I asked this question about yum and Apache, which is a perfectly fine question for this site. A site moderator stepped in and issued comments that were not helpful to answering the question as asked. I asked for answers that answered the question as asked, after which the moderator put my question on hold, clearly out of spite. Is there a process for reporting a moderator who is abusing his user privileges?

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    The rule he cited is pretty clear- if you're not the admin and aren't making decisions about things like what version of the OS you use to accomplish your goals, then you aren't going to be able to use the answers you get here. – Basil Apr 21 '14 at 18:46
  • What's the threshold for professional? Fedora 15? 16? – Alex Reynolds Apr 21 '14 at 18:53
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    Yes, there is a process. Unfortunately for you, the mod in question wasn't abusing his privileges, so that process isn't really applicable. – HopelessN00b Apr 21 '14 at 18:56
  • @AlexReynolds The threshold for professional has less to do with the OS in question (Although that is a part of the equation) and more to do with your job role and training. If you don't have admin powers over the system in question, you're not a professional in this topic domain. Even a sysadmin who is otherwise a professional cannot ask a question about a system that he/she does not have admin powers over because, in the context of that situation, he is not a professional. Professional sysadmins have full admin rights and thus can be offered professional solutions, not workarounds. – Wesley Apr 21 '14 at 18:57
  • @AlexReynolds The question was not appropriate for the site as per our FAQ and stated mission. It was locked as a result of that. Even if your question did garner an answer, it was completely outside the stated scope of ServerFault anyway. – Wesley Apr 21 '14 at 19:00
  • Only one person here could have known the intentions of the moderator involved in this situation. Please stop speculating. If a user is being rude please Flag the post. If a moderator is out of line there is a contact button at the bottom of every page. If this degrades into lashing-out again I'll lock it permanently – Chris S Apr 21 '14 at 19:09
  • @AlexReynolds Re: "The threshold for professional", please refer to meta.serverfault.com/questions/4111/… and meta.serverfault.com/questions/5475/why-professional-capacity for clarification. – voretaq7 Apr 21 '14 at 19:33

I'm sorry, but that question is not a perfectly fine question for this site.

Serverfault is for questions applicable to professional sysadmins. As soon as you run into "sorry, I can't do this the right way because I don't have admin rights on the server", then the question is one for an end-user. That means the question is not appropriate for this site.

I might have voted to move it to http://unix.stackexchange.com instead - the help center there specifically mentions


as being on-topic.

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    "I'm sorry, but that question is not a perfectly fine question for this site." Quoted for truth. – Wesley Apr 21 '14 at 18:48

The other have addressed your concerns regarding the content of your question.

In regard to reporting personal issues with a moderator there is a contact button at the bottom of every page. It links to a form which allows you to contact the Community Team.

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I read over the question...and you added the bit about not being able to upgrade Fedora 14 after the comments were made.

On ServerFault, we expect askers to have some measure of professional experience with the servers/equipment they work on. Fedora 14 is wayyyy out of date and no-one should really be using this. "I can't upgrade this" doesn't really fly here.

Also, as Jenny has stated the Unix Q&A site is more appropriate as they're more bound to support ancient OS's.

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  • I also stated this in the comments, and I only added this to the question after the fact to make this aspect clearer, per request. – Alex Reynolds Apr 21 '14 at 18:55

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