The Serverfault community seems to treat questions differently than other SE sites... and there definitely seems to be a "culture" or general understanding on how to treat questions that isn't immediately clear.

* Generally speaking, why is a question upvoted or downvoted here?  

* Should I interpret any meaning based on the value of the upvote / downvote?

* Is this site just for the "elite" and N00bs can just go their own way.

Friends who I sent to Serverfault got the impression it wasn't too friendly of a place, and stopped using it.  In fact I think I remember seeing a similar Meta question & observation within the past 6 months by other users.

Your perspective is welcome.