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This Meta question discusses various SO policies regarding asking and answering homework questions. One of the statements says:

Be aware of school policy. If your school has a policy regarding outside help on homework, make sure you are aware of it before you ask for / receive help on Stack Overflow. If there are specific restrictions (for example, you can receive help, but not full code samples), include them in the question so that those providing assistance can keep you out of trouble.

What should we do when we see questions that we know with 100% certainty are violating school policies? For example, there are a number of questions on Stack Overflow regarding a "binary bomb" problem, e.g.:

I happen to know the professor who created that homework assignment, and I can guarantee you that all of the above questions are in direct violation of my institution's academic integrity policies (assuming the same lab wasn't given at another institution which I don't believe it is).

What should we do for questions like these that are, on the surface, quality questions, but violate school policies of the author?

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    Let the professor know. Like non-disclosure agreements, school policies are none of our (the Stack Overflow community's) business - they're a contract we're not privy to and cannot enforce.
    – Pekka
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 20:46
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    To follow on Pekka's comment, I've frequently contacted professors when I find homework being dumped on the site in violation of honor codes. This often leads to a professor lecturing their class on this or adding a section about Stack Overflow and cheating to their syllabus. It works well to prevent future bad homework questions from that class and helps educate students about how not to use this site. That doesn't mean that I'll help take these questions down, though, if they happen to be on topic and have good answers.
    – Brad Larson Mod
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 21:17
  • Thanks for the input everyone. May I ask why some people downvoted my question (not pointing fingers, just want to know what was wrong with it)?
    – Byte Lab
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 23:01
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    @DIMMSum Likely for lack of research; this is not exactly the first time that this question has been asked.
    – Servy
    Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 14:13
  • @Servy I did do research. If it was a duplicate, why did you answer the question instead of flagging it as a duplicate?
    – Byte Lab
    Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 19:00
  • @DIMMSum - You asked for conjecture and Servy provided some, that doesn't necessarily mean he downvoted your post or that he thought it was an exact duplicate. Be careful what you ask for ;)
    – Travis J
    Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 0:43
  • @TravisJ fair enough :-p
    – Byte Lab
    Commented Dec 2, 2016 at 3:19

1 Answer 1

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On the site, nothing. If you happen to know the teacher personally, you're more than welcome to contact them and point them to those questions. As far as Stack Overflow is concerned though, whether or not your question is in line with your school's policies has no bearing on whether or not it is an appropriate question.

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  • really so we(you) are ok with questions that violate "rules" of various types? what about country laws?
    – user557846
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 20:47
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    @Dagon: We're quite powerless to enforce these rules without having direct contact with the institution anyway, so Servy's advice of, "If you know them personally, report it" is about the best you can do.
    – Makoto
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 20:51
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    @Dagon It's not our duty to enforce them. It's best left to those that are there to enforce them. We couldn't consistently do so even if we wanted to.
    – Servy
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 20:51
  • threes quite a lot of power users with certain rep have. so they are quite enforceable by the S.O community
    – user557846
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 20:52
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    @Dagon The point is that you can't necessarily know when a post violates some private institutions internal rules, or some country's laws.
    – Servy
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 20:53
  • in some case you can know, whats your(the) policy then?
    – user557846
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 20:54
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    @Dagon which country? There are 196 of them. Should we enforce the laws of all of them? And what about the laws that contradict another country's laws. As indicated, we shouldn't make ourselves the enforcers of any laws or rules beyond those that exist on this site. Specific complaints about specific posts should be directed at Stack Exchange by someone who can enforce such rules
    – psubsee2003
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 20:54
  • @Dagon This is the policy
    – Servy
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 20:54
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    Um @Dagon keep it focused please. That is unnecessary.
    – Taryn
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 20:57
  • its a meta "discussion" regarding outside rules. S.O does not live in its own universe.
    – user557846
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 20:59
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    @Dagon No, it doesn't, but that doesn't mean that SO is obligated to enforce every single rule of every single public and private entity in the world. It couldn't even if it wanted to. If you want to run your own Q/A site you're more than welcome to enforce the rules of every single entity on the planet there, if that's what you want to do (best of luck trying).
    – Servy
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 21:02
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    @Dagon Why is SO obligated to try to enforce every rule of every public and private entity on the planet?
    – Servy
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 21:28
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    @Dagon I don't think you understand the moral implications of trying to enforce the rules of every single law of every country and every single rule of every single private entity on the planet. You realize that there are a lot of countries with a lot of extremely immoral laws (by most people's standards), and a lot of private entities with a lot of very immoral rules. Do we enforce the KKK's rules on what race of people can have questions answered? Do we prohibit questions relating to topics that North Korea consider defamatory to their world view?
    – Servy
    Commented Nov 30, 2016 at 21:36
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    @Dagon If I recall correctly, google is banned in China. Should questions about google products be off-topic? That would include the entire Go language, as well as many other commonly used API's. Facebook was banned in Pakistan for a short period of time, should all questions about Facebook have been off-topic during that time? Many countries have banned high-powered lasers... well that has nothing to do with programming, but regardless!
    – user4639281
    Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 1:38
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    @DIMMSum The section that you quoted says that if the author of the question is encouraged to include, in the question, restrictions that may be placed on them in order for them to stay in line with their schools policies. This means that conscientious answerers will be able to stay in line with them, if they want. Nowhere in there does it say that the site's moderation policies will actively enforce those policies, deleting answers that aren't in line with it, etc., merely that including the information will often be useful, for those who are interested in it.
    – Servy
    Commented Dec 1, 2016 at 14:12

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