Question

A REQUEST TO ALL OPENSTUDIERS.

Answer 1

There is a recent problem coming up in OpenStudy. Users are seeking uneven and wrong ways to get their level up. For example : Copying and pasting questions , those questions about which they don't know anything. I have seen many users on this site. Some are just giving direct solutions to the askers instead of interacting and discussing about the problem.

I don't want to mention their names here, but I think that is just spoiling the aim of OpenStudy. Without knowing whether the user knows the method through which we are doing our answer and posting there, we just post the solution and after getting medals, leave the question.

This concern has to be observed carefully for the sake of education and for the sake of the importance of SmartScore. Posting such questions about which they don't know a single word, just to increase the engagement score [I know, only this does not matter for increasing engagement score but still it matters at least 50% ] , is going on on this site..

I have proofs and will like to mail to all , to all those mods/admins who want to review that ... Please mods and admins, take a look at this problem too.

Answer 2

And actually, there are a lot good users too, when they are requested by any one to not post direct solutions/answers and to let the asker post his/her work, they just seek for medals and post their solutions/answers.

Answer 3

Very true.
Sometimes these users even copy answers from yahoo/wiki that are (obviously) wrong, and don't even notice that...

Answer 4

agreed about CoC. if you see this behavior, tag a mod(s) so they can take action. ambis (or anyone) can also pm a mod with a link(s) to the behavior if explanation is necessary to put it in context. in either case, a mod has to see it with their own eyes to be able to judge what action to take. if everyone stays vigilant and communicates, we can probably weed out a lot of the worst offenders.

Answer 5

Yea...
I've been on this site so long.

And I've seen 10000% posts about the exact thing.

Just report them, catch them, call a mod to it. Best you can do for now.
Until they implement a sort-of copy-and-paste algorithm that detects if it's copied.

Answer 6

plagiarism detection yea, A lot of sites use that.

Answer 7

I know.
And since they're a lot of free search APIs, like the one offered by Blekko it really shouldn't be that hard to implement, especially if they used JSON.

Answer 8

I know. I know! I understand! Smh.

Answer 9

And then you have the honest person that gets no recognition for their great answers. Take a look at BostonBlue's smart score, presently stuck at 62:

http://openstudy.com/users/bostonblue

There are TONS of great answers in there. It is just that most of them can be summed up as, "Don't cheat. Follow the rules." And does BB get any love for these? Nope. Askers HATE that reply. So BB gets no love and is stuck.

(So I went and medaled a few for BB! Perhaps other will do so and we can push BB to 63! But it will ruin the rhyme, BostonBlue at Sixty-two.... hmm. Need to get BB to 72!)


Medal a few
for BostonBlue
so they will see
seventy-two!

That is my personal opinion on it.

Answer 10

Just like Boston Blue, there are many honest users who help not for medals but for the sake of education and for OpenStudy. Though, they don't care about medals but still, it becomes our duty to award them for their voluntary work ... and that can be done by awarding medals for best responses, fanning them and writing sweet testimonials. Your thought is right @e.mccormick and I agree with it completely.

Honest and true helpers are not getting what they deserved , in fact those users are getting the advantage for which the don't deserve. Answering questions directly make those users happy who are seeking for just answers, and thus the users get awarded with many medals in a single question.

Our basic aim should be, Why is this happening ? Can't we do anything? What can be the ways by which we can stop this?

i) \(\bf{Why~ is ~THIS~ happening? }\) :

Users coming here to help or to be helped are actually here only to increase their smartscore, get medals, get answers for their test questions / homework /assignments / worksheets. Those users are in minority on OS but that 10-20% also matters .

ii) \(\bf{What ~ WE ~ can ~ do?}\)

When "WE" comes in , there is a different type of joy, enthusiasm and a spirit. Nothing is impossible. According to my opinion, if we all take pledge to request nicely to others who are cheating to stop this and refer them to openstudy code of conduct then this problem can be diminished . But, it can only be completely removed from this site when honest users get support from others and those users who are cheating for getting medals are kicked out from this site, warned or suspended. <- This suspension, warning comes to the role of mods/admins , and it is also not possible for them to review each and everything.

Usually, the users who are cheating , are very famous on OS , why is it so? Why are we giving support to them? Even after knowing that they are not honest to themselves and to others too. We can, ask them to stop cheating and if each and every user do so, then we will have a new revolution and that will be to motivate others to use the resources properly.

Just suppose, is our connection with each other limited to just OpenStudy ? If we just suspend them, they will surely make new accounts or will just learn no lesson.

