A user who posts a question in an clear, answerable way and who does some independent research is trying and deserves some respect. We need users to at least read the man page and plug the question into Google before they come and ask here. They should also phrase the question in a way that others can understand. People who do this are at least trying to be "professional". Systems administration is a very complicated problem and there is often no clear answer. Most of us remember the struggle to get started, and we struggle to fix problems on a daily basis. We know that man pages are hard to read and that Google is full of unclear or old answers. The systems are sometimes so complex or arcane that it is hard to even figure out what is the right question to ask, much less provide an answer

I'm not sure what the other sites are like, but Serverfault has a constant stream of low-quality questions in which it is clear that the posters didn't perform the basic steps required to form a question. The review queues like ("vote to close", "first post") show that many posters don't take the basic steps needed to form a good question.

The bar here may be higher then on other sites, but the answers also tend to be higher quality. I'd rather ask a good question and receive a good answer then ask a bad question and receive a bad answer.

A user who posts a question in an clear, answerable way and who does some independent research is trying to do the right thing and deserves some respect. But we here at ServerFault can't fix every problem. We need users to at least read the man page and plug the question into Google before they come and ask here. They should also phrase the question in a way that others can understand. People who do this are at least trying to be "professional". Systems administration is a very complicated problem and there is often no clear answer. Most of us remember the struggle to get started, and we struggle to fix problems on a daily basis. We know that man pages are hard to read and that Google is full of unclear or old answers. The systems are sometimes so complex or arcane that it is hard to even figure out what is the right question to ask, much less provide an answer

I'm not sure what the other sites are like, but Serverfault has a constant stream of low-quality questions in which it is clear that the posters didn't perform the basic steps required to form a question. The review queues like ("vote to close", "first post") show that many posters don't take the basic steps needed to form a good question.

The bar here may be higher then on other sites, but the answers also tend to be higher quality. I'd rather ask a good question and receive a good answer then ask a bad question and receive a bad answer.

A user who posts a question in an clear, answerable way and who does some independent research is trying and deserves some respect. I expect users to at least read the man page and plug the question into Google. They should also phrase the question in a way that others can understand. People who do this are at least trying to be "professional". Systems administration is a very complicated problem and there is often no clear answer. Most of us remember the struggle to get started, and we struggle to fix problems on a daily basis. The systems are sometimes so complex or arcane that it is hard to even figure out what is the right question to ask, much less provide an answer

I'm not sure what the other sites are like, but Serverfault has a constant stream of low-quality questions in which it is clear that the posters didn't perform the basic steps required to form a question. The review queues like ("vote to close", "first post") show that many posters don't take the basic steps needed to form a good question.

The bar here may be higher then on other sites, but the answers also tend to be higher quality. I'd rather ask a good question and receive a good answer then ask a bad question and receive a bad answer.

A user who posts a question in an clear, answerable way and who does some independent research is trying and deserves some respect. We need users to at least read the man page and plug the question into Google before they come and ask here. They should also phrase the question in a way that others can understand. People who do this are at least trying to be "professional". Systems administration is a very complicated problem and there is often no clear answer. Most of us remember the struggle to get started, and we struggle to fix problems on a daily basis. We know that man pages are hard to read and that Google is full of unclear or old answers. The systems are sometimes so complex or arcane that it is hard to even figure out what is the right question to ask, much less provide an answer

I'm not sure what the other sites are like, but Serverfault has a constant stream of low-quality questions in which it is clear that the posters didn't perform the basic steps required to form a question. The review queues like ("vote to close", "first post") show that many posters don't take the basic steps needed to form a good question.

The bar here may be higher then on other sites, but the answers also tend to be higher quality. I'd rather ask a good question and receive a good answer then ask a bad question and receive a bad answer.