4

I am getting fed up with some of my questions getting closed on superuser.com. Like this one https://superuser.com/questions/142537/website-which-helps-a-user-pick-a-motherboard-closed & https://superuser.com/questions/144117/which-cpu-for-sql-server-machine-xeon-i5-i7-amd-phenom-closed. It's time to look for another site which is more open minded and have no question police in it. I am not finding superuser.com to be very helpful and it's getting annoying. I find it ironic that a site promotes "no question is too newbie or too dumb" for us but I see a ton of questions which get closed because they're too localized or off topic!

Also when you post some kind of hardware question (server related) on serverfault, they tell you to move it to superuser. You post it on superuser, they tell it belongs to server. WELL.. MAKE UP YOUR MIND! I don't have time to follow other people's whims.

9
  • 2
    I understand that you are frustrated, but that may be because you don't quite understand where to put things.
    – George Edison
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 5:47
  • Related (duplicate?): meta.stackexchange.com/questions/38391/…
    – Gnome
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 6:48
  • 10
    @George - must... resist... stupid... joke...
    – Gnoupi
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 6:59
  • 1
    @Gno: and the joke is...?
    – George Edison
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 7:20
  • 8
    @Gnoupi: must...resist...explaining...to...George
    – dboar
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 11:30
  • 3
    No.. I understand very well where to put the questions. Next time when I have a hardware question, I'll post it at tomshardware or Anandtech where people are specialized in hardware and not much effort wasted in trying to close the question or whether it's a duplicate!
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 17:52
  • Superuser and serverfault cater for more general types of questions. Go to more specialized forums on the web if you need more to the point answers from field experts. You can agree or disagree. It won't change my conclusion.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 18:03
  • 2
    @tony - that's not what was said, though. You can find very specialized question on SU, with expert answers. But it has to match the field of questions you can ask about, simply. Don't take on the community's knowledge the fact that you asked off-topic questions.
    – Gnoupi
    Commented May 31, 2010 at 6:39
  • If that isn't a question about "Computer Hardware" then I give up. I've just had a similar question about PSP support forums rejected as well
    – munrobasher
    Commented Oct 29, 2010 at 9:41

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
26

I agree with the closings. The core issue here is that Super User is not a shopping recommendation site.

Technology questions along the lines of ...

"what {hardware class} should I buy now with a budget of ${dollars}?"

... have very little utility beyond the narrow window of time in which they were asked.

For example, with your CPU question, a better formulation would be:

What CPU characteristics are best for a server?

This is a much more useful question over time, since you can talk about L2 cache, # of cores, power consumption, and CPU architecture in a way that will be useful to future visitors. And you can cite current examples of CPUs in terms of how they may or may not meet those criteria.

6
  • 15
    +1 for Super User is not a shopping recommendation site. `Cuz it ain't.
    – George Edison
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 5:46
  • 1
    Then make your answer a more general answer instead of closing the whole question. Server optimized for database use does not automatically equate to a general purpose server. I think the best thing to do is to ask questions in a specialized forum instead of a general purpose Q&A site like serverfault or superuser. E.g, If I have on IIS, it's best to ask at www.iis.net.. and so on.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 17:57
  • 1
    "What CPU characteristics are best for a server?" No that's not a good question for me. It's too general. I specifically. asked for brand and model. I already know which kind of CPU's I want. That's why I narrowed it down to the models I mentioned. I tend to say serverfault and superuser are too general for my needs.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 17:59
  • My question wasn't a shopping recommendation question. It wasn't about which site offers what motherboards put asked about which site which helps picking a motherboard. It's like asking about which software or tool that can do a certain thing. Either way, superuser was useless.
    – Tony_Henrich
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 19:20
  • Feature request to add "no shopping recommendation" to the FAQ: meta.stackexchange.com/questions/51813/…
    – Gnoupi
    Commented May 31, 2010 at 8:56
  • 1
    Surely the most helpful thing is to answer the "correct" question and explain the reasoning. So for the "which CPU should I buy" question, rather than give a model of CPU, a full answer should state that the site is not a shopping site, explain what characteristics the questioner should be looking for and relate those characteristics to the currently available CPUs. The answer is then useful to the questioner and to future questioners because they see the reasoning behind the answer and so can apply it to their situation. The only people who lose are those who like to control "their" site.
    – Neal
    Commented Jul 24, 2010 at 8:36
4

Super User does not handle website questions, which is why the first question was closed.

The second question:

  • should probably have been on Server Fault because it deals with servers
  • was of such nature that it was a recommendation for purchasing and was too localized in that regards

Regarding item #2, if it was a general request for recommendation (like a firewall rec), that would have been ok. But that question in particular was just a bit too detailed (hence it being closed as 'too localized').

1
  • Why not? How does one become a super user? Often by knowing where is the best respository of information. Being able to pass on that knowledge is key to using one's computer effectively IMO
    – munrobasher
    Commented Oct 29, 2010 at 9:43
4

"Newbie" and "dumb" are orthogonal to "too localized" and "off-topic".

Dumb, on-topic for SU, too-localized: How can I delete the entire Windows registry to prevent my spouse from noticing I visit penisland.net? (Though easily edited to remove the too-localized aspect in this case.)

Newbie, off-topic: Why do my friends laugh at my blonde hair and the whiteout on my screen?

1
  • I've visited penisland before. It's a nice place!
    – Earlz
    Commented May 30, 2010 at 18:24

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .