35
votes
Accepted
Can non-professional administrators still ask questions about professional setups?
I am fine with this, as long as:
The systems and equipment are truly professional-grade. (No questions about Aunt Mabel's inkjet printer)
You have full administrative permissions on the systems you ...
- 109k
32
votes
What should we do with questions about Vagrant?
I would say yes. Systems administrators can also use vagrant for testing our own environments. Say you want to test your puppet manifests against a known standard configuration - you could vagrant up ...
- 68.9k
16
votes
Can non-professional administrators still ask questions about professional setups?
Even when this place was quite insistent on the professional requirement, to me that always related to the standard/level of the question, not the resume of the asker. A bad question is bad no matter ...
- 31.9k
15
votes
Can non-professional administrators still ask questions about professional setups?
IMO, you don't need to be a professional sysadmin to ask a question here, you just need to be able to play one on the Internet. A lot of questioners can't manage to play Homo Sapiens on the Internet, ...
wombleMod
- 96.3k
11
votes
Accepted
Can I take the on-topic summary at face value?
Things are simple, really.
The first line
Server Fault is for questions about managing information technology systems in a business environment.
is an absolute restriction. We don't take home ...
- 98.8k
11
votes
But What About Otto? Can we hate that yet?
First, what's with the snark?
If you hadn't noticed, the three most upvoted answers on that question (1, 2, 3) proposed that yes, we would accept questions about vagrant, provided that it is ...
- 109k
11
votes
Questions about network protocols
This depends on the context. Questions should always be targeted towards solving an actual technical problem you face while administering a system. Remember, our topic is professional system ...
- 98.8k
9
votes
What should we do with questions about Vagrant?
This is a topic I've been mulling over for quite some time, and I'm not sure I have a good answer.
Nonetheless...
The vast majority of vagrant usage is by developers, orchestrating development ...
- 109k
8
votes
Accepted
Can I ask for a comparison between two specific testing tools?
Such a question would most likely be considered a request for a product recommendation and closed as off-topic:
Requests for product, service, or learning material recommendations are considered ...
- 77.4k
7
votes
Can I ask for a comparison between two specific testing tools?
Without seeing your actual question it is difficult to tell but my feeling is that it won't go down well.
Why can't you call/email Fluke and ask one of their sales engineers?
- 116k
7
votes
What should we do with questions about Vagrant?
It's kind of the same as VirtualBox or *AMPP. If you are preparing/deploying for other people then yes, on topic. Otherwise you are running close to development and SO is likely a better place. It's ...
- 116k
6
votes
Do we need a separate site for "researchers"?
The only question you list in your post that would be squarely off-topic would be #9. Some have the potential to be too broad or open-ended (#1, #8, #10), but I don't see how this wouldn't be an issue ...
- 98.8k
5
votes
Accepted
Where would I ask a broad question about maintaining new technologies
At first glance your question is exactly on-topic for ServerFault, as it is about managing information technology systems in a business environment.
Although the subject is as much as if not more a ...
- 77.4k
5
votes
Question considered off-topic
Because trying to use a non-powershell command line on a 17 year old, unsupported Windows server is the poster child for the reasonable information technology management practices close reason.
- 31.9k
4
votes
What should we do with questions about Vagrant?
I haven't reviewed all the questions, but I think one of the issue is in this:
If a SysAdmin has a question regarding Vagrant, it will probably be on-topic. Like Mark Henderson states, it may be used ...
- 6,543
4
votes
Accepted
Right place for Juniper related questions?
I can't comment about the topicality at Network Engineering except to state what its moderator already told you:
OK. Unfortunately, questions about protocols above OSI layer-4 are off-topic here. ...
- 244k
3
votes
Do we need a separate site for "researchers"?
I looked through the list of questions and I don't think the support a specialized site for research computing.
A lot of them are look to me like sysadmin questions that could be fine here:
What are ...
- 12.9k
3
votes
Accepted
Question considered off-topic
This is a case where Stack Exchange's desire to be nicer leads to confusion. I forget the explanation of why it's nicer, but details of why a question was closed are hidden from anyone with less than ...
- 12.9k
2
votes
Is the serverfault community oriented by profession or knowledge areas?
In general, StackExchange isn't the right place for very broad "how do I set up (whatever system)?" questions. ServerFault has at least 2 - arguably 3 - close reasons for overly broad ...
- 12.9k
1
vote
What should we do with questions about Vagrant?
I've tossed enough comments in so I thought I'd summarize my arguments in one place.
Pro argument: Vagrant is an admin tool for managing environments
My response
Nonsense- out of all the admins ...
- 24.1k
1
vote
Where can I ask questions about web hosting control panels?
What is the use of StackExchange forum or site, when we have to go to vendors or service providers to resolve our issues? If system admins or the vendors themselves want to ask a question about system ...
- 4,269
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible