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I think that they all cover separate sections of the same question. I'm thinking we could merge the two excellent answers into being two answers on the same question.

Thoughts?

3 Answers 3

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I'm not sure what benefit we'd get out of merging the Questions. I'm voting no, no merge.

I do think that each should have links to each other, as related resources.

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  • Links between them would probably work too, but I'm not sure how I feel about sending users to one question and having them traverse the links. Plus it feels strange from an answer standpoint (If we put it on "Can you help" it's "No. Now go here where we help you." ; If we put it on "How do you do" it's "Here's how, now go here where we say why we can't help you."). That interpretation is of course entirely a construct of my demented mind: sane people may read it differently and/or not care about following links :-)
    – voretaq7 Mod
    Commented Jul 31, 2012 at 14:58
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    I'm not entirely sure I follow. If we send users to one of the questions, I would think we're sending them to the one relevant to what they're specifically asking for. Having the links to the related questions would only be useful to them if they had other planning interests they hadn't mentioned when we recommended them the first link. Full disclosure, I still haven't had my morning caffeine...
    – Chris S Mod
    Commented Jul 31, 2012 at 15:03
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(FULL DISCLOSURE: I wrote one of those questions referenced, and suggest including another similar question to consideration.)

If you're going to merge those two, also merge in my other canonical question:

However, I think that both (all three) have a place, and could all be displayed.

If they are merged, in the spirit of being a resource for Professionals, let the opening be "We are not going to help you with your Capacity Planning and Load Testing. Here's Why: (answer regarding your special snowflake goes here)." Then, "However to be helpful, here are some thoughts we've put together on how to go about it." And possibly links to the "Web Operations" and "Art of Capacity Planning" books.

On a side note, I would like to see the Canonical Questions made more visible. Personally I'd like to see it right up next to the Questions link or the Search Bar, but at very least I think that it should be added to the FAQ.

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    Love the idea of making the Canonicals more visible on the site. Not sure how exactly.
    – Chris S Mod
    Commented Jul 31, 2012 at 3:52
  • @ChrisS There's the oft-discussed canonical tag -- it's a meta tag, which would make Jeff cry enough tears to drown all of our kittens, but I'm leaning more and more toward having it as our list of canonical questions grows to eclipse my Favorites stars...
    – voretaq7 Mod
    Commented Jul 31, 2012 at 14:55
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    I'm fine with a Canonical tag, but I don't see how that makes it more accessible to our users; they'd have to know to look for it. My thinking is a prominent link right up top, displayed as if to say 'these have already been answered'
    – gWaldo
    Commented Jul 31, 2012 at 15:31
  • What ever happened to the faq tag? Am I only imagining that it was a "special" mod-only tag on SF proper?
    – jscott
    Commented Aug 1, 2012 at 0:43
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I agree these can be merged down -- Right now the two questions cover "Why Server Fault can't do your capacity planning for you" and "What you should do to help figure it our for yourself), and it makes more sense to present this in one place.

We will probably need to massage the canonical question and the answers a bit after the merge, but that's definitely worth the effort for the benefit of having all the info on one page.

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