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Wandering Logic
Wandering Logic
2:18 AM
I haven't seen homework problems receiving any special (negative) treatment. We get a lot of questions that do not show any research effort. Note that the tool text for the down vote button on all stackexchange sites says:
> This question does not show any research effort; it is unclear or not useful
A question that does not show any research effort is the definition of a bad question on stackexchange. This is not unique to cs.se.
On the other hand, when we get a question with no research effort we have a standard template that we use to comment to the user in an effort to help them improve the question. That template is on meta here: meta.cs.stackexchange.com/questions/627/…
On reading it, again in light of @vzn/@Patrick87's comments above, it does seem that the text of that template may be offputting at least, and condescending/dismissive at worst. I'll try to suggest a more encouraging wording.
Also, that we call a question with no research effort a "problem dump" makes many people think we are talking about "homework problems." (You often see this in the comments, the OP says "but this isn't a homework problem!" and then we have to go through the explanation that we don't have an issue with homework, we have problems with questions with no research effort.
 
vzn
vzn
2:37 AM
the hw issue does not bother me a lot. what is strange to me is that there seems a lot of contention even among mods about hw policy.
also top user YF seems to have been "accused" of answering hw questions etc.
to me the basic strategy of ignoring stuff one doesnt like is often underemployed on se...
 
 
6 hours later…
Raphael
Raphael
8:56 AM
@WanderingLogic I don't think they read the comments at all; they often seem to respond to the "unclear" close reason and maybe parse "problem" as "homework" (experiences on other sites?).
 
Raphael
Raphael
9:14 AM
@WanderingLogic That said, I've noticed that the comment seems to be suboptimal, too. I'm open for suggestions, happy even, since I have failed to come up with something more "positive" (that's still clear).
 
 
2 hours later…
FrankW
FrankW
10:58 AM
For homework I have recently formulated the following (based on the canned comment in meta):
What have you tried? Where did you get stuck? We want to help you with your specific problems, not just do your homework. However, as it is we don't know what this problem is and thus how to help. See [here](http://meta.cs.stackexchange.com/questions/594/the-return-of-the-homework-question) for a relevant discussion. If you are uncertain how to improve your question, why not ask around in [chat]?
I have yet to come up with a good variation for non-homework dumps.
 
Raphael
Raphael
@FrankW That one's nice.
However, it carries the allegation that the question is homework (which I tried to circumvent). That might lead to useless discussion.
FYI, everybody, [metase] is live and no longer the same as Meta Stack Overflow!
 
 
3 hours later…
Raphael
Raphael
2:33 PM
@Gilles I don't think they get your point. Probably can't.
 
 
1 hour later…
vzn
vzn
3:35 PM
anyway, snark aside, bottom line, still feeling major cognitive dissonance on this.... if my question above is unclear my new zen question to ponder is, why are requests for project ideas so common on the internet and why are they nearly always unacceptable on stackexchange? is this a basic mismatch between supply & demand? isnt there some constructive way for this site to serve the community on this rather than almost invariably rejecting the queries? — vzn 4 mins ago
 
 
5 hours later…
vzn
vzn
8:37 PM
....
 

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