On one hand I think this is a great idea. When your production mission critical application is down and you are out of your depth a true professional takes a step back, realizes they are in over their head and hires someone who has the knowledge to immediately stabilize the situation and get the company back up and running. This truly is the right answer in some cases.

On the other hand I agree with @TheCleaner. We should not turn away operations folks who have inherited something ugly or who are trying to fix something that's outside of their field of experience, which is generally not supported or documented, and they are likely doing so under duress. We can all assume that as professionals, they will know when to make the call to get outside help and that it is a bit presumptuous of the community to second guess them on that.

I suggest a modification of the original proposal. The "XYZ, HLP?" questions are invariably going to be closed as off-topic. Professionals, even those trying to solve a "the chips are down and I've never worked with technology $XYZ before" type of problems are most likely not going to ask questions that will be closed as off-topic.

I think the non-professionals (again, as defined under professional capacity) would benefit from a "SHTF. I'm not in Systems/Networking/Operations but have been tasked with this burden. We don't have a support contract. We don't have an outside vendor or contractor. The Boss says "Fix it" HALP?" canonical answer explaining why, again "as professionals" we cannot assist them in fixing it and that they and their organization will be best served in the long run, with an emergency budget appropriation, an expert and maybe a short bit on why it's worth paying money for one in such situations.

On one hand I think this is a great idea. When your production mission critical application is down and you are out of your depth a true professional takes a step back, realizes they are in over their head and hires someone who has the knowledge to immediately stabilize the situation and get the company back up and running. This truly is the right answer in some cases.

On the other hand I agree with @TheCleaner. We should not turn away operations folks who have inherited something ugly or who are trying to fix something that's outside of their field of experience, which is generally not supported or documented, and they are likely doing so under duress. We can all assume that as professionals, they will know when to make the call to get outside help and that it is a bit presumptuous of the community to second guess them on that.

I suggest a modification of the original proposal. The "XYZ, HLP?" questions are invariably going to be closed as off-topic. Professionals, even those trying to solve a "the chips are down and I've never worked with technology $XYZ before" type of problems are most likely not going to ask questions that will be closed as off-topic.

I think the non-professionals (again, as defined under professional capacity) would benefit from a "SHTF. I'm not in Systems/Networking/Operations but have been tasked with this burden. We don't have a support contract. We don't have an outside vendor or contractor. The Boss says "Fix it" HALP?" canonical answer explaining why, again "as professionals" we cannot assist them in fixing it and that they and their organization will be best served in the long run, with an emergency budget appropriation, an expert and maybe a short bit on why it's worth paying money for one in such situations.