INFO! Homework, market research, and you

What is wrong with the following three posts?

A) Hi. I’m a college student and I decided to do my term paper on modern shaving. Where can I find the information I need? Gee willikers and thanks!

B) Hi. I just inherited my grandmother’s old bathtub, and I want to go into business making soap. Seems like some easy money. What scents are the best sellers? I also need some guys to test out my products (high resistance to lye burns a plus). Thanks!

C) Hi all. Well upon an internet search it seems that this site appears the best for what knowledge I need to learn! I own a Vintage & Antiques shop. I know absolutely nothing in the field that you all are so informed about. I am looking for someone who is very informed from this site to be my "go to" person when I get a related item I cannot figure out! Sooo without a bees nest of answers lol..who feels their up to the challenge? (This was actually posted verbatim.)


Answer: In each post, the author is soliciting our members to do work for them.

Back in the old days, we had to walk to the library (uphill, both ways) to do our research. Now, thanks to the internet, research is a breeze. The existence of sites such as ours, which further distill a vast array of information into an easily digestible form of one stop shopping, makes it simpler still. So for crying out loud, if you have a project related to this thing of ours, please enjoy our endless resources, but do your own research. Don’t expect our members to do the work for you, and don’t expect the site to tolerate such shameless attempts at short cuts and academic dishonesty.

We have seen an enormous uptick in threads of this nature lately, and we ask that you not encourage such boorish behavior by participating in these threads. Please report them, or at least stay out of them. Not only do they violate our terms of usage, they often do a disservice to our paid vendors who put in a lot of time and legwork on their own products.

So, to recap: no homework and no market research, please.

If you are doing a college paper on shaving....and go to a shaving website....that is dedicated to talking about shaving.......to ask where you can find info on......shaving.....perhaps college isn't for you. Because...DUH! It's. A. Shaving. Website. , Look around!

The internet has really dumbed down the homework process.

Posts soliciting market research will be deleted. They are not the same as a member asking advice.
If people have responded in a thread destined for deletion, those posts will unfortunately also go.
Three reasons;
1. When a first post in a new thread is deleted, the entire thread is deleted.
2. The only way to save advice in such a thread is to manually select all subsequent posts and copy them to a new thread, a considerable amount of work, when those responses won't have any context because the question was deleted.
3. Doing the work to keep all the advice still rewards someone who has come here and flagrantly ignored our Terms of Use.

When I first joined, I had my share of bumps and bruises, precipitating in deletions and PM's from the MODS. It was always made clear, it is not personal. I am a guest here. What is paramount? The manner in which one responds to the correction. These matters should not deter one from continuing to be a productive member of the forum. This is a generally forgiving place.