Yes! Yes! Finally someone is taking a stand!

I strongly support your ideas. I don't know if guys are aware of this or not, but students tend to ask you questions not just online, but also face to face. I have had some friends in the past, who wouldn't try at all and asked me to do it from scratch. Instead of saying "Could you look at my code and see what's wrong"?, they say "could you do this for me, please"? That's why I don't like to go to my college's computer lab, eh?


Luckydude

...I have had some friends in the past, who wouldn't try at all and asked me to do it from scratch. Instead of saying "Could you look at my code and see what's wrong"?, they say "could you do this for me, please"?

I sympathize... I just hate it when they do that...

I agree.

No pain.... No gain!

Programing and related things are ardous to be learned. there are no "shortcuts" !

Regards,

Eduardo

I totally agree when you say that we should help only those who try. This is my first post and I would like to mention this incident:
I am a professional java programmer and I am registered to another forum for students who do java homework. The reason why I registered was because NO one ever taught me how to write java. I had to discover many things on my own. That's why I wanted to see if I could help them with their questions because no one ever helped me. (by the way they don't know what I do for a living when I reply).
Anyway once a student sent me the compile error messages that his program had and asked for my help. I told him the messages he received clearly state what the error was and at which line (ex. he forgot to put a ';' and the message told him the line this happened).
He replied by saying that he knows what the messages mean but he wants me to tell him exactly what to fix in his code and how to write it!
Of course I told him no and gave him some pointers on how to interpret the messages the compiler gives. I didn't register just to do their homework for them. That would be terribly easy and extremely WRONG. Some of them have great ideas when writing code and those I do help with some tips

Hi Dani,
Can you not put some trigger , like if there is keywords like urgent homework help ,etc in the title of the post but there is no "[code]" tag in the body of the post, you can redirect the poster to your sticky "we only give homework help" to whoever shows some effort and then allow the user to post a message?

Just a suggestion though.

Can you not put some trigger , like if there is keywords like urgent homework help ,etc in the title of the post but there is no "[code]" tag in the body of the post, you can redirect the poster to your sticky "we only give homework help" to whoever shows some effort and then allow the user to post a message?

I'd like that. Though, as always, I don't know how much work and for whom does that mean. Try posting it on theDaniWeb Community Feedback forum.

It seems like quite a few people here jump to conclusions that people are looking for homework help. Especially if a question is used from a textbook or exam paper. You know that this can mean a person is studying on their own and want to learn. It doesn't mean that they are doing homework. Now in July, who is in school anyway?

Homework or self-study, it comes down to the same thing - if someone can't show that they have put any effort in solving the problem then they shouldn't expect someone here to just hand them a solution.

It seems like quite a few people here jump to conclusions that people are looking for homework help. Especially if a question is used from a textbook or exam paper. You know that this can mean a person is studying on their own and want to learn. It doesn't mean that they are doing homework. Now in July, who is in school anyway?

You didn't read the rules quite right. Wedo help with homework problems, but only if the poster shows some effort. We also try to give hints on solving the problem rather them handing out some complete working code. This way the poster might actually learn something from their assignment (aside from how to use ctrl-c ctrl-v). I think it was something like:
"Driving someone somewhere is one thing, but telling them to get a damn drivers license of their own is another"

Homework or self-study, it comes down to the same thing - if someone can't show that they have put any effort in solving the problem then they shouldn't expect someone here to just hand them a solution.

You didn't read the rules quite right. We do help with homework problems, but only if the poster shows some effort. We also try to give hints on solving the problem rather them handing out some complete working code. This way the poster might actually learn something from their assignment (aside from how to use ctrl-c ctrl-v). I think it was something like: "Driving someone somewhere is one thing, but telling them to get a damn drivers license of their own is another"

Homework and selfstudy can be completely different things. Often, people just want to get homework done. Their aim is not to learn the material or even do it well. It's just to complete it so it's satisfactory for whoever checks it.

Selfstudy is trying to learn something yourself for the sake of learning it or to pass an exam. And to pass an exam you need to learn the material. See where I am going?

Also, I wasn't talking about the rules. I was talking about people's attitudes to questions being posted. I think a lot of the posts here are to do with homework but for the ones that are not; I would say they want tounderstand what, where and how rather than being given a solution or hints that they can't use because they don't have the understanding to use them.

>Homework and selfstudy can be completely different things.
In this case, "homework" means a personal project that you have a vested interest in completing, and we don't care about. It could be actual homework from a class, self-study from a textbook, or even something you imagined up. Regardless of how you got started with the project, if you show no effort, you get no help. I fail to see how this is a difficult concept.

>I would say they want to understand what, where and how
We call it like we see it. If you want to understand the nuts and bolts but manage to come off as a leech (usually through poor communication), you'll be treated as a leech until proven otherwise.

Who said it was a difficult concept? It's not even unique to this community. Look around, you'll see that those "rules" are applied everywhere, not just on the web. I agree with it, naturally. My comment was a reflection on the attitudes of people here and then my second comment was just clearing up what I said because it seemed to be misunderstood.

If you agree with it then what exactly is your point?

>It seems like quite a few people here jump to conclusions that people are looking for homework help.

>>It seems like quite a few people here jump to conclusions that people are looking for homework help.
Since we're quoting ourselves now:
We call it like we see it.
First and foremost, we're all human (except for Salem, who's a C bot). The lack of psychic abilities means we don't know if J. Random Newbie is just having trouble getting his message across, or if he's out to get freebies from nice people so he can pass his class. Because handouts can be so damaging to new programmers, we err on the side of caution and assume that if it looks like homework, itis homework. Very simple.

>It seems like quite a few people here jump to conclusions that people are looking for homework help.

Hang around for a few months and see what conclusions you come to on such posts. If you still feel that people are unfairly jumping to conclusions about homework help, feel free to help all those posters as you see fit. Our time spent helping people here is completely voluntary and as such you can choose to help them or not, but your opinion regarding the conclusions others might draw on certain posts has absolutely no bearing on whether anyone else gives their time and effort to a particular request.

Wasn't meant as an attack but ok.

Remember, if you hit a man over the head with a fish, he had a headache for a day. But if you teach a man to hit himself over the head with a fish, he has headaches for the rest of his life.

I have a question regarding the homework help...
What if it's not homework but leisure coding help???