For example, checking downforeveryoneorjustme.com or asking if a co-worker can reach a web site is different from contacting the site's operators to tell them about the trouble you're having.
It's related because it's another example of discovering a local symptom and attempting some investigation before emailing YC/PG.
I attempted an analogous investigation before posting. I tried Private Browsing mode, which worked. I tried different browsers, which didn't. The next step in my investigation before emailing YC/PG was to find out if it was just me on this local network, and the only way I had to investigate that was to ask someone else. The only way I could do that was to post to HN. It seemed the obvious next investigatory stage.
Colin, how is submitting a story in order to figure out if it was a local SNAFU different from submitting a story in order to report a problem? Especially in light of the FAQ suggesting/recommending/asking for people to email instead of submiting stories about problems/questions...
I had thought you had asked about the difference between seeing whether a problem was just some odd, isolated thing and informing the people running a system that you were having a problem. If that's not it, I'm unclear as to what you were actually asking.
"I wasn't asking for support, or reporting a problem to HN, just seeing if it was a local SNAFU."
I asked how submitting a story to report a problem was different than submitting a story to see if it was a local SNAFU. And you brought up isup.me which would have been useless since the issue was related to logins?
