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Should questions about Microsoft's Windows Home Server be closed on Serverfault or tolerated (until SuperUser.com goes online)? I'm sitting on the fence, because they certainly "violate" the FAQ maxim

"Server Fault is not for general computer troubleshooting questions; if you paid for that desktop hardware, and it's your personal workstation, it is unlikely that your question is appropriate for Server Fault."

But some questions could contain interesting information for sysadmins.

Examples: https://serverfault.com/questions/tagged/windowshomeserver

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You pegged it. Tolerate these types of questions until superuser.com comes online, and then the questions can be closed/migrated.

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  • agree, hold and migrate to superuser.com Jun 30, 2009 at 8:35
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I think it's a big mistake to try and draw a line between corporate and residential IT. In my former career as an IT guy, I dealt with just as many residential customers as corporate customers. There's also a lot of overlap in challenges faced. I saw a question on ServerFault about how to change monitor refresh rate which was closed as being not sysadmin-related. Would the same thing have happened if it were cleverly posed from a corporate perspective? I suspect not.

Trying to separate corporate and residential IT is like trying to separate HTML and CSS; they're so closely related. I think SuperUser is fine for questions about how to do blah in Microsoft Word, but anything to do with adjusting system settings or system building is, in my opinion, most definitely sysadmin-related.

I had a question of my own closed by Jeff on Serverfault where I asked about TV tuner cards that supported HD via satellite instead of just HD over-the-air. Yes, it was for a computer in my house, but so what? I could easily have posed the question like this: "Our company has an HDTV in our boardroom connected to a satellite dish on the roof. The CEO isn't happy with the quality of the HD channels..."

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    I partially agree. I guess the problem is, you have to draw a line somewhere or you'll get tons of problem like "How can I haz torrenz faster. plz. halp. kthxbye" ;-)
    – splattne
    Jul 2, 2009 at 7:09
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I personally know consultants currently selling WHS to small businesses. I don't see why you should make a differentiation just because MS marketed it with the name "home" in the title.

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If a question is propably interesting for "professional", not-home servers, I would keep it open. Otherwise vote for a close.

There'll always be overlaps between the triology. So try to establish a border between them. But that's a community thing like Wikipedia's lemmas.

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Isn't Windows Home Server a "server" and thus equally deserving of support by ServerFault?

It's Windows 2003 Server under the bonnet so I can't really understand why it should be excluded. I bet there's a heap of one man bands out there using it as a cheap and cheerful back up tool in their businesses.

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    It's not the server code itself that qualifies or disqualifies it for talk on SF, but rather who bought it and how it is being used. Read the quote above in the question. If your job is to deploy Windows Home Server that other people paid for, then a SF question is deemed valid. If you bought a Windows 2003 Server Enterprise to watch DVDs on, then it doesn't.
    – Stu Thompson
    Jun 30, 2009 at 12:55

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