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We have one user who has started flagging anything with and isn't clearly about server-stuff. To them, VirtualBox has lost the benefit of the doubt in the same way that anything with the tag seems to hold it. VirtualBox does have some enterprise server usage, but it's uptake is probably well below that of . Because of its rare usage in what we do, should we:

  1. Modify the tag-wiki to clarify on-topic situations
  2. Go through the questions we already have in that tag and either migrate them to SU, close as off-topic, or outright delete.

Or should we do something else?

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  • Sorry if I annoyed you :)
    – MDMarra
    Commented Aug 15, 2011 at 17:31
  • 2
    While I don't think we should be in the business of deciding what makes sense or doesn't in a business environment, I agree that anything tagged with virtualbox deserves the same long, hard, sideways look that most consumer-grade hardware and software questions get.
    – Shane Madden
    Commented Aug 16, 2011 at 4:23
  • I wholeheartedly disagree that anything tagged "virtualbox" is not server and/or sysadmin-related. For one, VirtualBox does provide a service; it's not an application in-and-of itself. Secondly, it is far more likely to be of use to (and used by SysAds than traditional end-users. (Yes, some Power-Users are going to be playing with it.)
    – gWaldo
    Commented Aug 23, 2011 at 13:58

3 Answers 3

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I'm not going to look at each of those questions and try to asses whether or not they are "server-stuff" but I will say that while I don't use VirtualBox on a server (nor is it intended to be used that way) I do use it as a valuable tool in my role as a system administrator. I think some may be forgetting that SF isn't just about server stuff.

Because VirtualBox is part of my toolkit I would see questions related to my use of it in that context to be completely on topic for SF. Before rashly trying to eliminate all VirtualBox questions consider the context, as well as the content, of the the question. They are not all posted by hobbyists.

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  • @Starfish, you can disagree all you like but the fact is that at the time I posted that answer the VB web site very clearly stated that VB was not intended to be used on server operating systems.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Jan 23, 2012 at 3:27
  • @Starfish, do you seriously expect people to go back and edit old posts just because something might have changed in the interim? You also appear to have failed to grasp that the reference is in regards to hosting on server operating systems, not servers as guests.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Jan 23, 2012 at 22:40
  • 1
    @Starfish, are you serious? Many users have thousands of posts. I doubt any of us have either the time nor the inclination to review everything we've posted in the past. That's just absurd. This is not a wiki. Nor is it a forum.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Oct 28, 2012 at 22:42
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I'm the one that's been flagging them, but not all of them. Many of them are either horrible quality and I've flagged as "Very Low Quality" and others belong on SU since they don't mention servers, server OSes or any other SA related quality. I haven't been blanket-flagging everything. I've been leaving off ones that have legit SA implications - good or bad.

I think that going through the is a great idea, since I mod-flagged about 30 things in about an hour without even really trying when I was bored this weekend. While useless on SF, I'm sure a lot of them will be useful on SU.

Also, updating the tag wiki would probably be a good idea.

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  • Have you got some examples of those flagged questions? I agree with John - VBox is a tool for sysadmins. So answers about VBox might help in a server context, too. It`s not much of a difference if I have a Ubuntu guest because I want a Linux client or if I have a CentOS guest because I simulate the PXE boot setup for servers...
    – Nils
    Commented Jan 22, 2012 at 22:05
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Ask the user to stop flagging and let the community decide in the usual way with voting. If the user wants to bring certain questions to the attention of the community then they can drop them in the vote to close room.

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  • Iain, are you saying that questions that should be migrated shouldn't be mod-flagged. I've mod-flagged plenty of questions that should be migrated before I went on my virtualbox spree and they were all marked valid
    – MDMarra
    Commented Aug 15, 2011 at 17:24
  • 1
    @MarkM: If the mod flagging is causing sufficient annoyance then perhaps the flagger should be made aware of other channels is what I'm saying.
    – user9517
    Commented Aug 15, 2011 at 17:25
  • I'm the flagger :)
    – MDMarra
    Commented Aug 15, 2011 at 17:26
  • @MarkM: drop em in vote to close then ;)
    – user9517
    Commented Aug 15, 2011 at 17:27
  • I think this raises a larger issue, then. Should posts not be flagged if there is already an existing vote-close reason? Is there a msf or mso post that anyone can dig up about proper use of flags?
    – MDMarra
    Commented Aug 15, 2011 at 17:30
  • @MarkM: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/59445/… check the change made on 2011-03-23 and meta.stackexchange.com/questions/83861/…
    – user9517
    Commented Aug 15, 2011 at 17:56
  • Got it. Thanks for the links.
    – MDMarra
    Commented Aug 15, 2011 at 18:07

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