Timeline for The return of the homework question
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
20 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 20, 2017 at 10:31 | history | edited | CommunityBot | replaced http://meta.stackexchange.com/ with https://meta.stackexchange.com/ | |
| Mar 16, 2017 at 15:50 | history | edited | CommunityBot | replaced http://meta.cs.stackexchange.com/ with https://cs.meta.stackexchange.com/ | |
| Feb 18, 2015 at 23:24 | comment | added | got trolled too much this week | @Raphael: Indeed, physics.SE turns out to have a much tougher stance/policy on homework questions. | |
| Feb 16, 2015 at 7:46 | comment | added | Raphael Mod | @RespawnedFluff Lucky for us, every SE site is entitled to create its own policy (within some bounds). Afaik, SE staff is well aware of our policy. (Note that the level of the question is not the issue here, it's the effort. Even Stack Overflow requires you to put in some effort yourself.) | |
| Feb 15, 2015 at 21:00 | comment | added | got trolled too much this week | Unfortunately that's not the official SO policy. Instead, the official one seems to be that trivial and low/no-effort questions are ok as long as they are clearly formulated because those generate a lot of views from similarly inclined individuals. And ad-views/clicks are what keeps this site alive. Also see what some high-reps on math.SE answer. | |
| May 5, 2014 at 19:56 | history | edited | RaphaelMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 | added 140 characters in body |
| Feb 24, 2013 at 15:43 | comment | added | Raphael Mod | @Kaveh Not at all; preemptive, localised solutions to the "homework" question don't make much sense on the reference question. | |
| Feb 24, 2013 at 4:59 | comment | added | Kaveh | @Raphael, my suggestion is that if these questions are answered before getting closed as duplicate then it might be reasonable to also merge them. | |
| Feb 23, 2013 at 13:12 | comment | added | Raphael Mod | @Kaveh: Which are you referring to? | |
| Feb 23, 2013 at 7:41 | comment | added | Kaveh | Maybe these duplicate questions should be merged into one place? | |
| Feb 18, 2013 at 8:54 | comment | added | Raphael Mod | @RanG. You are correct: the question itself is valid, and that was the motivation for our current homework policy. The problem is, as Juho phrase quite well, that homework dumps are not questions, but delegation of work. The spirit is important. Similarly, questions are downvoted/closed for exceptionally poor form (if the question is incomprehensible). Of course, every user may judge the spirit themselves, in the spirit of our policy. | |
| Feb 17, 2013 at 19:10 | comment | added | Juho | @Raphael I agree. Also, often the answer can be a lot better and more useful when the asker explains what he has tried, what didn't work, and just provides more detail in general. I think it also shows respect and the question is more likely to get a good answer. | |
| Feb 17, 2013 at 19:01 | comment | added | Ran G. | Raphael, I don't agree. People encounter things that they don't understand and are very welcome to ask it here. If they give extra information (and motivation) their question will be better and will probably get better answers. However, not giving motivation doesn't damage the validity of their question. A valid question would be "I'm trying to analyze an algorithm and got stuck with the Master theorem" both when this is HW algorithm, or research-level algorithm. Both are welcome! | |
| Feb 17, 2013 at 19:00 | comment | added | Raphael Mod | @RanG. Also, I'm not sure it does not work. The answers they get are mostly hint material, and the dumpers rarely return. I think we may have to endure their bursts, but as long as they learn "cs.SE is not a good place to get homework solutions", mission accomplished. | |
| Feb 17, 2013 at 18:56 | comment | added | Raphael Mod | @RanG.: Quite the opposite, a clear motivation and/or history of the problem is one of the things every SE question should have. On the sciency sites, we are more lenient about this because many questions have inherent value of their own. A question a la "What is a CFG for this language?" is usually not, though, and should come with some meat. (I don't feel obligated to welcome homework dumpers. So far, even when encountered in a friendly and helpful way, they have never come back. It's the professionals and self-learners that return.) | |
| Feb 17, 2013 at 18:55 | comment | added | Raphael Mod | @RanG. That means that our core users have to be faster. Vote to close, comment on the question and answers. Most (active) users will eventually realise they hurt the site, and adapt their behaviour. (I am against downvoting answers on such questions just because they are there, btw.) Again, it is important that regular users do this. | |
| Feb 17, 2013 at 18:55 | comment | added | Ran G. | Oh, and BTW, I oppose putting "what did you try?" comment as a standard. There are too many of those comments also on very valid questions. This is not welcoming! Even worse, I recall a "why do you ask this?" comment. IMHO, nobody is required to justify his interest in a specific question. One asks 'cause one wonna know. | |
| Feb 17, 2013 at 18:49 | comment | added | Ran G. | The solution you suggest, is indeed what happens today. I agree with this solution as a concept, the problem is that it doesn't work. Those questions do get answers, and the fact that they are being closed after 2-3 days is meaningless. | |
| Feb 17, 2013 at 9:17 | history | edited | RaphaelMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 | added 163 characters in body |
| Feb 17, 2013 at 8:52 | history | answered | RaphaelMod | CC BY-SA 3.0 |