The best answers would ideally answer the question as asked (or explain why it can't be done) and also show a still more excellent way. There are times I've as

The best answers would ideally answer the question as asked (or explain why it can't be done) and also show a still more excellent way. There are times I've asked how to do X, and for various reasons X is really, no kidding, exactly what wanted to do. Still, numerous people would question my desire to do X, turning the discussion into an inquisition on motives or skill comprehension. I'm sure in some odd way they all meant well, but they were spending a lot of cycles not actually answering the question. In those cases the better strategy is to, under some crafty pretext, bluntly assert that X cannot be done. This will evoke numerous rebuttals with full details on just how incredibly wrong and foolish that claim is. Both cases play to a trait all too common to many people on discussion boards: replying to questions with the primary goal of showing that you are, in fact, smarter than everyone else.