Lately there have been questions posted on the forum from high school students, and some seem to be straight up copies of homework questions. I don’t want to call them out specifically - they’re kids and they’re learning (as we all are, really). As an educator in my past life, I don’t think the iNa…

This does seem a sensible solution.

[image] That_Bug_Guy: How is it that new users are able to create their own topics without much activity on the forum or even on iNaturalist itself? Isn’t this system meant to control an influx of new users on the forum? I’ve been thinking about this as well. Currently anyone can start a new…

[image] yayemaster: how long you have been on Inat It disconcerts me that - anyone can find the ‘iNat’ forum. All these posts are public and searchable on Google. Then anyone can join. Anyone.

[image] teellbee: Can you think of a way to say that gently and instructively? What about asking “Is this part of your homework?”

I often ask colleagues at work “do you think this is X”? Is that “cheating”? There are at least 3000 plant taxa (not including weeds) in my area, I can’t know them all :(

I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to reply or ask you specifically. Wrong button (apologies). What I meant though is that there are heaps of plants in my area that I am not familiar with and I ask questions about them. How are people meant to know if I’m asking for homework or not (I’m not)?

[image] DianaStuder: Cheat would be in an exam contex Yeah, that’d be wrong

I guess we each look at the question that pops up, and decide whether to answer or not. Lots of questions here start with a story. Why are my butterfly’s wings crumpled … Keep asking. I do too! But a list of carefully worded questions, that looks like copypasta from a homework assignment? Not goin…

i’m not sure that preventing new folks from starting new topics will have the desired effect. i’ve seen both cases where students and spam accounts use existing threads to post their content. i would be even more annoyed if a lot of students started hijacking other perfectly good threads. i sort of …

School/Homework Questions on the Forum

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DianaStuder August 28, 2022, 11:37am 52

I don’t understand why you are asking me that?
Cheat would be in an exam context, where your own knowledge is being tested.
At work with colleagues? How so?

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School/Homework Questions on the Forum

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