I am sorry that you feel hurt by what I said. It might help if you replayed this conversation from my point of view.

I don't know you from Adam. Obviously none of my comments can be about you personally because I don't know you. You are not the cause of my opinion. My opinion must be (and is) based on bad experiences with other people. There is nothing that you can do about that except understand how and why some people will react. And then make sure that people who know you personally have cause to understand that you're ethical.

It is not your fault that you're a member of a group (ie students) which is notorious for cheating. And is also notorious for not understanding where the boundary is between receiving legitimate help and plagiarism. I was once a member of the same group. Most people here either were or still are.

However when I was a student, it was a large source of frustration for me that people around me would try to get ahead by cheating rather than really learning. Now that I'm out of school it is frustrating for me to deal with people who're cheating. I've had people submit my work as theirs. I've had to deal with people who are begging all and sundry for the next answer. And the dishonesty doesn't end at school. I still have to deal with things like the fact that resumes can't be trusted because people "exaggerate slightly". (And have to deal with the fact that mine looks worse by comparison because I don't.)

So, without knowing you, I'm going to be inclined to a very uncharitable response to anyone asking for help on passing their course. Maybe you're on the level. Maybe you think that you're on the level, but don't understand the boundary between legitimate assistance and cheating like I'd prefer. Maybe you're trying to generate sympathy so that you can more effectively milk people for answers. I don't know. I have no way of knowing. And I've been burned before.

You sound sincere. But you're not the first person that I've seen ask for help who sounds sincere. And from my previous bad experiences, I'm painfully aware that people who are unashamed about cheating are often the most sincere-sounding - they have no guilt to hold them back. In person I'd have all sorts of body language cues to work off of. But as you'll note, this is not in person. I lack cues. I have no way to tell.

Now that you've been shown my perspective, hopefully you can re-read the whole thread and take it less personally this time.

In reply to Re^5: Student in trouble by tilly
in thread Student in trouble by flying_postman

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