I quite agree with you, many problems on ServerFault will require more back and forth dialog than will on StackOverflow. That's the nature of these types of problems. Patience is the key with these. And with sysadmin problems there sometimes is not an acceptable solution, just a lesser of many evils. That sucks bad, but is something we have to live with.

Honestly, though, I don't really see the breakdown in the system that you're hinting at. I had a look at your question list and here are some general observations I have:

• Q1: How to reset a bricked belkin router model f5d7320
  In this case splattne gave you the suggestion to replace the hardware, which is what you indicate (above) that you would want to see. (Note that this question really belongs on SuperUser now.)

• Q2: how to make windows shutdown script run earlier
  You accepted the answer, albeit it wasn't ideal. I would have just left it open as the provided solution wasn't really the answer to your question, but rather a workaround. You could edit your original question to note that the answer was a workaround, but not the true answer to your question. You don't have to accept an answer if it's not the real answer you're looking for. It's perfectly acceptable to leave it open until you are satisfied. You could also try putting a bounty on the question, but I know that can be not very acceptable in the back-and-forth dialog type resolutions that we're discussing, due to the timeline of the bounty and the possibility of not receiving an acceptable answer.

• Q3: thinkpad t42 loses power with no warning
  (This one also belongs on SuperUser) I'm guessing this one's all good since you note the accepted answer exactly addressed the problem.

• Q4: ssh tunnel using putty no longer works after server change
  There are comments to the answers asking you questions for further information. You should follow up with those people.

• Q5: w2k3 bsod irqlnotlessorequal
  Looks like here you were able to work to you solution with the assistance of others on the site.

One more point I might make is that right now ServerFault is still relatively young. Some of this stuff, I think, will settle out given a little more time.

Hope that helps!

I quite agree with you, many problems on ServerFault will require more back and forth dialog than will on StackOverflow. That's the nature of these types of problems. Patience is the key with these. And with sysadmin problems there sometimes is not an acceptable solution, just a lesser of many evils. That sucks bad, but is something we have to live with.

Honestly, though, I don't really see the breakdown in the system that you're hinting at. I had a look at your question list and here are some general observations I have:

• Q1: How to reset a bricked belkin router model f5d7320
  In this case splattne gave you the suggestion to replace the hardware, which is what you indicate (above) that you would want to see. (Note that this question really belongs on SuperUser now.)

• Q2: how to make windows shutdown script run earlier
  You accepted the answer, albeit it wasn't ideal. I would have just left it open as the provided solution wasn't really the answer to your question, but rather a workaround. You could edit your original question to note that the answer was a workaround, but not the true answer to your question. You don't have to accept an answer if it's not the real answer you're looking for. It's perfectly acceptable to leave it open until you are satisfied. You could also try putting a bounty on the question, but I know that can be not very acceptable in the back-and-forth dialog type resolutions that we're discussing, due to the timeline of the bounty and the possibility of not receiving an acceptable answer.

• Q3: thinkpad t42 loses power with no warning
  (This one also belongs on SuperUser) I'm guessing this one's all good since you note the accepted answer exactly addressed the problem.

• Q4: ssh tunnel using putty no longer works after server change
  There are comments to the answers asking you questions for further information. You should follow up with those people.

• Q5: w2k3 bsod irqlnotlessorequal
  Looks like here you were able to work to you solution with the assistance of others on the site.

One more point I might make is that right now ServerFault is still relatively young. Some of this stuff, I think, will settle out given a little more time.

Hope that helps!