This deleted question (10k+ users only) is a student who just copied exam questions and wanted help, and admitted it in the comments to me before deleting the question. I would like this question to be undeleted, closed and protected, so they can be caught. If the student used a university email, I would hope the mods could find time to drop a line to their department, though I understand it's not their job (Edit as Martin points out, identifying the student would be a breach of the moderator agreement. I more imagine more like just pointing someone in that department at the question, and leaving them to their own devices) I do wonder if Math.SE has had any similar cases...
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3$\begingroup$ I've voted to undelete the question, but I don't have enough rep to see the deleted comments $\endgroup$– Yemon ChoiAug 7, 2020 at 2:40
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2$\begingroup$ @YemonChoi neither do I, the OP deleted them. When I said it looked like homework, they said, roughly, "no, it's my exam, I've got 3 hours left". And then "bro, I don't want to fail". When I made my second comment pointing out the seriousness of the situation, they deleted the question. $\endgroup$– David Roberts ModAug 7, 2020 at 3:48
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2$\begingroup$ Wouldn't the action you suggest breach the moderator agreement? A related post on Meta Stack Exchange: Is this moderator's suggestion a breach of the Stack Exchange privacy policy? $\endgroup$– Martin SleziakAug 7, 2020 at 4:32
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1$\begingroup$ You asked about similar instances on Mathematics. You can find many related discussions on Mathematics Meta, for example: What do we do with users who post numerous unlabeled homework questions?, Student posting assignment questions - what action to take?, One of my students may be getting math.SE to do their homework. (Maybe also: How did this question get so famous?) $\endgroup$– Martin SleziakAug 7, 2020 at 5:35
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4$\begingroup$ @MartinSleziak I don't mean homework, that's a given. I mean exam questions, which is probably a newer phenomenon, and which I imagine is now worse given the pandemic. $\endgroup$– David Roberts ModAug 7, 2020 at 6:06
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2$\begingroup$ The closest I remember is this: Math exchange's policies for online exams and COVID-19. As pointed out in the comments, there is a long-standing “Contest problem” policy - online exams are to some extent similar to online contests. (When you write about homework that's a given, you mean on Mathematics, not on MathOverflow, right?) $\endgroup$– Martin SleziakAug 7, 2020 at 6:17
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1$\begingroup$ Some other posts related to exams: Posting exam questions and Is it our responsibility to police for competition/exam/etc questions? $\endgroup$– Martin SleziakAug 7, 2020 at 7:32
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4$\begingroup$ Why is there this need to punish a misguided kid? $\endgroup$– Andrés E. CaicedoAug 7, 2020 at 21:30
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5$\begingroup$ Yeah, I think now I've had some time, I'm not keen on the punitive aspect. But I think MO needs to settle on a policy, and I hope this question can provoke the required discussion. $\endgroup$– David Roberts ModAug 8, 2020 at 2:32
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1 Answer
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I disagree with your proposal.
Clearly, cheating has no business on the site. Yes, the question should be closed, deleted, and the account removed entirely.
This is not MSE, where such questions can hide in plain sight between the constant stream of incoming questions. It is very easy to find, identify, and deal with these questions when they come here. So there's no need to "make this one an example".
(I've posted this as an answer so users who disagree with these points can downvote.)
answered Aug 7, 2020 at 14:47
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1$\begingroup$ Yes to closing the Q and deleting the account. But the question deleted ... do we scrupulously delete homework questions here? Maybe the software takes care of it, but many times I just see such a question get a -1 score and closed, with a comment to the OP with advice to do a bit of work before asking in another forum. Having some questions that are off-topic visible and closed is useful too, as long as they don't start interfering with the on-topic ones. $\endgroup$– David Roberts ModAug 8, 2020 at 4:45
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2$\begingroup$ @DavidRoberts If a closed question has negative score and no answers, it gets eventually deleted by roomba. Some time ago quid posted this on MathOverflow Meta: Should we try to re-start manual deletions or is the situation fine anyway? $\endgroup$ Aug 8, 2020 at 6:38
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2$\begingroup$ @David To add on the automatic deletion, once you delete an account, any negative scored contributions are deleted with it. $\endgroup$– Asaf Karagila ModAug 8, 2020 at 8:54
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1$\begingroup$ OK, so it's a software thing. But it's not instantaneous, which is reasonable. As being on the lecturing end finding my students cheating this past semester, I appreciate there being at least a temporary breadcrumb trail that google can see, even it goes away after a week. $\endgroup$– David Roberts ModAug 8, 2020 at 9:22