We have a number of questions tagged with amazon-web-services, amazon-ec2, and/or [amazon-s3].
Is this really the best site for these questions? Okay, granted, AWS makes it really easy to spin up and provision servers using a web interface, but are they really web applications in the same way that Gmail, Twitter, etc. are?
I don't think so.
Compare to the same categories on Server Fault:
- https://serverfault.com/questions/tagged/amazon-web-services
- https://serverfault.com/questions/tagged/amazon-ec2
- https://serverfault.com/questions/tagged/amazon-s3
They have thousands of questions, a large portion of them with answers, compared to the only handful of questions here, most of which, if not closed, still aren't answered.
Even Webmasters seems like it'd be a better place:
- https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/amazon-web-services
- https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/amazon-ec2
- https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/amazon-s3
There they've got dozens of questions, with a lot more votes and a lot more answers.
Look at some of the ones we have:
Asking about if its possible to host a Windows 32 application on AWS. Hosting isn't on-topic here; there's nothing special about AWS in that regard.
Asking about setting up a CGI-BIN on a virtual private server. That's server configuration; just because you do it through a web application doesn't make it a question about a web app.
Asking about configuration of email delivery rules. Again, not a question on how to use a web application.
Asking how to attach a volume to an instance. Again, I don't see how this is about using a web application; it's just that the tool happens to use a web interface.
Just because there's a web front-end doesn't make it on-topic for web applications. We don't accept questions about router configuration, and almost all of them use a web front-end. Except for maybe one or two exceptions, I don't think any of these questions belong here.
I'd also prefer not to turn off the spigot unless we have another place to send them. Can the Moderators here check in with the Moderators at Server Fault and/or Webmasters to see if they want AWS questions carte blanche?