you yourself, beofett, just a week ago! :-)
@TorbenGB I think adding that to the faq would be great! Some of it will become redundant when we do the revamp, but I've no clue when we'll get that done.
@Beofett the toddler-travel Q is about toddler comfort and parental sanity. The teen-travel Q is mostly about parental sanity -- if I put it that way, I think it's on-topic. Let's check area51 if there's a gaming site? Not computer gaming (we have that), and not board games (that too).
@TorbenGB Role Playing Games exist, but that's not appropriate. Cards (or possibly poker) is a proposal, but that also would be a poor choice.
personally, if it were strictly a matter of parental sanity, I'd say get the two teens iPods and let them immerse themselves in their headphones for the duration :P
Aren't you avoiding DVD for reasons that would also conflict a little with that? But I do agree, from a sanity perspective, give them each headphones, and a portable gaming console. The End :)
Well, I'm avoiding DVD's because the recommendation of the American Academy of Pediatrics is that children under 2 should not be exposed to television, and that young children above the age of 2 should be restricted to 1-2 hours of TV a day
but yes, also because I don't want DVDs/music/video games to be the crutch my wife and I rely upon to deal with a cranky kid
however, I freely admit my tune may change on that once he hits his teenage years!
Wow, searching for "games" on area51 yields more than 65 proposals.... but none of them are about games as we need them here. And per the FAQ of boardgames it's off-topic there. So I say we keep games (with the said purpose of parental sanity) on-topic here.
maybe we could make a provision in the faq saying that spoken-word and clapping games are the most explicit types of games to which we refer? games can help toddlers and tiny ones learn better motor skills, after all. (Paddy cake, paddy cake, baker's man...)
I will be traveling with two kids in a car this upcoming month, and I would like to play some games in the car with them. I know the game where you look for different license plates, and the alphabet game where you work y our way through the alphabet by looking at road signs and such.
I have he...
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