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In the FAQ, the questions that belong on Server Fault are defined as follows:

Please note that Server Fault is not for general computer troubleshooting questions; if you paid for that desktop hardware, and it's your personal workstation, it is unlikely that your question is appropriate for Server Fault.

What if the question applies to a work environment but is asked by a non-sysadmin. Should it be marked as "belongs-on-superuser" or reworded to apply to multiple users?

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    How does belongs-on-superuser work when super user isn't up yet? – C. Ross Jul 11 '09 at 20:16
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    Haven't you ever heard of time travel?? – DeadHead Jul 11 '09 at 20:24
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    Tagging as belongs-on-superuser is useful in preparation for the new site, it'll make it easier to move when the time comes – dbr Jul 11 '09 at 21:31
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The point the message is trying to make is that ServerFault is for, well, servers. That and larger scale implementations of things, like rapid deployment of some software to a bunch of computers. If it's just an issue you're having at work with your workstation PC, then it probably does belong on SuperUser.

Did this "wrongful" tagging happen to you? If so, what's a link to the question, and I'll see if I can explain more exactly why it's not applicable to ServerFault. (Unless I agree with you, in which case I will be able to do exactly nothing ;)).

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  • It wasn't one of my questions, but the instant tagging made me wonder if I'm not seeing something others do. I see a TON of questions that I would think would get tagged but don't. I don't seem be getting the nuance. – Joseph Jul 11 '09 at 21:26
  • Ah, I see. Well, a lot of the discrepancy is probably due to the fact that those who are able to retag are not catching them all. In all likelyhood, they have better things to do (like answering questions :P). – Sean Jul 12 '09 at 0:47
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I think it's going to depend on what it exactly it is that the question is dealing with. I've seen some questions come through where a user is asking other sysadmins their opinions in order to get a feeling for where their own sysadmin is coming from, or in order to disprove something their sysadmin is saying. Something like this I would agree should not get tagged "belongs-on-superuser".

However, as another example, some desktop support issues asked by non-sysadmins clearly should get tagged "belongs-on-superuser".

I'll also second Darth Eru's comment about not catching all of the questions that should be retagged (or people not feeling like it). I think that if someone has a good history of appropriate retagging then it's an indication that they might be a decent moderator at some point.

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