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The last two weeks or so seems to me to have delivered a dramatic uptick in clueless students. Some are just posting their homework questions. Others have merely mistaken us for their TAs.

Here is a token sample.

Semi-seriously, I propose a 'seasonal' close reason, which would automatically add a link to a polite explanation of the appropriate or inappropriate use of stackoverflow.com as a student resource.

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I like the seasonal idea, but note that September isn't the only time of the year where new classes are just starting. –  Jeff Mercado Sep 18 '11 at 20:19
September is when the term break starts here... –  BoltClock's a Unicorn Sep 18 '11 at 21:02
The Pro Forma Comments script makes this dead easy. –  Robert Harvey Sep 18 '11 at 21:35
[adding my non-existent token vote to close as Too Localized] –  Robert Harvey Sep 18 '11 at 21:37
This question? Or questions with this problem? –  Rosinante Sep 18 '11 at 21:49
This question. Seasonal close reason... really? –  Robert Harvey Sep 18 '11 at 22:14
@Robert time to break out the Christmas trees :) –  Zach Johnson Sep 19 '11 at 5:39
@Zach: Sheesh. Every year it comes a little sooner. –  Robert Harvey Sep 19 '11 at 5:40
Isn't it an eternal September? –  Andrew Grimm Sep 19 '11 at 5:46
A filter that hides questions from users that aren't of a similar "experience" as you in a given tag? meta.stackexchange.com/questions/116843/… –  jefflunt Dec 22 '11 at 16:25

3 Answers 3

IMO, there shouldn't be done anything about it (if it would even be possible).

If the question is a blatant copy & paste from a text book, simply vote to close as being "too localized". Or answer the question without posting an entire code example that basically is the solution to the assignment.

It is my experience that students often have tried things themselves already, but are hesitant to post their code because they are afraid of being laughed at by a bunch of (professional) programmers. Asking in a comment to post their attempt as well often results in a question that looks far less like a "hand me teh codez plz" type of question.

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I think the culture around disliking homework questions completely misses the point. Tagging a question as homework conveys a value judgement that is more about the asker than it is about the question, rather than simply being a fact-based label (e.g. c++, algorithms are fact-based labels) it is used as a meta-tag to mark as question as "simple", "basic", "newbie" - the implication is that the question is not worth the time of many people.

I think a better solution (though it's receiving a lot of down-votes) is a filter that allows you to adjust what you see in your "interesting" view to questions that were asked by users who are similarly experienced in tags, when compared to your experience (i.e. reputation) in those tags - grouping similarly experienced users together. This would be optional (since some people love helping new comers to a language, technology, etc.), but still allow more experienced users the option to filter out questions from less experienced users, without needlessly punishing newcomers, so long as their question is otherwise a good one (i.e. it shows effort, it is well phrased, it is an actual question, etc.).

A proposed solution to qualitative filtering

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What about an IP-allocation-block-savvy "tag" on posts from academic IP's - either seasonally, or otherwise?

Students should have no reason - or right to, in this case - shy away from their "originating network".

I'd certainly like to know if I was answering a student's question - 9 out of 10 questions that I answer.

There will always be people who take the opportunity to answer student's questions, tag or no tag... but transparency in this case is not anti-student... but in fact is pro-education...

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It'd only work if they were posting from their organization or on-campus accommodation. –  Andrew Grimm Sep 19 '11 at 7:36
What's next, an IP block for entire countries where the majority of people don't speak as fluent as native English speakers? :) –  Bart Kiers Sep 19 '11 at 8:03
So because I work at a college, you'd tag all my posts from work as "homework"? Smooth move there. –  RobM Sep 19 '11 at 8:38
You suggest a Great Wall to keep those Barbarians from academic networks out? Like, PhD students or professors? Uhm, -1 –  Tobias Kienzler Sep 19 '11 at 8:48
Perhaps we should require all students to browse SO with the Evil Bit set on their HTTP connections. –  Donal Fellows Sep 19 '11 at 10:38
This implies no sort of wall, prejudice, or geo-sorting... If anything it just another 'badge' that indicates you are from an "official" place of higher-learning. –  alex gray Sep 19 '11 at 15:37
Gosh, I've never seen so much accusation and misconstruation on a single post before. He said IP allocation block, not IP block. Meatheads. –  bobobobo Jan 9 '12 at 1:04
They're mean, right? People need to be nicer to nerds.. so that nerds are in-turn nicer... on Stack Overflow. Thanks for the vote up. I still don't think it's a horrid idea… even though it's been voted down "here", deep into the grey. –  alex gray Jan 9 '12 at 1:15
@RobMoir I don't know where I implied that I would "tag" anything, (other than your tone... offensive...) I was simply providing ONE wide/theoretical (yet technically-feasible) possible direction for a problem - genuinely felt by @Rosinante - that results in a virtual ghetto compared to those chats which I'm sure you contribute. PhD's posts are NOT what the OP was "concerned with"... the burden placed on this network by "casual" user-abusers is real... and I just don't really see any shame in being identified with an Institution of learning... if that is indeed "where i am". –  alex gray Feb 4 '12 at 22:28
You're upset about how offensive my "tone" is but you never stopped to consider how offensive I might find your idea to tip posts from academic IPs into a ghetto? I know that there are a decent number of high-level contributors to Server Fault, for instance, who are are involved in academica - my point is that sidelining posts from edu IPs because you're worried about abusive students is both a case of throwing the baby out with the bathwater, and extremely offensive to those of us who are part of stack exchange and work in the education field. –  RobM Feb 4 '12 at 23:52
lol, well i wholeheartedly welcome your opinion on this and any matter.... and in fact I tend to concur with some of your sentiments. however, no solution is perfect, and healthy discussion is often far from that mark. i just ask that you react not to what you seem to think I'm suggesting or advocating, but actually the words that i wrote. ;-) –  alex gray Feb 5 '12 at 7:17

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