I presume that many of ServerFault's regulars have scoped the site's intent in their minds to "For SysAdmins, by SysAdmins." However, [the FAQ][1] is a bit fuzzy. Quoth the FAQ:

> Server Fault is for ***Information Technology Professionals*** needing
> expert answers related to managing computer systems in a professional
> capacity.

The emphasis is only partially mine, because in [the FAQ][2] "Information Technology Professionals" is highlighted in yellow. But what exactly is an "Information Technology Professional?" Years ago, to me, that means anyone who worked in the IT department and included Developers, Help Desk, SysAdmins, and anyone else no matter how speciated their role was (storage, hardware, security, etc.).

Other vendor-cultures tend to segregate things differently. For example, in Microsoft-Land "IT Pros" tends to mean "SysAdmins" and "Developers" means, well... "Developers."

##What's the Problem?

If Developers are considered within the scope of "IT Pros" then we are bound to accept questions from someone whose primary role is not SysAdmin and may be asking a question that based upon false premises (wow do we see that a lot now), in need of serious editing, or in need of a thesis for an answer.

As an example, I give you "[Boot Custom ISO on Remote Dedicated Server][3]." The question itself is good, asked well and also asked in good faith. However, it appears to be entirely off topic for a number of reasons.

The question wasn't well researched and seems to be at the least worthy of a downvote and at worst worthy of being closed. Certainly the question itself was asked well enough to make an excellent Google query, and while we discourage "Just Google it" answers, it is expected that some research effort is given before a question is asked.

I don't want to focus this post on that question, however.

##So just what *is* the focus of this question?

**What does Information Technology Professional mean to Stack Exchange?**

**Secondarily:** Are we to judge a question based upon the job role that a person holds? If someone says "I'm not a SysAdmin, I'm a developer and I really need to figure out why Apache is freezing!" do we hold that question in different esteem than if it was a different type of worker?

Personally, I try to edit out any reference to "I KNOW TEH CODES, BUT HALP ME WIF TEH LAMPS!!!" and let the question stand on its own. **However:** I believe that it is crucial to the handling of questions to know if we should consider that a person is not a SysAdmin. A persons' background is important when offering a solution.

##TL;DR

People who aren't professional SysAdmins ask silly questions, get into trouble and take a lot of time to hand-hold. However, can we close their questions if they're not SysAdmins or does "Information Technology Professional" mean something larger in scope than SysAdmin and related fields? 


  [1]: http://serverfault.com/faq
  [2]: http://serverfault.com/faq
  [3]: http://serverfault.com/questions/398419/boot-custom-iso-on-remote-dedicated-server