Posting in the wrong forum.

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There has been a noticeable increase in homework help threads in the general physics section of the forum, prompting discussions on how to reduce them. Despite efforts like sticky threads advising against posting homework questions, new members often ignore these guidelines. Redirect links are left for a few days to help original posters find their moved threads, but they eventually disappear from view. Forum moderators clean up these threads regularly, but the challenge remains in preventing new members from posting inappropriately. Overall, the community acknowledges the ongoing struggle with managing homework-related posts.
_Mayday_
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Well I am sure it happens on just about any forum you go to on the web, but I have noticed a sudden increase in the number of homework help threads in the general physics section of the site (taking into account that I have not been here long). I guess I have told people what they already know in terms of the problem, but I think it would be a good idea for people to brainstorm or even put forward ideas in an attempt to decrease the number of these threads. I know they are moved, but they still leave a scar on the pages (they are still shown, but just moved)

Has anyone got any ideas that we could put forward? I would just like to ask why the thread is still displayed under "general physics" even when it is moved?

Thanks :smile:
 
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We have the option of leaving a redirect; it's just a default behavior. The only real reason to leave a redirect is so the original poster can find his/her post. Otherwise, they're likely to think the forum software is buggy, and repost their question in the same place.

- Warren
 
The link to where they were moved are left there for a couple of days so that the OP can find where they were moved to. After that, if you look at the 2nd and 3rd page of the the GP forum, you'll noticed that you no longer see the link. I personally clean them out after 2 days (someone has to do the dirty work).

There's nothing that we can do to make the members (especially the new ones) from posting their HW questions in there. We have tried with having a very obvious Sticky Thread that essentially has the titled telling them not to do that. But we sometime have a new HW question being posted right BELOW that thread. So if the members do not read, there's nothing we can do but continue to move the threads. Most of these members receive a warning on their first attempt.

Zz.
 
ZapperZ said:
The link to where they were moved are left there for a couple of days so that the OP can find where they were moved to. After that, if you look at the 2nd and 3rd page of the the GP forum, you'll noticed that you no longer see the link. I personally clean them out after 2 days (someone has to do the dirty work).

There's nothing that we can do to make the members (especially the new ones) from posting their HW questions in there. We have tried with having a very obvious Sticky Thread that essentially has the titled telling them not to do that. But we sometime have a new HW question being posted right BELOW that thread. So if the members do not read, there's nothing we can do but continue to move the threads. Most of these members receive a warning on their first attempt.

Zz.

Like me :shy:

Thanks for the reply, I guess even as I have shown new members to the forum desperate for some help don't bother with the stickym or actually just miss it. If I'm honest I didn't know the effort that went into cleaning the forums up, so thanks.

After thinking about it, I think i would have to agree with you, there isn't much that you could do really, but thanks for the feedback. =]
 
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