Friday, January 28, 2011

Where can I ask questions that aren't IT questions?

Thank you for your confidence in our abilities

But have you read this? FAQ

We get a lot of interesting technical questions on here, but Server Fault is meant to be first and foremost a resource for system administrators and IT professionals. In other words, Server Fault isn't meant to cater to every computer problem - just those that only exist in or can best be solved in the IT and sysadmin domain

Yes, someone here might be able to help you, but you'll find that other forums more focused on your topic can give you a much better answer than a bunch of IT professionals. It's likely that your question will be downvoted, closed, and in some cases marked "offensive." It's not that we hate you, it's just that we like to keep our corn pops separate from our cocoa puffs.

In that vein, here are a bunch of other forums where you can get help:

(This list contains the top two forums for each category as voted for below.)

Check out the answers below for even more suggestions!

What forums can people go to to ask the questions that are off topic here? Please list only ONE forum per answer so votes can bring the best forums to the top.

Return to FAQ Index

From serverfault Adam Davis
  • From Tony Meyer

  • Yahoo! Answers

    From Adam Davis

  • ask.metafilter.com (there is a one-week waiting period after signup, before you are allowed to post a new question to Ask MetaFilter)

    From Adam Davis

  • Google Search

    From Adam Davis

  • Launchpad Answers, for projects hosted on launchpad, such as Ubuntu or Drizzle

    From jldugger

  • Experts Exchange

    (no link, just joking)

    Adam Davis : I'm tempted to flag as offensive... ;-P
    username : i need help but they broke my google when i visited them so that i can't read any of their answers. they probably have a virus in their outlook i guess
    gbarry : +1 "The Website with the Hyphen in the Name"
    From Andrew H

  • IRC Links to programmes that you can use to connect to an IRC server.

    Adam Davis : The links you provide aren't forums for people to ask for help - they are programs that allow people to get to the forums. This is like saying, "If you need help, go download a browser." Do you have links to specific IRC server/channels that provide a good forum for one of the areas abaove?
    dbr : As great as irssi is, XChat may be worth mentioning under the Linux section (or listed separately as cross-platform?)
    gyaresu : I only listed them for the initial poster to add IRC to the list. There should be a whole IRC question & answer really.
    From gyaresu
    • General technical questions
      • irc://freenode/serverfault
      • irc://freenode/stackoverflow
    • Server Fault meta discussion
      • irc://freenode/serverfault

    -Adam

    From Adam Davis

  • A moderator closed this question regarding screen resolutions as "not sysadmin related".

    http://serverfault.com/questions/10741

    What does "sysadmin" mean? Does it mean just "networking"?

    Who are these professional systems administrators that don't use computers with monitors? ...With users that don't use computer monitors?

    Are output devices not part of "the system" and do they not need "administration"? I'm confused.

    Adam Davis : Hardware and software problems on a single case basis are not particularly sysadmin or IT related. If you had 500 new computers and 500 monitors and they were not compatible but should be, then it might be applicable, but in your case you have hardware that used to work, nothing changed in your setup, and now doesn't work. It's not a question that requires sysadmin or IT expertise - just computer repair expertise. While the skills needed overlap, this site is focused on those questions that are explicitly and wholly within the IT and sysadmin domain.
    Adam Davis : It's a fine distinction, and over time we'll gain many more 3k+ editors than can vote to close and open questions, and this line will shift. There will be many comparable questions that will remain open and many others that will be closed, and it will always be a source of friction. But this website isn't meant to cater to every computer and hardware problem - only those that really only exist in, or can best be solved in, the IT and sysadmin domain.
    Zack Peterson : Thank you for answering, but that sounds to me like the fix is to find and replace "my" with "this user's". Or, maybe just tweak the title to sound more encyclopedic: Change "Why won't Windows allow my monitor's native resolution?" to "Force native resolution to Non-PnP monitor in Windows."
    Matt Simmons : Whether or not that question actually addressed an issue experienced by the user or the person asking the question was performing desktop support, not IT administration. Since Server Fault exists to cater to IT administrators, it was off topic. Yes it is a fine line, but not that fine. Don't you get upset when people ask you to fix their VCRs because you're a "computer guy"?
    From Zack Peterson

  • WikiAnswers is another popular general Q&A site (and my workplace...)

    From Yuval F

  • http://www.wolframalpha.com/ - (Hardcore) scientific & statistical information

    From GvS
  • From fretje

  • Hard Forum for PC displays is actually one of very few of its kind. Most "display" forums integrate a bunch of video card, TV and gaming talk. This one focuses on just PC displays.

    From Carl Campos

  • I have a site that I have closed to new registrations as I have been to busy to Moderate effectively, and sorry to say has been rather dormant because of this, but?!?!

    The site was originally designed to help people with getting their certs.

    My point is, if people are interested, I can rebuild the site archiving the data there into sub-forums and re-open it for general discusisons.

    The site is Tech-Unity

    If anyone is interested, reply here with your opinions.

    From Tom Lorentz
Posted by Mu Cat at 5:12 PM

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