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They likely answered that way because answering with "First Bob submits a request via TrackIt, then Mary opens a spreadsheet on Sharepoint..." is too localized of a process. The process of patching servers is simple: 1) pre-patch things you do 2) patch 3) post-patch things you do. Unfortunately, we can really only attempt to answer #2 (hence product recommendations). #1 and #3 will differ in every environment. And even #2 is very localized in its actual implementation.
I'm guessing Chris deleted that answer because Eric had already answered with Spacewalk. So it was more of a "me too" comment to an answer that was a year older.
BTW @Iain - this is how I feel when I get notifications of a "popular question or answer". 1k views and only 1 or 2 votes? I know there's a lot of anonymous viewers but still...
Gotcha, and I don't think it is "stingy with their votes" but laziness. I doubt they are holding onto their votes like Scrooge McDuck. If they are in chat, call them out on it! We could use the drama!
@Iain - in that regards, I see no reason not to vote. Hopefully it wasn't me, but going forward I will definitely be diligent in that regard. If you have taken the time to edit or comment then yeah, you should be voting on that question/answer IMO.
While I agree with your answer Ward, the problem becomes when an OP asks "Why the downvote?" To respond with "I didn't think it was good" ends up being unhelpful and means that voting in general is based on whims/feelings and not on black/white reasoning. It's not a science obviously, and you explain in detail below #2 above, but most will read just #1/#2 in your answer and go "yep...I vote however I feel like voting"...
Voretaq- regarding your comment above...I think in this particular case the question falls into your words here: meta.serverfault.com/a/5933/7861 -- I'm not sure how I feel about this as a moderator (Mod Hat On it's really NOT what downvotes are for Mod Hat Off), but as a professional if someone is going to take up our time and expect us to give them free advice they should state their problem and listen to our solutions without imposing insane restrictions. - where @Ward got 25 upvotes for stating "vote down questions you don't think are good" -- so I think we need clarity.
@MichaelHampton - really? I was racking my brain trying to think if it was or not without posting a "test" question. I was thinking that there were times when someone would post a Question, someone would answer within 2-3 minutes, and the OP would say "thanks!" and check the answer as done.
