Where do I post questions about Dev Ops?

Question

In the last month or two I've noticed my questions are becoming increasingly dev ops related and less related to server fault or stackoverflow. Examples include 0MQ compiling issues or problems in TCP.

The field of Dev Ops is ever increasing, and I know teams who have rewritten protocols and entire NGINX modules but their problems aren't necessarily software or hardware related. They can be hybrid problems or caused by a programming error that didn't respect a firewall keep-alive.

I think many users may be confused as to why they see some of these questions and simply say they're off-topic. But now that our economy is cloud-based and SaaS companies do not control the hardware, Dev Ops have high value in the field of software development.

Where do we put these off-topic questions?

Update: example

This question was about 0MQ and probably only someone working in Dev Ops would have a clue. It was multi-faceted and involved Java bindings, Visual Studio, and C compiling

Definitive fool-proof steps for 0MQ / ZeroMQ and Java on Windows 7?

This question was about redis which both requires networking, server and software expertise. It took some time to track the bug to the Scala client itself:

Scala-redis subscribes to * but receives zero messages

Answer 1

We restarted the DevOps proposal on Area 51:

We think there is a need for this, as many questions (see @jwww answer) cannot be appropriately answered on a single SE site because of the many perpectives converging in DevOps practices.

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In March 2017, the site has been launched.

Homepage: devops.stackexchange.com

Answer 2

DevOps itself is a loaded term that means a lot of things to a lot of people. But the need for the terminology highlights an important point: drawing hard lines between development and operations has led to much pain in the history of building and managing software systems. Companies that keep their sysadmins in one building and their programmers in another are having their lunch eaten by companies who realize that close collaboration is necessary, and that team boundaries need to be drawn where they make sense based on the specific problem at hand, not where an HR person's knowledge ends.

The fact that so many questions are being closed on Stack Overflow for being offtopic when they are talking about things that bleed pretty deeply into programming is troubling to me because it indicates an impulse to cram things into a rigid taxonomy that does not fit the direction the software world is moving. A dedicated DevOps site would dilute strong questions and answers on Stack Overflow in favor of servicing such a taxonomy.

Obviously we don't want every software package under the sun to spawn a zillion off-topic Stack Overflow questions, but programming is a messy thing and there should be some nuance to the fat we are attempting to trim lest we start cutting meat as well. Stack Overflow is of course the original and largest, and therefore will necessarily have the messiest edges. We need to wrestle with the messiness and come to reasonable terms that maximize the utility of the resource overall.

My worry is that the people making these decisions are not the ones getting the most use of Stack Overflow, but are the people most drawn to tidiness and organization for its own sake. I'm reminded of the problem that Wikipedia has where the domination of the community by policy lawyers with no actual domain expertise allow bad content through based on a (possibly malicious) contributor's willingness to jump through hoops, where real topic experts through up their hands and give up their efforts to correct obvious falsehoods because, you know, they can be more effective in other areas of their life where their expertise is actually recognized!

In short, I feel very strongly, database storage is cheap, the search feature is effective: DevOps questions should be allowed on Stack Overflow.

Answer 3

Where do we put these off-topic questions?

Some of them could be asked on (in no particular order): Stack Overflow, Unix & Linux Stack Exchange, and Server Fault. Some don't fit any of the sites in the Stack Exchange network.

I think many of them could be asked on Super User. But the thing that makes some of them questionable is Super User's requirement of personal and home computer networking (see their Help Center). So if someone asks for their own edification, then its on-topic. If they ask on behalf of their employer, then its off-topic.

Some of them could be asked on Server Fault. But the person asking has to be mindful of how to keep it on-topic. For example, they need to ensure they are satisfying the criteria of managing information technology systems in a business environment, and not setting up a dev server (see their Help Center).

There was also Dev Ops in Area 51. But it was closed for some reason.

Until the Stack Exchange network stands up a Dev Ops site, Stack Overflow, Super User and Server Fault will be polluted with off-topic developer operations questions like how to configure Apache, How to configure Nginx, How to configure Amazon, How to generate a private key, How to generate a certificate signing request, How to create a certificate, etc...

Answer 4

In a way, many of these questions sound to me like a subset of the questions that are on-topic at SuperUser: how to install, set up, and use some apparently poorly-documented software. I think the deciding factor as to whether this would make a good Stack would be whether there is actually a population of people who know the answers, or if the knowledge is spread so thin that most questions would go unanswered.

Other questions though, begin "What is the best way...," "What do you use...," etc, and those are the sort of discussion/polling/shopping questions that are banned at most (if not all) stacks. I'm concerned about those; several of the ones you posted in the comments above don't sound as if they could be rephrased another way.

My remaining concern is about rot. Those questions all sound extremely specific to particular versions of particular software packages used in combinations that would come tumbling down like a house of cards as the various packages evolved. For most of the questions on StackOverflow, the answeres will still be relevant in a year; I somehow don't think this is the case for your proposed site.

But ultimately, the proof is in the pudding, and my concerns may be invalid. Therefore, I'll point out that there is an established process for requesting and initiating a new StackExchange site: Area 51. Head over there and work up a proposal, see how it flies!