First question:
From the ServerFault FAQ as of January 20, 2011 (emphasis mine):
Server Fault is for system administrators and desktop support professionals, people who manage or maintain computers in a professional capacity.
Please enunciate what you believe is a good definition of "professional capacity".
Second Question (related):
What determines if a question is asked in a "professional capacity" and deserves an answer and what should be closed and/or migrated to another site (usually SuperUser)?
Response: Mark Henderson
First Question:
If you are in charge of more than just your own computer at your company, or your company has appointed you to a position where you're expected to manage hardware or software, then you can ask your question here. This includes both beginners and old-timers alike. That said however, we expect you to take a professional attitude towards your question, and not ask "plz send teh codes, kthxbai".
Second Question:
Does the question include the word "home"? If it does, can the question be re-written so that it applies to the sysadmin community. For example, if you're setting up "Windows Home Server", then it should be moved to Super User. However, if you say "I'm having trouble applying a GPO policy to my Active Directory that I've set up at home", then by removing the last few words of the question the question is then applicable to a wider audience.
Response: SysAdmin1138
First Question
"Professional Capacity" means you get paid to do what we do, or in a better funded organization would normally be paid (I'm sure we have some non-profiteers around here somewhere). That's about 80% of it right there, which is the easy part. We also expect a certain foundation of learning in questions, unless they're specifically tagged as seeking learning. The topics vary, and so does system-administration, but some depth in your field is expected. Depth provides the ability to ask focused questions, which yield answers and not multi-page essays on the potential gotchas of $Technology.
Second Question
Questions asked in a professional capacity and not deserving of closure/migration, have a few key features:
- Is implicitly not about something in the home, or devices/technologies rarely seen outside of the home.
- Displays at least some understanding of the technology causing the problem.
- Is asked with enough focus to allow an answer with just the supplied information.
- Focuses on technology in the context of the enterprise or web-services, or policy relating to that technology.
Migrating to another site needs to be done with care. The SuperUser community is tired of being the dumping ground of the trilogy (see their moderator nomination-statements for proof of this). Webmasters.SE, one of our migration targets, defines "webmaster" differently than we system administrators do. A good question for migration needs to be topical on the destination community as well. Because of this I've been voting to close-as-off-topic questions that are earning migration votes.
##Response: Robert Moir
Professional Capacity
A good definition of this needs to be flexible rather than a rod to beat ourselves with, but I'm happy with the idea that if you are managing all or part of a network or group of computers as all or part of your job, then this site is for you. I like this definition as I think the site should be inclusive of all levels of ability, and this includes not just veterans and newbies, but also people who work in a specialised area (e.g. deployment) and people who are not full time sysadmins but who have to manage them as part of their overall duties.
Good questions, and the issue of migration
Firstly the obvious qualifiers, such as talking about a business network rather than a home one and talking about "real life problems" as opposed to "I saw a movie once where the computers did whatever and I thought it would be neat if... discuss".
I think a good "professional" question is one where the asker has invested some time in thinking about the question prior to asking it - or where people need help with asking a good question, where they are prepared to clarify their question and to work with people who are trying to help them. You only get as much out of sites like this as you put into it, and a professional question shows some recognition of this.
As for migration to other sites, I know I feel frustrated sometimes when we get questions dumped here by Stack Overflow with little thought, so I can only imagine that Super User people must be frustrated because sometimes I think we must do that to them too. I know I've probably been guilty of voting that way myself wrongly when I first had that ability. As such, I've started looking at questions and if they can't/aren't being clarified then probably opting to close rather than just migrate unless its clearly a case of the question being on the wrong site.
Response: Ben
First Question:
For the most part, this describes somebody whose primary job function is to manage servers or computers other than their own. Job titles often include System Administrator, Helpdesk Analyst and IT Support, but I won't exclude the smaller shops where a developer might also double up as the System Administrator for the company. As long as they are asking a reasonable, coherent and on-topic question, I have no problem with the question being on Server Fault.
Second Question:
If a question is relating to hardware or software which is specifically used in professional server applications (RAID, redundant PSU's, Windows Server OS, Microsoft SQL Server etc) then the question is on-topic for Server Fault. There will obviously be some grey areas such as Linux installed to run a web server for home use, but if the same question can be asked and it still be relevant and helpful for somebody whose primary purpose in their organisation is to manage the company web server, then I think it should stay here.
Ultimately though, questions should reside on the Stack Exchange site which they will receive the correct and best answers.
