What can we do to fix the "Reasonable management practices" close reason?

Question

I don't like it!

Let's make it better, because it's weak.

1. What questions are being closed right now with it where it's not conveying what we want it to?
   • Are they "you're on the wrong site", "you're doing it wrong", something else?
2. Do we need a generic "you're on the wrong site" reason that replaces "not professional"? We can go up to 4 custom close reasons if we need to.
3. How can we word "reasonable management practices" to convey that it's for the "you're doing it wrong" questions in a clear, and yes, nice way?

Answer 1

I'm really new to this community, and I'd rather like to just comment and see what everyone is thinking. However I want to throw some thoughts out there and see what the responses are. And it's a bit over the comment character limit.

First of all I think there are a lot of questions that simply lack basic research on the OP's part.
And these questions usually get one of the following treatments:

1. Downvoted (to the OP's suprise)
2. Responded to with a great answer that only seems to encourage more questions
3. Ignored (can't find an immediate example, but I'm sure they're out there)

Closing them with a statement that the OP could easily find this with basic research would save some time.

The question implies a lack of basic research.

There's also the kinds of question that seem to indicate that the OP is either royally ruining his career, or very likely not actually talking about a corporate environment / playing around.
While these are currently closed as "blatantly offtopic" (which might not be the exact fit here) or simply answered in good faith. The OP's are demonstrating a lack of constraint and their actions would not be acceptable in any company I know of.

Closing them with a notification similar to:

The question is caused by a business / personnel problem, and is unlikely to be resolved here.

We can still help the OP in comments, but due to the nature of these questions they're unlikely to help anyone in the future.

This still leaves out the "you're doing it wrong" aspect though...

Answer 2

OK, so maybe this will end up being completely wrong and downvoted away, but here goes. Feel free to poke holes in it! :)

ServerFault exists to be a good Q&A site for sysadmins, but it also is a great lurkers/searchers site. There are tons of folks that simply google something and end up here. The whole point of an IT "community" is to be a community. When we vote to close things we do so based on various reasons but then additional folks in the close queue have to agree with those reasons. We also have to have a good reputation as a quality site. That means quality questions and answers.

Personally, I miss the "too localized" close reason...So taking on what Reaces said in his answer, here's my proposed replacement for this particular close reason:

The question implies a lack of basic research or is such that the ServerFault community feels it isn't going to be of value to the IT community at large. You can find more information as to why [here].

With the [here] hyperlink have a Meta post saying something like:

---

OK, you're here because your question got closed due to a lack of basic research or is such that the ServerFault community feels it isn't going to be of value to the IT community at large.

So what does that mean?

• Your question (as it was written when voted on) was obvious enough to our community that we felt it had been covered by the IT community here or at large numerous times and a simple search here or on Google would have given you the answer(s) or led you in the right direction.
• Your question was just plain silly. It's written where the experts here would read it and ask "Wait...what?" not because we need clarification but because the question makes no sense period. Example: "At what speed would my work's internet connection allow me to not receive spam?"
• Your question is too localized. While it's fine to ask questions about obscure situations, products, or issues that only a handful of folks might encounter...it's generally considered off-topic to ask us how to fix something only you are experiencing or to fix your in-house applications. The IT community at large is unlikely to benefit from these questions.
• Your question deals with a product/service that offers free/included technical support and you haven't shown that you've contacted them for resolution.

"So what can I do? I still need my question answered!" you ask. This is difficult to answer as a blanket statement, but our advice would be to start with a good search here, on StackExchange, and of course your favorite search engine(s). If that fails, check with the OEM/VAR/sysadmin/consultant/etc. that would be the direct contact for help with the product or situation you are facing.

Feel free to present your case! Follow the 5 R's!

Reword your question accordingly after going through the steps above to show the experts here that what you are facing is Real, Researched, and Relevant. Then vote to Re-Open the question.

If you still feel that the question is warranted or your question is being treated unfairly, you can ask about it on Meta.

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Answer 3

I've been thinking about this for a few weeks, and watching closed questions on SF fairly closely. It seems to me that closed questions not well-addressed by this close reason fall into one of two main categories:

• The user has absolutely no idea what he's doing and answering the question will be an exercise in explaining very basic concepts, such as how to use the keyboard, or why a guide on the Internet sucks. There's not a real consensus on questions like these; while most people seem to dislike them, there is a significant minority of people here who think they should be asked and answered.

• The question is blatantly off-topic. Either it's about programming, debugging a program, setting up a developer's personal workstation, a home network, etc. Many of these questions already get migrated to their proper site (mostly SU or SO) but a good percentage of them really aren't good enough quality to migrate. Remember that we aren't supposed to migrate crap.

I won't address the first type here; I think the issues surrounding it need more exploration and for one side or the other of that debate to give ground.

I would address the second type by proposing we bring back the "not professional" close reason in a different form:

Questions on Server Fault must be about managing information technology systems in a business environment. Home and end-user computing questions may be asked on [su], and questions about development, testing and development tools may be asked on [so].

In particular I do not mean for this close reason to replace the existing one, but to be an additional close reason. This will require SE to raise the number of close reasons our site can have, which is something I am assured can be done within 6 to 8 weeks if the community is on board with the additional close reason(s).

Answer 4

I frankly think that one of the strengths of the original non-professional close reason was that it did (or could) apply to the poster, and not just the post.

To be totally honest, some people are simply well beyond help, and many of them come here to spew their garbage questions at us.

A lot of people, while not spewing useless garbage onto the front page, simply can't be helped in a Q&A format because they don't know enough, or aren't approaching their problem from a professional mindset, etc., and these questions turn into utter trainwrecks with massive comment threads and edits upon edits to ask more follow up questions or radically alter the question and are really only good for causing frustration on everyone's part.

In these cases, which constitute a significant number of closed and deleted questions, the problem is the person asking the question, as much as anything else.

So, while I know it's not going to happen that we get back a close reason that can be applied to the poster ("your question is fine, but we can't help you), that's my two cents. This reason could be improved by allowing for an interpretation where the problem is the person asking.

In my opinion, the absence of a close reason that acknowledges the reality that sometimes the problem is the poster himself causes more problems than it solves, because those questions still get downvoted feverishly and closed with great vigor, but they just get closed with ill-fitting close reasons that confuse the OP as to why.

Answer 5

It's better than "not professional," because that sounds like we're slamming the OP rather than the question, but it's still vague. I think it's trying to convey, "hardware, software, and practices relevant to a business setting."

Differentiating "wrong site" and "you're doing it wrong" might help, yeah. For "wrong site," perhaps "questions must be relevant to business-class hardware and software" or "questions must be relevant to hardware and software suitable for a business setting." For "you're doing it wrong," "Questions which go against best practices may not be suitable for Server Fault."

Edit: You convinced me. I'm trying to articulate the difference between "I run a small business selling things at conventions. Should I install a DC on a laptop so I can take it to conventions with me?" and "I'm having trouble setting up my minecraft server." I think the first is on-topic (if doing it wrong) and the second is not; my attempt to describe that is "hardware and software suitable for a business setting." (The second person may actually be more knowledgeable than the first, but it's not business software.)