Personal FAQ

Usenet Homework

Why is it bad to ask a newsgroup to do your homework?

I happen to think it's a bad idea for students to send mail to newsgroups asking to have their homework done. You may or may not be aware of the fact that sites like http://www.dejanews.com/ archive all newsgroup traffic and burn it into CD-ROM for sale to various places. This is the modern equivalent of etching everything you say into stone so that it will be accessible to all future ages.

Why should you or anyone care?

Well, this means that years or even decades from now, anything you or anyone says on any newsgroup becomes part of the permanent record that can be inspected by potential employer to see what that person's interests, biases, etc. are. And a thing I'd imagine they would want to know about a person but that said person might not want them to know is that the person didn't do his/her own homework... You could lose a job, or maybe just get in a lower pay offer than you otherwise would have.