Why does YA have such unethical policies on homework cheating (and a goodbye)?

dude..... what can I say..... YA has ALOT of stuff completely backwards.....

violations for asking questions like "was jesus a prophet?" yet nothing happens when people ask "how old where you when you had your first O and what position where you in?"

I've also seem people post entire web pages as answers and nothing happens when people report them as copyright infringements.

I've given up on trying to find reasons to their actions.

personally, I sometimes give wrong answers to homework questions but try to make it sound as convincing as possible so that when they do USE my work, they WILL fail, and hopefully they will learn SOMETHING from that.

I'm sure this is really aggravating for you since your on the other end of this homework bit.....

let your class know there are people like me that give out misinformation for a reason... and that ultimately its to HELP them understand the importance of doing their own work.

I'm sure somebody thought this was a good setup, but it just doesn't work. I've stated before, and I re-iterate, that the whole post-modernist "truth is what people agree is true" ideology just doesn't apply to science. There really is such a thing as scientific truth, and it doesn't care how many people believe otherwise.

I am also slightly offended at the notion that I paid big $$$ and worked my backside off so I can "share" my knowledge with a bunch of rude, lazy brats. But that's another matter.

I do one of several things on homework questions. I no longer suggest that students do their own homework, because I get enough violation notices as it is.

1. Ignore them.

2. Point the asker to a source. This is routinely criticized as unhelpful.

3. Suggest a plan of attack, but do not actually solve the problem. This is also routinely criticized as being unhelpful.

4. Post an answer that is correct, but which the asker cannot use verbatim. This is why I post so many answers relating to things like seasons and constellations from a southern hemisphere viewpoint, even though I live in Canada.

5. Post a plausible-sounding but completely nonsensical answer. I've had a couple of Best Answers this way. Sad.

Addendum: I just put in a final appeal form on a deleted answer. The subject was moon hoaxes. I answered it, but some pinhead decided it wasn't right, so they reported it. I find it interesting that Yahoo *always* side with the moon hoax kooks on such garbage. Doesn't exactly add to their credibility.

Usually I ignore such blatant questions. If I'm really bored I might answer. At least if I remember the answers. It has been a very long time since I've been in an astronomy class. Face it: No one asking these questions on Yahoo will ever be a professional astronomer, and hopefully not an administrator either. I really don't care if they learn the difference between a type I and a type II supernova. What angers me is that they actually post questions here that they could answer on the internet in a few minutes at most, and be reasonably assured that they got the right answer. On answers you have no idea of the qualifications of the answerer. In the 30 years since my last astronomy class some things have probably changed and my answers, correct for their time, may now be considered quaint at best.

You can't leave. Its always a pleasure to see your answers. I haven't had one problem with anything you've written. You are one of the more rational types on this board. And your knowledge is far more current and considerably in advance of my own. As a reference librarian my knowledge is wide but very shallow. And its quite out of date. I haunt this place purely out of boredom. We need some real experts who actually know this stuff.

Yes, they are extremely annoying. What bothers me the most about it is not how lazy the kids are, but the fact that people answer these questions. How are the posters going to learn anything this way? I too have given up saying "do your own work" but sometimes I will try to lead them in the right direction. I just can't imagine what it would have been like if they had YA when I was in school.

The worst is when someone copies a question verbatim out of their book, but can't even spell some of the words right. It's like, do you even know what the question is asking?!?

So true. And if you chide them about it, ever so gently, they get all huffy about it. In one case, a simple algebra problem had already been answered correctly but with little in the way of explanation, so I did it again, taking pains to show the method, so that the asker would know how to attack other similar problems. Then I added, "You know, this really isn't a hard question. If after reading HT's and my answer you still cannot understand the way to approach problems like this, you really should get some help. Just getting the anwers from Y!A isn't going to help you on tests." Pretty gentle, I thought. Yet this is the thanks I got for my pains: "Asker's Rating: ***** Asker's Comment: I chose your answer because I wanted to make a comment on what you said. You think I am a girl who doesn't want to do the work, but I just needed a push in the right direction. So don't lecture me. Your answer was also the best explained...but that doesn't lessen how much you annoyed me. Thanks you." In other words, I gave her exactly what she wanted, and still she's not happy. Generally, if I answer, I just indicate a method and end with a question mark, not the answer. Unfortunately, others don't do the same.

My own principal peeve is the practice of answering with something like "Wow! Way too hard for me!" Such things get credit?

Same as the first response: I try to provide guidance, and information that goes beyond simply answering the question.

My answers are usually so involved that any student who cuts and paste will be immediately caught by the teacher.

I prefer to continue in the (sometimes apparently vain) hope that some of the kids will actually learn something and, maybe, perhaps, want to learn more.

I don't see anything wrong with answering a specific question with a specific answer--it's no different than if you asked a friend a simple question about something in school that you don't know much about.

I believe what's more important than anything else is if the person actually REMEMBERS what was taught to him, either through a parent, a friend, or Yahoo! Answers, for that matter!

If the person wants to cheat, I say fine, just remember, though, that you're cheating yourself!

There is no way to stop students doing this.

However - it is virtually impossible to police.

My policy is to try not to answer those sorts of questions directly - but rather to lead students in thr right direction.

If other users do the same thing, students will stop asking for help or will at least only get as much help as my students get when they come to office hours

Another way to look at this problem is that doing somebody's chemistry homework frees them to concentrate on the things they enjoy doing, which might be music or art. Frankly, if I can help prevent the kind of frustration which makes students drop out of school, then maybe my effort isn't wasted in the long run. Besides this, it keeps my own mind sharp.

I do agree with you. Unfortunately there are some out there that are really just looking for clarification on problems or are truly stuck on one that they cannot figure out and do not have another avenue to find the answer. Sorry to see you leave! Hopefully you can find another site that has a stricter policy on copyright violations to help those who truly need it.