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I'm sure we've had this debate before! 
Homework questions are set to test the student's understanding of the course material. If someone else does their homework for them, then you're only testing their ability to cheat.
Students who are unable to do their homework should be asking their teacher for help. That way, the teacher is aware that the student is struggling, and may be able to offer additional tutoring. If lots of students are struggling, the teacher might adjust their approach, or go back over some of the troublesome material.
Students who are unable to complete their final year project for their CS degree shouldn't pass the course. If they pass without understanding the material, they'll only end up getting a job that they're not qualified to do, and they'll almost certainly still expect someone else to do their work for them.
In other words, give a man a fish...
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
modified 11-Nov-14 11:27am.
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Richard Deeming wrote: If someone else does their homework for them
I certainly wasn't suggesting we do the work for them. But we should help.
Again, how is it different than helping someone who is employed. Should we be doing their work for them? They won't learn if we do that.
It seems that all your arguments for not helping homework could also be applied to someone who is looking for help on their work.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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RyanDev wrote: It seems that all your arguments for not helping homework could also be applied to someone who is looking for help on their work.
As I see it, the main difference is that homework questions are based on the material covered in the course. The student is supposed to be able to answer the question based on what they've just been studying.
With work-based questions, the person asking the question might never have encountered the particular problem they're facing before. There might not even be a solution.
RyanDev wrote: Should we be doing their work for them?
No, which is why we have the "not a question" reporting option. If someone posts a list of requirements and expects us to write the code for them, the question will be closed.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Richard Deeming wrote: The student is supposed to be able to answer the question based on what they've just been studying.
And the employee is supposed to be able do their job. 
I still say we try to help people as much as we can.
Richard Deeming wrote: No, which is why we have the "not a question" reporting option. If someone posts a list of requirements and expects us to write the code for them, the question will be closed.
Agreed.
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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RyanDev wrote: And the employee is supposed to be able do their job.
If you work for a company where you're only ever asked to do things that you should already know how to do, then I don't know whether to envy you or pity you! 
As an employee, you'll probably be asked to do things that you haven't just spent six weeks studying, and which might not even have a sensible solution.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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Richard Deeming wrote: you haven't just spent six weeks studying
You studied in school? I pity you. 
There are only 10 types of people in the world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
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My feeling is that (with the exception of spammers and trolls, and we have mechanisms for dealing with them) everything there is a question to someone. It may be badly stated (or not stated at all) but they wouldn't have posted it if they didn't need help.
OK, some of it is "do my homework" - but even that needs a reply:
We do not do your homework: it is set for a reason. It is there so that you think about what you have been told, and try to understand it. It is also there so that your tutor can identify areas where you are weak, and focus more attention on remedial action.
Try it yourself, you may find it is not as difficult as you think!
Because sometimes, that starts a discussion: they are so "rabbit in the headlights" that they don't how where, or how to start. And those discussions can be some of the most rewarding: you can get to see someone's brain start thinking, possibly for the first time in their entire life! 
"Not a question" stops that happening: it closes an avenue completely and prevents any further discussions.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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So, as I said: a new "homework" reporting option, possibly with a separate list of homework questions where members are encouraged to provide hints, not full solutions.
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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It looks like we need to have some form of purgatory for questions. If there were somewhere to "quarantine" sub-par questions, but which would be available to people to encourage improvement if possible, then we might be able to overcome this wave of closures. I would expect that this would trigger a notification to the user that their question was being moved due to issues around the question, which would give them a chance to fix it. The odd thing is that we have a different behaviour between articles and questions, so an article can be resurrected, but a question can't.
Oh, and moving the question back out of purgatory would rely on people voting that the question was sufficiently improved to warrant moving back to the main codebase. Obviously, if people want to answer the question while it's in this purgatory place, that would be their own prerogative.
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Surely the act of answering is an indication that the question is understandable?
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Not necessarily. How many questions have you seen where answers have been given that are totally off base because people are making assumptions about what the question is actually asking?
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Good idea for "unclear" and "not a question" questions. Not so much for spam, off-topic or reposts.
Did you see my previous suggestions[^] for improving the reporting options?
"These people looked deep within my soul and assigned me a number based on the order in which I joined."
- Homer
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A combination of the two approaches could definitely work. My suggestions were aimed purely at the "could be a legitimate question with a bit of effort" ones.
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I like the idea
M.D.V. 
If something has a solution... Why do we have to worry about?. If it has no solution... For what reason do we have to worry about?
Help me to understand what I'm saying, and I'll explain it better to you
Rating helpful answers is nice, but saying thanks can be even nicer.
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A problem that comes up occasionally is that a discussion can be started in the comments, and then suddenly the question is closed and we can't continue the discussion.
Most recently, Bill W asked me a question and in order to answer him I had to piggy-back on one of his Lounge posts:
http://www.codeproject.com/Lounge.aspx?msg=4941233#xx4941233xx[^]
because this question was closed
help with code in C#[^]
Yes, it's a homework question, but that's no reason to close it; just don't give provide the answer.
A 1-vote is probably sufficient, not a report.
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Thanks, Piebald, I replied to your comment on the Lounge post.
« I am putting myself to the fullest possible use which is all, I think, that any conscious entity can ever hope to do » HAL (Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer) in "2001, A Space Odyssey"
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Just a small suggestion, (if has been suggested before, forgive me I haven't read the whole thread)
When a question is posted can you not check for some basic things, such as:
- is there code present (check on the 'code' tags)
- is it a one line text
- ...
And display a message making suggestions as to how to better format his question, such as 'you haven't submitted any code, we can better help you if we see the code that is causing the error' (or something like that, I'm sure your English is better than mine)
But still allow the user to pass on without editing it (since there are valid cases where no code should be posted or ...).
That way, the people who have 'learned' to post a good question won't be bothered by it and those that haven't will (hopefully) read the messages and in time ask better questions.
No idea at if this possible, but it was the first thing that popped into my head as a possible (half) solution, after reading your post.
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I agree that too many get closed needlessly.
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I had uploaded the 7z file, that was the source code for my article, Onion Architecture
[^], The article is published but the source code download link is missing. Can this be checked please.
Thanks
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Can you please email that file to me?
Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject
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That file was a bit healthy in size. It is 16.7 MB. Would mail support such size?
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Do you have an external link?
Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject
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No Sir. Could you suggest any link to upload the file?
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Email should handle the 16 MB.
Thanks,
Sean Ewington
CodeProject
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