How about a forum named - please do my homework?

Question

Chill out u lot, just a suggestion. It does seem that a fair few postings are exactly this, but what harm does it do? if they can't do it because they dont try, then who cares? they will never make it anyway, and if they genuinly have tried and are then given the answer, they will learn from it. So why not? I am sure a lot of ego's are fed by answering these q's.
Discuss...in no more than 2000 words.

Answer 1

There are a lot of people who spend a lot of time providing legitimate help to people asking legitimate questions. It's fairly annoying to see "do my homework" posts again and again.
Please understand, I think most of these are not people who really expect others to do their homework, but rather they are unaccustomed to this kind of forum, and haven't really figured out that they should try it first, then post specific questions when they hit a wall. However, at first glance, it's hard to separate those from the genuinely lazy SOBs, and after a while, the annoyance factor just builds.
As for the harm it does, if we get in the habit of posting shrink-wrapped solutions to homework problems, it encourages more of that kind of question. This pollutes the forum and takes away from legitimate discussions.
Also, it sends an inappropriate message to the people asking the questions. These are probably young people for the most part, and if they get in the habit of having others do their work, they will come to expect that, and will not realize their full potential as members of society. I know, I know, that's extrapolating a lot from "How do I count character occurences," but big things are made up of small things--if anybody should know that it's people that provide answers here. We are one of many influences on these people's attitudes. Shouldn't we be a positive influence?
If they can't do it because they don't try, then who
cares?I care. If somebody hasn't tried, I feel a responsibility to encourage them to try. If they won't, I'm not going to waste my time "helping" them (which is no help at all), and I would encourage others not to. "Who cares" is not a particularly responsible attitude.
Having said all that, I think it's worth giving people the benefit of the doubt. When someone posts a "please do my homework" question, rather than flame them, a better approach (and the one that's usually taken, from what I've seen) is to gently point out to them why their question is inappropriate, and suggest that they try it themselves, then ask more specific questions. Assume the person is willing to try if given a little nudge in the right direction. If, after a couple of hints, they persist with, "just do it for me," then ignore them. There are enough other people with better attitudes that we can help that there's no point in wasting time on someone who genuinely doesn't want to learn.
Oh, and definitely filter out the word URGENT and anything with more than one exclamation point.