Why do people think this is “astronomy forum homework bot”?

Sunday, July 12th, 2009 at 9:42 pm

Pearl Asked:

I mean, seriously, when you see someone post a string of astronomy forum questions here that you can tell is verbatim from their homework assigment...what gives? Do you feel disinclined to answer questions where you know the person is just filling in blanks and won't actually learn anything?

Reply:

I've given up caring. (The same occurs in the astronomy forum.) I will answer questions if they are interesting ... but in general, if I think the Asker doesn't really give a crap about the answer, I won't bother. Kids who do this just baffle me. They think they've found a clever way of avoiding some work ... but they fail to realize that the amount of effort it takes for them to type the questions in *far* exceeds the time it would take to actually do the homework themselves. And they are learning zip.The ones that are really sad are the ones posting multiple choice questions that are *unbelievably* easy. So five people respond "The answer is 'D'" ... what does that buy them? If they didn't understand the concept before, they still don't.I guess they're hoping that when it comes exam time they can sit there with their laptop plugged in to Yahoo Answers.
P.S. Ever notice how Cialis these questions come *pouring* in on Sunday evenings.