12

I wrote a question two weeks ago, closed for not being professional enough. I tried to understand why it was closed, and i tried to make understand people that perhaps they were wrong closing it, and that they should left the question open to see if someone thinking different could help.

It was not possible, and my question was finally deleted by the “garbage collector” Community. This is sad for a simple replicant like me because all those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain, but is time to leave.

I read the post “What is our “competition” for ServerFault?” but I don’t see my question matching any other Stack Exchange sites, and the list offered there is a tinny one taking into account the big amount of unprofessional “replicants” we are (was) in here.

So the question is “Which other web site should we go?”. I have been partially helped with my specific problem outside here, and I think this list could really help people that can’t be helped here.

I really appreciate the comments (specialy their “tone”) made by people like “Mark Henderson” and “gWaldo” in some posts over Server Fault related with people flying away, and no matter how unpolite other people could be, I bring with me this shiny side of Server Fault.

Good luck!

2
  • This question would be more clear if you described the 'unprofessional' question. I assume it was not something about choice of underpants. It was about Plesk?
    – poolie
    May 27, 2014 at 7:12
  • 2
    Well, i think it doesn't really matter for this question, but for your curiosity was about upgrading PHP in a windows server (that had Plesk installed on it) :)
    – tomasofen
    May 27, 2014 at 7:19

2 Answers 2

17

It looks that your question might have been a good fit for http://webmasters.stackexchange.com, since it has little to do with professional system administration and much to do with hosting a website. You should check out their FAQ, of course, but I think that site might be more in line with what you do.

13

When a question is closed, it's important to act on it right away. A closed question with a score of zero or lower can be automatically deleted after nine full days if it is not reopened. And the best way to have your question noticed for possibly reopening is to edit it; a closed question which is edited is automatically queued for review.

In this particular case, again I won't speak for the five people who voted to close your question, but it did not appear to be relevant in a professional context. We have to maintain this separation between professional and amateur/enthusiast in order to avoid becoming technical support for the whole Internet, which unfortunately some people seem to already think we are.

So the best thing to do if you have a question where you are sure it is in a professional context, but it was closed as unprofessional, is to edit the question to clarify that aspect of the question. (If you intend to do so after reading and considering the rest of this answer, let me know, as moderators can undelete the question.)

I noticed that shortly before your post was deleted, you left a comment, which almost clarified this.

System is not 24x7. Plesk panel is for final users to manage some points in an easy way (like FTP accounts necessary for the project). Perhaps i'm a bad professional, but i can't understand why i need spend my time (and yours) justificating the system or my procedures. The question was not that. This starts to seems too much to Brian's Life scene with punishment for saying Jehovah. I'm just atonished whith some of the people in this site o_O

Lawyer dressed inappropriately

Actually, it's more like being dressed for the part. One does not expect to see their lawyer in nothing but underwear, for instance, at least not in a professional setting.

I've already noted that simply using a web control panel such as Plesk puts the professionalism of the operation in doubt; using it on Windows/IIS makes it even more doubtful. These are niche products intended for the web hosting industry, generally supported within that industry, and widely used in situations where they are a poor fit.

While it's certainly allowed for a professional web hosting company to seek support here, they are usually better served by contacting the control panel vendor's support channels directly. So, for this question, I would expect to see a lot of clarification of the professional context: how this server came to be, what it's being used for, etc.

As such, I expect your first line of support should not be any Stack Exchange site, but the vendor, Parallels.

4
  • Thanks, Michael. At this moment i think that the question should remain deleted, so it has no sense to give more clarification for the question (that was not given at the begining, like logs and so, to avoid "overinformation" problems). The answer i was given outside here is not the best in the world, but it left the work finished. I really hope you are not the one in the pic. If so, please send me your postal address and i will send you a T-shirt with "Kiss me, i'm a professsional" ^.^
    – tomasofen
    May 20, 2014 at 1:16
  • Afraid not. I haven't looked that good in a very long time...if ever. May 20, 2014 at 1:17
  • 12
    @tomasofen overinformation is rarely a problem here. I would rather have all the details on what is going on, what you are trying to do, what you have tried, and what the results were upfront - rather than to drag them out of someone one edit at a time.
    – Grant
    May 20, 2014 at 3:09
  • 1
    Holy crap, a lawyer with a body like that? I wish I could put him on retainer.. May 21, 2014 at 15:08

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .