18

So this question... https://serverfault.com/questions/45734/the-coolest-server-names

It's horribly off topic. It's got a few votes to delete it right now because the community does not want it here (it's already been deleted once by the community).

I understand that it's being kept around for its historical significance, but it's not this site's history.

It's a question which came from SO, had many answers given by SO, and was migrated here. So can we send it back to SO? It's off topic there, yes, but it's also off topic here. At least at SO it would be back to its historical roots.

Or we could just delete it. That's happened once already, but Jeff brought it back. I don't want to start a "community vs. the mods (or SO leadership)" battle. At what point does "We don’t run Server Fault. The community does." begin or end?

The other option is we could just leave it. But it's not on topic. I don't fully understand why we would leave this off topic question here when we delete others that are similarly off topic.

5
  • 5
    Consider this the question that decides the fate of the Coolest Server Names. thump thump
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Commented Sep 4, 2011 at 19:09
  • @sysadmin - I've edited the question to more clearly align with the goal of deciding ultimate fate. Hopefully we can end this question once and for all :-)
    – Jason Berg
    Commented Sep 4, 2011 at 20:58
  • 3
    Go vote for this MSO question to help alleviate the situation where hundreds of Delete votes are required for trash like this that gets migrated with tons of votes already on it. meta.stackexchange.com/questions/87031/…
    – squillman
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 14:53
  • 4
    Clearly this question is a nonsense. It's not "our" history. I don't care that some programmer once named their build servers after their favourite startrek TNG characters any more than I'd expect them to care about how "my" internal network's host naming structure applies to servers.
    – Rob Moir
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 10:57
  • Now that this is done. What about other questions like this? Example: serverfault.com/questions/7902/… and this serverfault.com/questions/3668/…
    – Nixphoe
    Commented Sep 9, 2011 at 0:15

7 Answers 7

Reset to default
22

Throw this question into the sun.

11
  • The issue is that it requires something like 100+ community votes to delete and I'm not comfortable doing it on behalf of that many users. Although, most people won't notice it gone I'm guessing
    – Mark Henderson Mod
    Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 1:32
  • @Mark - According to meta.stackexchange.com/questions/50523/… we need 22 votes
    – Jason Berg
    Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 1:49
  • This is why I'm trying for a vote. I want big numbers. And if the question deletes naturally, which would be the 2nd or 3rd time that's ever happened here I believe, then we won't need a mod-hammer.
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 2:44
  • @Jason: It just told me it needed another 320-odd delete votes. Farque.
    – womble Mod
    Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 3:46
  • @womble - I didn't notice. It said all rep for the question PLUS all rep for all of the answers divided by 20...so at this point, it's impossible for the community to get rid of it on its own no matter how much we may want to.
    – Jason Berg
    Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 4:46
  • I was just told 221 votes still required.
    – user9517
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 6:33
  • +1 I cast my delete vote on it ages ago. It got migrated from SO with a bazillion votes already on it. Because of this and the delete formula we're kinda screwed unless it gets mod-hammered.
    – squillman
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 13:38
  • 1
    Down to 220 votes needed... Considering there's 3,832 upvotes on the first page alone, and that would need 195 close votes to delete, plus the other pages.... We'll have to mod-hammer it eventually. But it would be nice to get a bunch of people in on it first.
    – Chris S
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 18:24
  • @MarkHenderson: You might not notice it gone... but deleting this question actually broke StackStatus.
    – Nathan Osman
    Commented Sep 29, 2011 at 6:01
  • @GeorgeEdison - how on earth...?
    – Mark Henderson Mod
    Commented Sep 29, 2011 at 9:16
  • @GeorgeEdison I'm guessing it was the monitor-page target. It goes away, so does the monitor. I've done much the same thing at my old job :}
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Commented Sep 29, 2011 at 11:57
14

Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye,

Three days have passed. Since then:

  • 30% of our >10K users have voted to delete that question, independent of the vote going on here.
  • 22 upvotes for sun-based disposal
  • 4 upvotes for 'send it back from whence it came'
  • Showers of hate upon 'Leave it'.

Based upon this, the question will be ritually tossed into the sun. Which is cranky today, so it is fitting.

It is gone.

Record of destruction

5
  • This makes a happy Berg
    – Jason Berg
    Commented Sep 8, 2011 at 0:54
  • And there was much rejoicing.
    – EEAA
    Commented Sep 8, 2011 at 1:25
  • 2
    It is with genuine joy and pride that I see my name on that list. Thank you. This was a job far too long in the making.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Sep 8, 2011 at 1:50
  • 2
    As luck would have it, NASA caught the impact: ow.ly/i/gW93/original
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Commented Sep 8, 2011 at 14:30
  • Hark! I hear, TRUMPETS!
    – squillman
    Commented Sep 8, 2011 at 21:38
12

If it were my choice, I'd just hit the delete button on it here and be done with it.

Yes, by today's rules it is off topic both here and on Stack Overflow. I don't feel it adds any useful information to this site, or any on the Stack Exchange network. It goes no way towards the Stack Exchange mission of "make the internet better" and as such should simply be obliterated.

I'd like to think we've all become much less tolerant of crap since December '10 when it was resurrected, and I'd hope everyone else would also agree. There has been a very visible onslaught against bad questions that don't add value to the internet, and to me this is one of them. Hey, it was practically Christmas - maybe Jeff had a few drinks and was feeling generous? :-)

3
  • 2
    Don't migrate crap. Not Good Subjective. Delete it.
    – jscott
    Commented Sep 4, 2011 at 20:42
  • Well, the community deleted it once. Jeff brought it back (I assume because of its historical significance). I'd hate to delete it again without his blessing.
    – Jason Berg
    Commented Sep 4, 2011 at 20:49
  • 2
    @Jason, Jeff is able to do whatever he likes with that or any other question. That should be no reason to refrain from honest voting. I'd personally rather be banned from the site than to wimp out.
    – John Gardeniers
    Commented Sep 5, 2011 at 21:41
7

I've certainly done my bit to try and get rid of that question, as well as similar ones, but the system is against us. If Jeff brought it back from the dead I'd love to hear his reasoning for doing so. The only reasoning I can think of is that it brings traffic due to Google and traffic translates to revenue and revenue is the reason Stack Exchange exists.

That question is part of the history of SF only in the sense of being a great example of what NOT to post. Rather than adding value it merely detracts from SF and on at least one occasion I've seen it referenced as an excuse to post an off-topic question ("if they can do it why can't I?").

1
  • 13
    The "it brings a LOT of traffic to the site" opinion holds little water with me, since it's exactly the kind of question you shouldn't ask here. The exemplar, even. The petulant in me says, "if the SO people want it kept, they can house it."
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Commented Sep 4, 2011 at 22:24
4

It needs to be burniated.

It adds nothing to the site. It was a "fun" question once upon a time maybe but we've moved on from that.

Perhaps it should be locked while its fate is being debated?

0

Send it back from whence it came.

-9

Leave it, just keep it locked down.

2
  • 1
    Is is possible to lock every bit of it, fixate it in history and prevent it from ever popping up on the front page again?
    – Chris S
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 18:29
  • @ChrisS As I understand it Locking the post will do all of that. But it'll still hang out as one of the top-voted questions.
    – sysadmin1138 Mod
    Commented Sep 6, 2011 at 21:31

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