What topics can I ask about here? Are there any questions or types of questions that we do not want to ask here or that would be better asked elsewhere? Can I ask a “newbie” question here?
To play devil’s advocate, I would say a user that comes here has probably done Google searching and investigated whatever local support or documentation is provided for his/her resource, and still can’t find an answer. Now let’s imagine what happens when this individual is given a scoped list of things allowed. At best, he/she reads the list, the question falls into scope, and the individual still has the inertia to ask the question. Reading the list might limit him or her to what is asked in the future to “what is allowed.” At worst, their topic isn’t addressed, or doesn’t fall into scope, or they lose motivation. And someone has to tell them this, and possibly flag or remove the question.
In my mind it’s a much worse outcome to not ask at all, versus asking and possibly being told “Hey, did you check this other place?” Any strong statement or action that could potentially discourage anyone from participating should be carefully considered, because if a participant found the boards in the first place they probably have need to ask the question. Also, I’ve found that some of the most interesting questions are the most unpredictable. So, in the wise words of one of my graduate school colleagues:
Ask for forgiveness, not permission
Ask away, friends 
What to ask here
Ask.CI is for people using and/or managing research computing systems at any level and professionals in related fields. We welcome questions about the broad range of subject matter that this covers including:
- Understanding research computing and cyberinfrastructure (CI) concepts.
- Understanding research data management concepts— yes, even though we have “computing” in the name, our scope includes “data”, as well.
- Software problems related to building, installing, or using in a research computing environment.
- So-called “Newbie” questions— yes, we welcome questions from everyone with any background in research computing, whether you’re a “newbie” or a seasoned veteran.
- Questions about workflow design and best use of computing/storage resources.
- Questions about which software packages are more performant and scale out for specific algorithms (i.e. the implementation and not the equation).
What might be better asked elsewhere
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Physics, engineering and research questions. It is great to ask about models and techniques as related to using software on clusters or understanding computing architecture, but concepts of a specific field of research might be better answered on a Q&A platform specific to that field
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Technical support specific to a system (unless the institution has set up an Ask.CI locale), such as “can you increase my quota”, “can you change file permissions on a file for me”, “when will X filesystem be fixed”, etc. Such questions should be directed outside of this Q&A site to those employed by the institution or computing resource in question, or help desk that provides support for your cluster.