Timeline for Why isn't more being done to avoid facilitating copy/paste homework questions?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
18 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 26, 2015 at 5:39 | comment | added | Ron Gordon | But some hints are really well thought-out and in fact read better than full answers. (One of my top scoring answers is in fact a hint. More or less.) I dislike seeing their effectiveness compromised by an ill-considered full answer. | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 5:36 | comment | added | Ron Gordon | @BillDubuque: Again, I could not agree more. I have railed against so-called "hints" in a question dedicated to the problem here: meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/9229/… I personally do not post anything unless I have worked things out in full. (A few of my earliest answers were premature by my standards now.) Period. I will challenge someone who clearly has not thought out their verbiage via comments and downvote. At least one user I know (who has been suspended for a year) has repeatedly posted useless hints. | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 5:09 | comment | added | Bill Dubuque | @Ron It's not always so clear cut what type of answer is best. I don't think it is fair to ask others to refrain from posting more elaborate answers, esp. if they think the hint is poor, or misleading. One of my pet peeves is users who post guesses as "hints" - many of which lead absolutely nowhere (alas, I've debunked far too many of those). Of course we all make mistakes now and then, but some users do this habitually (usually on topics at the boundaries of their knowledge). | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 5:02 | comment | added | Ron Gordon | So if someone kills a really nice hint by posting a full result, that hurts others. We don't have to sit and take it. We have a downvote, and it is entirely valid here. Actually, I can theoretically downvote an answer for whatever reason I want, just as long as it is the answer I am down voting and not the answerer. I am saying that I will downvote and make it plain why I am down voting. I feel I am helping the site by doing this - you feel otherwise. We'll see. | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 4:59 | comment | added | Ron Gordon | @BillDubuque: I totally understand. Some of my favorite answers have come from what are considered ZEQs/PSQs. But the ones I have chosen to answer, to me, were clearly not homework. They were just from people who liked to pose hard problems and watch the fireworks. I love being part of that! But I also believe in the power of a good hint after I have worked out the problem in full. I find it extremely annoying when an OP is so lost he just poses a clear HW question - or just asks for a hint - and then some putz answers the whole thing due to some insecurity. <cont'd> | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 4:55 | comment | added | Bill Dubuque | @Ron We need questions that motivate answerers. I enjoy certain types of questions like that since they give me more freedom to expound on certain topics (vs. solve it only the OP's convoluted way, which, alas, are more abundant nowadays) | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 4:54 | comment | added | Ron Gordon | But I do intend to put people on notice that gaining rep off the backs of people who have carefully calibrated their answers so as to help without suborning cheating, etc., is not a good thing. If enough people do this, it will discourage established users from these sorts of rep-farming activities that harm all of us. I wouldn't say this unless I have observed this. | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 4:52 | comment | added | Ron Gordon | @BillDubuque: I would love to agree with that attitude. I have argued that we need ZEQs to some degree because they generate the traffic the site needs to demonstrate growth, etc. But many ZEQs do collectively harm the reputation of Math.SE so long as we are seen as an easy place to get homework/test questions done for you. Thus, the measure I have described is one I feel will help the site overall. I do not intend to just start down voting indiscriminately (see my ratio of down to upvotes, it is small). <con'td> | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 4:45 | comment | added | user14972 | @Bill: Also, it would be nice if folks like me were allowed to teach how they like. Alas, all of the deficient questions prevent me from doing so -- and even if I decide to try and teach to those, other people like to teach in a way that prevents me from doing so. | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 4:42 | comment | added | user14972 | @Bill: The more one sort of question drowns out the rest, the less diverse MSE becomes. | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 4:35 | comment | added | user14972 | @Bill: The tooltip says that answers should be voted down if they are not useful. I can very easily see how one might get the idea that supporting and encouraging the practice of posting deficient questions is not useful. | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 1:23 | comment | added | Bill Dubuque | @Ron Still a terrible idea (except possibly if the OP asked only for hints). Votes on answers should not be correlated in any way to perceived deficiencies in the question. Please allow folks to teach as they like. This is a very diverse site, with consequent diversity in teaching styles. | |
| Mar 26, 2015 at 1:17 | comment | added | Ron Gordon | @BillDubuque: Actually, I agree with you. But that's not what I said. Rather, I said, "I am going to start down voting answers to ZEQs for which hints have already been given" (emphasis mine). This is the opposite of a terrible idea. I am going to downvote what many people here feel is egregious behavior. Further, in case anyone may get confused, I will explain precisely what I am doing in the comments. Nobody who bothers to look should be misled. | |
| Mar 25, 2015 at 17:44 | comment | added | Bill Dubuque | -1 Downvoting fine answers simply because you disagree with the answerer's question selection criteria is an especially terrible idea. This won't have any effect on those answerers (except wrongly denigrating their correct answers so possibly misleading students about its correctness). | |
| Mar 25, 2015 at 10:24 | comment | added | quid | While there is a place for hints, often they seem the worst of all to me, as they seem useless for everybody. In addition, the prepending of "HINT:" seems sometimes merely (ab)used to deflect criticism. | |
| Mar 25, 2015 at 7:53 | comment | added | Ron Gordon | @JoelReyesNoche: No, I'm not inclined to do that, although maybe I should. ("Don't feed the animals.") That said, I wonder what possible useful hint one could provide to an OP whose post essentially says "Help!! Solve my problem!!" | |
| Mar 25, 2015 at 7:51 | comment | added | JRN | "I am going to start down voting answers to ZEQs for which hints have already been given." Just a clarification: are you going to downvote answers that provide only hints? | |
| Mar 25, 2015 at 6:30 | history | answered | Ron Gordon | CC BY-SA 3.0 |