"Jerry Dallal" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message [EMAIL PROTECTED]">news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]... > Glen Barnett wrote: > > > > Jerry Dallal wrote: > > > > > > Paul Thompson wrote: > > > > > > > The rule about > > > > not answering homework problems still applies however. Ask your > > > > > > Rule? What rule? > > > > It's not a rule. But consider it a request. > > > > As someone who has set students stats problems, I'm all for > > people giving some guidance here, if they are willing. But > > just answering the problem without input from the student > > totally defeats the point of giving the problems in the > > first place, which is that the student will learn by doing, > > even though that may involve some actual struggle (like, say > > cracking a book, and learning a little of the material, > > God forbid). > > > > Glen > > Well, these are the issues, aren't they? Personally, my attitude is > that those who wish to ignore such posts should do so. Those who > wish to respond might do so, too, to whatever extent they feel is > appropriate, and it would be helpful to keep in mind the points you > raise. The complication raised by this latter course is that it > might encourage the posting of additional problems with the > potential of overwhelming the ng.
not sure about sic.stat, or sci.stat.consult, but sci.stat.math doesn't appear to be getting a lot of traffic these days. (3-4 posts/day). > > Often, issues such as these are handled through a group's charter, > which spells out what it appropriate for the forum. The problem > with the sci.stat hierarchy is that it was not formed out of whole > cloth but was a renaming of the old bit.listserv groups back in > 1993. I have been unsuccessful in locating Charters for any of the > sci.stat groups. > > I'm not up on the history of the old listservers, but my guess is > that not many undergraduate students had access to them, so the > posting of homework problems was never addressed. I would > appreciate comments from those with better information. > > Short of a charter spelling out what is and is not acceptable, it is > important to be cautious about claiming the existence of "rules" > against answering homework questions. I don't often answer homework > questions myself, but every so often I find myself inclined to offer > hints. If there were a rule in a charter against it, I would > refrain from doing so. Barring such a rule, but the final decision > for better or worse should be that of the respondent. I agree. At best, it seems a bit silly to feel responsible for presuming the intentions of the author of a post, at worst it comes across as a bit high handed and unnecessarily paternalistic given an unknown audience. . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
