Re: Homework threads aren't necessarily evil

I guess my point is that I wanted to raise awareness of "good HW threads" vs. "bad HW threads".

Well... I don't have a problem with someone posting their homework if they show some effort on their own in solving the problem. If someone posts their homework and it is in the form of "I tried this, it doesn't work and I get these errors, where am I going wrong?" then I will be all about trying to help that individual come up with a solution to fix their broken code.

Someone posts " here's my assignment write me an answer to it" and I am going to be less inclined to be helpful.

I've said it before and I'll say it again, we all were beginners once and it is up to us "older and wiser" folks to help out the current crop of beginners. Sometimes helping them means telling someone to do their own work.

Peter L. Berghold	Brewer of Belgian Ales
Peter@Berghold.Net	www.berghold.net
Unix Professional

Edit by tye, use 2 ULs (not 3) to match the 2 /ULs

Comment on Re: Homework threads aren't necessarily evil

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Re: Re: Homework threads aren't necessarily evil by Vorlin (Beadle) on Jul 25, 2003 at 22:06 UTC
I believe there are three methods of posting in reference to homework posts. They are listed in bold as follows: Here's my homework, please do it for me. I haven't searched on anything nor have I done any preliminary studying nor have I tried to make a prototype that can be presented to the community. I don't believe there's any lack of prediction of what would happen to this type of thread. More than likely, until it got considered enough for deletion, said user will be told in explicit terms (both good and bad), they are better off looking for themselves. The community is not here to just give away answers to those who aren't showing any degree of effort. I have a homework assignment I'm working on and I'm stuck. I've done X, Y, and Z and came out with this output, these errors, I'm at a brick wall and am requesting help. Here's my code and I am open to suggestions and guidance. This type of thread will definitely be met with much more positive response from the community. If someone posts this way, they're honest up front, have definitive work to show, tried, etc... I'll be much more inclined to help someone when they're in this mode rather than the first one and I'm sure others would agree. I've done a little bit of work, kinda looked around, haven't really tried but sorta did and now I'm expecting an answer to my question. This is the last situation I can think of where the person is making an attempt, however, their presentation is completely wrong and hence, more negative responses are likely to appear concerning proper format, the correct way to present a question, etc etc. This in turn lights a fire both in the community and to the person who may have thought they handled it correctly. There they are, the good, the bad, and the misguided. I hope that the community and those seeking help with bonafide homework assignments can mesh in cooperation given correct presentation of the problem with due effort and sample code as well as those older and wiser giving helpful hints, guidance, direction, and overall assistance to said person in a manner that's not conducive to flame-bait or condescending in nature. But these are my simply opinions, hehe...	[reply]
Re: Homework threads aren't necessarily evil by mandog (Curate) on Jul 28, 2003 at 02:27 UTC
Vorlin says I believe there are three methods of posting in reference to homework posts. They are listed in bold as follows: There is also: Here is the hint I got from somebody else, I'll pretend it is my effort & ask you to take it a little further, so I can take it to another person for another hint. I'll keep doing this until the work is done. email: mandog	[reply]