Discussion and controversy around questions that are explicitly stated as, presumed, or suspected to be homework questions, or other routine questions from a course or a textbook. They are tagged with [self-study].
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What should we do with HW questions where the person says “I have no idea how to start”?
Our guidelines for homework question say to use the self-study tag and tell what you've tried. But what about when a person says, "I have no idea where to start?"
Should such questions be closed? ...
14
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3answers
242 views
How specifically should we “provide hints” to self-study questions?
We get quite a number of self-study questions, and one common comment says that
We'll provide hints to help you get unstuck.
So... how specifically should we provide these hints? Should we write ...
5
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1answer
56 views
If rejecting an edit that adds the [self-study] tag, what reason should be given?
After the discussion in Should I add the self-study tag to a question that is copy-pasted from a book? it seems the status quo is to not add the self-study tag without the author consent.
I'm facing ...
9
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7answers
387 views
Should I add the self-study tag to a question that is copy-pasted from a book?
This question was asked earlier today https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/239640/simulation-problem-in-r#comment455733_239640.
The text is copy-pasted from an Exercise from Introduction to ...
6
votes
1answer
81 views
An automatic filter that would detect bad questions when they are written and suggest ways to improve them
We have a corpus of "bad questions" with justification. Have we considered making a spam-filter-like pre-filter that can test the question for it's badness and suggest to the question writer "this ...
11
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4answers
239 views
What is the exact meaning of the [self-study] tag? Should we consider renaming it?
Our self-study tag is defined as:
A routine question from a textbook, course, or test used for a class or self-study. This community's policy is to "provide helpful hints" for self-study questions....
9
votes
2answers
312 views
Why do Cross Validated and Math SE have different policies for homework questions?
Why is it that CrossValidated requires homework or the like to be tagged w/ self-study, but Math SE did away w/ homework tag a long time ago? Why don't the arguments for no more homework tag in Math ...
15
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2answers
391 views
A difficulty with self-study-like questions of the form “Is this correct?”
I've seen a spate of questions of a form more or less along the lines of "Is this working correct?" just lately.
While this is good from the point of view that the poster is clearly making a proper ...
9
votes
1answer
244 views
Frequent homework spam
Did you noticed that recently multiple homework questions are posted? Just a few examples:
https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/138093/question-in-following-pictures
https://stats.stackexchange....
8
votes
0answers
201 views
Is it okay to add the [self-study] tag through an edit instead of asking OP to do it?
I just (attempted to) reject an edit to include the "self-study" tag in a question, because the editor was "pretty certain that this is a self-study/homework question". "Self-study" is I think the ...
6
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4answers
405 views
Should the homework tag be deprecated?
Apparently the use of the homework tag was deprecated on SO. This is actually mentioned in the same meta that our FAQ points to in describing how to ask/answer homework questions. However, elsewhere ...
3
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0answers
252 views
The homework tag and homework policy (is it indeed “a routine question”?)
Right now the homework tag says "a routine question....". To me, this implies a simple question, probably from an elementary text. Many homework tagged questions are, indeed, just like this.
But some ...
2
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1answer
196 views
Can we help with multiple choice homework without violating site policy?
I recently answered a multiple choice question on CV and although the OP did not label it homework it obviously was. Should we try to give hints? I had a hard time finding a way to suggest an answer ...
11
votes
1answer
402 views
Should we tag questions that smell like homework?
This is related to, but not a duplicate of, How should we deal with obvious homework questions
Homework questions have certain characteristics - vague, sample data, inclusion of instructions meant ...
5
votes
2answers
125 views
Homework tag for old exam questions?
When a user asks questions from old exams in preparation for an upcoming exam should we apply the "homework" tag, even if the old exams aren't necessarily assigned for a grade? I'm ambivalent; it's ...
3
votes
2answers
208 views
What to do with homework questions posed as non-homework?
Here is a question which is a homework question. This is problem 3.23 on page 97 of Hastie et al., Elements of Statistical Learning, 2nd. ed. (5th printing). There are several problems in my opinion:
...
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5answers
1k views
How should we deal with obvious homework questions
When this site takes off, we will get a number of homework questions that can be spotted a mile off. Should we
Just down vote them and not answer them.
Provide helpful hints
Make a note in the FAQ ...
