...or "why I sometimes get to close a ticket with the minimum of work."

At work, we have a ticket system. This is a good thing. It allows different people to pick up a task, and (in theory), there doesn't have to be a lengthy handover. All relevant information is in the ticket. It also means that people are more likely to get their task done. OK, maybe it might not happen today, or this week, but it's logged, it will happen. If you tell me in passing, or come to my desk while I'm in the middle of something (pro-tip, I'm always in the middle of something ;-p ), then there's a high chance that it may just slip my mind. The same if you email it to me. I get lots of emails, and occasionally, despite my best efforts, I can miss things (or Google can think it knows best, and mark it as spam).

When submitting a ticket though, apart from trying to send it to the right people, it's usually good to have some substance to the ticket. For example, a ticket with the subject "check config on www.example.com" and a body of "has something changed?" is likely to get a response in the style of those (possibly not entirely true) airport mechanic repair log sheets, for example

P: Evidence of leak on right main landing gear.
S: Evidence removed.

Or in the case of this ticket "yes, something changed".

Please, when you raise a ticket for a problem, try to describe the problem, and if you don't know exactly what the problem is (hey, I've taken a car to garage and said "Broken, please fix it"), then please try and describe what is currently happening, and what you are expecting to happen, and if that used to happen, when did it last happen, or rather, when did you first notice it not happening. Actually, when I took the car into the garage I didn't just pull in, say "Is something wrong with this" and walk out, I explained that it used to do X, now it's doing Y, can it be made to do X again. It turned out that no, not without spending three times what the car was worth, but that's what happens when you're a student driving an old knacker of a car ;-)

Anyway, please remember that your sys admin loves you (sometimes), and isn't there to make your life hell (occasionally), and anything you can do to make their life more easy is definitely appreciated.

And if you can't make their life easy, make it better by buying them a beer ;-)