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Response: Ward

First Question:

I don't think this issue deserves two closely-related questions. We all recognize "a professional capacity" when we see it, and I don't think the site is harmed if the edge cases are sometimes migrated, sometimes not.

In any case, "professional capacity" means that you have a business responsibility to make it possible for other people to use computers. In principle, if you are one member of a two-person business, and you do tech support for the other person, sure, you're a pro. Most of your questions will be better suited to SuperUser, but not all of them.

Second Question):

As mentioned above, even if a question is clearly asked in a "professional capacity" it might make more sense to migrate it. The usual indicators of "not a professional sys admin" are questions about "my PC," ie a single or very small number of PCs. But you could have a small office where they use WSUS and have a question about using it w/ only two clients, so there'll always be borderline cases.

Response: Sam

First Question:

Whilst I suppose the technical definition of "Professionally Capacity" would be getting paid for doing that work, I think there has to be some flexibility to that, otherwise you exclude potentially quite a large area of those that are trying to learn, but don't get paid for it. This includes students, people trying to learn the trade to get a job and hobbyist. Whilst their questions don't come from the perspective of getting paid for delivering something, it comes from an interest in being professional and wanting to build a professional solution, even if it might not end up in a commercial situation. Having a professional outlook is more important, to me, than a job title.

Second Question:

In tandem with my first answer, my definition of whether a question should be open rather than closed or migrated is based on the value of the question itself. If this question is asked by a student trying to set-up a Cisco lab under his bed, but would provide value to those doing a similar thing in a million pound (or dollar) server room, then it get's to stay. I think the mind set and aim of the question is far more important than the job of the person submitting it. Conversely, if a 20K rep user asks a question about his home AV setup, it's going to get closed.

As Sysadmin1138 has already pointed out, migration needs to be done carefully. We all got fed up with Serverfault being a dumping ground for Stackoverflow when things first started, so we all know how annoying that can be. We don't need to inflict it on others. Bad questions about superuser topics should get closed here, not moved to SU to get closed by them, we all have enough to do without doing other peoples work.

##Response Robert Moir

Professional Capacity

A good definition of this needs to be flexible rather than a rod to beat ourselves with, but I'm happy with the idea that if you are managing all or part of a network or group of computers as all or part of your job, then this site is for you. I like this definition as I think the site should be inclusive of all levels of ability, and this includes not just veterans and newbies, but also people who work in a specialised area (e.g. deployment) and people who are not full time sysadmins but who have to manage them as part of their overall duties.

Good questions, and the issue of migration

Firstly the obvious qualifiers, such as talking about a business network rather than a home one and talking about "real life problems" as opposed to "I saw a movie once where the computers did whatever and I thought it would be neat if... discuss".

I think a good "professional" question is one where the asker has invested some time in thinking about the question prior to asking it - or where people need help with asking a good question, where they are prepared to clarify their question and to work with people who are trying to help them. You only get as much out of sites like this as you put into it, and a professional question shows some recognition of this.

As for migration to other sites, I know I feel frustrated sometimes when we get questions dumped here by Stack Overflow with little thought, so I can only imagine that Super User people must be frustrated because sometimes I think we must do that to them too. I know I've probably been guilty of voting that way myself wrongly when I first had that ability. As such, I've started looking at questions and if they can't/aren't being clarified then probably opting to close rather than just migrate unless its clearly a case of the question being on the wrong site.

##Response: Robert Moir

Professional Capacity

A good definition of this needs to be flexible rather than a rod to beat ourselves with, but I'm happy with the idea that if you are managing all or part of a network or group of computers as all or part of your job, then this site is for you. I like this definition as I think the site should be inclusive of all levels of ability, and this includes not just veterans and newbies, but also people who work in a specialised area (e.g. deployment) and people who are not full time sysadmins but who have to manage them as part of their overall duties.

Good questions, and the issue of migration

Firstly the obvious qualifiers, such as talking about a business network rather than a home one and talking about "real life problems" as opposed to "I saw a movie once where the computers did whatever and I thought it would be neat if... discuss".

I think a good "professional" question is one where the asker has invested some time in thinking about the question prior to asking it - or where people need help with asking a good question, where they are prepared to clarify their question and to work with people who are trying to help them. You only get as much out of sites like this as you put into it, and a professional question shows some recognition of this.

As for migration to other sites, I know I feel frustrated sometimes when we get questions dumped here by Stack Overflow with little thought, so I can only imagine that Super User people must be frustrated because sometimes I think we must do that to them too. I know I've probably been guilty of voting that way myself wrongly when I first had that ability. As such, I've started looking at questions and if they can't/aren't being clarified then probably opting to close rather than just migrate unless its clearly a case of the question being on the wrong site.

Response: Ben

First Question:

For the most part, this describes somebody whose primary job function is to manage servers or computers other than their own. Job titles often include System Administrator, Helpdesk Analyst and IT Support, but I won't exclude the smaller shops where a developer might also double up as the System Administrator for the company. As long as they are asking a reasonable, coherent and on-topic question, I have no problem with the question being on Server Fault.

Second Question:

If a question is relating to hardware or software which is specifically used in professional server applications (RAID, redundant PSU's, Windows Server OS, Microsoft SQL Server etc) then the question is on-topic for Server Fault. There will obviously be some grey areas such as Linux installed to run a web server for home use, but if the same question can be asked and it still be relevant and helpful for somebody whose primary purpose in their organisation is to manage the company web server, then I think it should stay here.

Ultimately though, questions should reside on the Stack Exchange site which they will receive the correct and best answers.