Being honest, suspension/warnings/bans only work when their is a hidden honesty in a person , after which he/she can improve her/him self. I see, when a user asks a user who is cheating and violating os code of conduct, the cheater just start abusing him/her who is trying to improve him/her and what do the other users do? They just :

Leave the post or
Just watch the drama there and enjoy! or

Is this we are supposed to do? We shall not do so, I understand for those who are afraid of OS Code of conduct and they are afraid of asking a user to not cheat as they think that they will be observed as offending. But that is not so , my friends. If we are fighting for truth, if we are fighting against the wrong things , then why we are afraid of policies , terms and conditions? Though, it is better to be afraid of the code of conduct but when there is nothing wrong in our doing then why shall we let others to cheat themselves and to cheat us?

Honestly speaking, if our aim is to Increase the education level, then we need to fight with this problem united.

iii) \(\bf{What ~ can ~ mods/admins ~ do? } \)

Though , mods/admins are doing their duties excellently well. And I am not any above of them to order them, but I can suggest or request . I usually see, mods or admins take action behind the scenes, like giving warning or suspending but if they just take a little time from their busy schedule to write a single short sentence in the post relating , who is guilty? and what the guilty should not do from now on, I mean to say that , if they can just warn the guilty person and write something related to that then this will motivate the honest users and they will have faith on the mods/admins and the policy of OS.

For example : A user answers a question directly. I reported the user, (I am just taking myself as an example) and then a mod came and warned the user who was answering question directly and then the mod left the post. This is okay step for mods and the one who was cheating, but I didn't get to know whether the mod took action or not? Whether the user (guilty) got suitable punishment for his wrong doing or not... ? Now, this makes the difference. If a mod just posts :

"@XYZ, please don't violate OpenStudy code of conduct and don't answer questions directly. Do take care of it from now "

This will even, increase the faith of the users who are honest that reporting does work and one can report the guilty and get a proper response.

This is only my request, though , may be I am wrong somewhere, if I am, then please lemme know. Also, if you support me and this idea, then please let us stop this cheating and make OpenStudy , a pure and perfect online learning platform for all students.

Answer 11

Well, part of this is intended to be answered by the Hackathon. One of the key concepts that came out early was closing loopholes in the ban system that are letting cheaters come back to cheat more even when banned. I am going to push hard for that one to make it through because I see it as a key issue in OS's code base.

Answer 12

Yes! You're right. That will be help sure, but in the mean time, we shall do what we can.

Answer 13

The coming Hackathon is going to matter a lot for OpenStudy and for us. Hope, it gets success ...

Answer 14

Relax just ignore dont draw attention to it ML :P

Answer 15

Well, you can always post more messages about the mod shortage... or tell those on high. I am sure they have some people in mind at this point for filling the gap.

Answer 16

we need less mods lol

Answer 17

Yes! [I deleted my reply relating for request of some mods] as that has already been requested several times. That can only be considered by admins.

Answer 18

true.. i have seen it happening to me @mathslover
when i post my q's i do get plagiarised answers which at times doesn't really relate to my q'

Answer 19

Errm, what about people who request translations?
For example:
Question asker: Translate, "I love you" into Japanese.
Question taker: 愛している　Ai pellete Iru。(Technically this isn't right... Most Japanese people don't use this dialect, but use an expression at lest that is what my teacher said.)
This would be perfectly fine right?

And who cares about medals and SmartScore?
I thought OS main objective was to be a huge study group and share knowledge.
I'm just here so I don't get dull over the summer... O.o

Also you wrote a lot of text...
Maybe tr;dl version?

Answer 20

Medal and fan for connexus ansurs plez

Answer 21

naw itz florida virtual skul dood.

Answer 22

There was a guy that was writing . in many old post's just to get his SS up and he made it to 62 in ONE DAY! I think we should make some sort of system that makes it harder for people with an SS of 50 or below to inflate their SS, I have no ideas atm since I am not really in a brainstorming mood xD

Answer 23

^^I also noticed that. Brought it up to a mod's attention.

Answer 24

Like discount the value of a post base on how close it was made to the original, and heavily discount on closed posts, with some system to warn people their post will be auto-closed if they do not bump it in 24 hours. Thus, abandoned posts get closed automatically, making less targets for score inflation posting.

Answer 25

i think this is a serious matter people just wanna show that they have so many points i think we should remove the pasting option

Answer 26

i just joined two days ago helped people got medals with honour.
i never give direct answersno copy pasting