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Recently, one of my non homework questions for which I'd provided my attempt at the solution and conclusions, was dismissed.

The question was clearly not a homework question, and even some of my instructors haven't been able to solve it yet. I was hoping for discussion of various methods to approach the problem, which would ultimately lead to the solution.

In my opinion, dismissal of such problems is detrimental to the growth of this community and the 'homework policy' needs to be reworked so as to not lead to dismissal of non homework questions.

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    $\begingroup$ so, what's the question? $\endgroup$ – AccidentalFourierTransform Aug 10 '17 at 9:54
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    $\begingroup$ Did you see this other question asked several hours before yours that is basically the same thing? $\endgroup$ – Kyle Kanos Aug 10 '17 at 9:57
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    $\begingroup$ And 'detrimental to the growth of this community' is bogus if you look at the number of new questions per week and number of new users per week. If that's not growing, I don't know what it is. $\endgroup$ – Kyle Kanos Aug 10 '17 at 10:02
  • $\begingroup$ And calling it 'non homework question' is false: as defined by the site, your question satisfies the definition of homework. $\endgroup$ – Kyle Kanos Aug 10 '17 at 10:28
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    $\begingroup$ It is not bogus, it really is deterimental to the community's growth. The authorities or whoever is concerned needs to understand the difference between a homework question (something exceedingly trivial) and a good question that even instructors at some point failed to solve. Good questions should be discussed, only then it can add to the community's growth. $\endgroup$ – epsilon-emperor Aug 10 '17 at 10:32
  • $\begingroup$ @user28968 There have been many discussions about this, but it's generally agreed that removing homework questions is important for this communities growth in the right direction. Homework type questions generally also include example type problems. The types of questions we consider on-topic would require you to also ask about a specific physics concept. "Check my work" type questions are off-topic. $\endgroup$ – JMac Aug 10 '17 at 13:18
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    $\begingroup$ Generally because it provides no clear benefit to anyone besides someone with that specific problem. $\endgroup$ – JMac Aug 10 '17 at 13:19
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    $\begingroup$ As a science-based site, we normally expect claims of the form "X is detrimental to Y" to be backed by evidence. $\endgroup$ – Emilio Pisanty Aug 10 '17 at 21:34
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    $\begingroup$ @EmilioPisanty whoa now... Getting evidence means doing some work & possibly finding out your position is wrong! Let's not get too crazy here! $\endgroup$ – Kyle Kanos Aug 10 '17 at 22:30
  • $\begingroup$ "difference between a homework question (something exceedingly trivial) and a good question that even instructors at some point failed to solve" - can't be the correct definition of a homework question because it's entirely subjective. IF it is, then something is seriously wrong with this policy $\endgroup$ – ggmate Aug 10 '17 at 23:30
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    $\begingroup$ "In my opinion, dismissal of such problems is detrimental to the growth of this community" - but that's not even remotely the reason you wrote this meta post is it? To be perfectly clear, in my opinion, you don't actually give a damn about the growth of this community and I bet I'm not the only one here with that opinion. $\endgroup$ – Alfred Centauri Aug 12 '17 at 2:00
  • $\begingroup$ @AlfredCentauri aren't you being unnecessarily harsh there? and a bit ad hominem too? You are not the only one with that opinion, but your tone is rather unhelpful... $\endgroup$ – AccidentalFourierTransform Aug 12 '17 at 16:33
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    $\begingroup$ I am genuinely curious about the upvotes on this question: it asks about a clearly-off-topic question, it provides no evidence for its claims, and it rather transparently has no interests at heart other than the OP's need for somebody to do their work for them. Can any of the upvoters clarify on their reasons? $\endgroup$ – Emilio Pisanty Aug 12 '17 at 21:55
  • $\begingroup$ @AccidentalFourierTransform, I'm simply stating a fact; it is my judgment that the OP doesn't actually give a damn about the growth of this community but, instead, is highly annoyed that he/she didn't get didn't get the free help that he/she felt entitled to. This is just the case. Now, I could be wrong (and I'll gladly admit it if I am) but I'm almost certain that my initial judgment of the OP's actual motivation for this post is correct. $\endgroup$ – Alfred Centauri Aug 13 '17 at 0:04
  • $\begingroup$ @AlfredCentauri I agree with your sentiment, I am not debating that. It's just that your choice of words was not ideal. I felt that your comment was unnecessarily aggressive, even if accurate in its diagnosis. $\endgroup$ – AccidentalFourierTransform Aug 13 '17 at 8:51
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The closure/on hold banner, which was posted under your question when it was put on hold (and politely linked to in a comment beforehand), contains a link to this site's guidelines for homework and exercise-based questions; you're expected to read them carefully and act accordingly. If you're not willing to spend the effort to understand the community's standards and adjust your posts to them, this site may not be for you.

In its current form, your post is an open-and-shut case of a homework-and-exercises question, which this community (for good reasons) holds to specific standards that you need to comply with. As is made clear in the guidelines, it is entirely irrelevant whether this was set to you as homework during some course or not: what matters in this case is that your post is exclusively about a set-piece, that you're not asking at any conceptual depth, and that the question is of extremely limited usefulness to any future visitor.

To be clear, the difficulty of the question, including whether any or all of your instructors have trouble solving the set-piece, are entirely irrelevant to whether the post is on topic on this site.

There are a bunch of problems with your post. To start with:

  • You provide the set-piece as a scan instead of spending any effort in transcribing the text.

  • You provide your working as a scan of your notes, instead of properly writing the equations using mathematical LaTeX notation and supplying the connective tissue of argumentation that links your equations together.

    (This might not yet have been fully impressed on you by your instructors, in which case I would say they're rather at fault. A string of equations with no connecting text is never something you should present to other people.)

  • It's not particularly clear what you're asking, beyond "please solve this set-piece for me". If that's what you want from this question, without any willingness on your part to ask about the concepts and methods that underpin the task, then your question is unlikely to be on-topic here at all.

You should fix all of the above for the question to begin to be eligible for reopening. Some of these are formatting issues and they are still crucial: they are there make your question parseable by answerers and future visitors without the rather large effort that your question requires in its current form. (Or, to put it another way, if you're not willing to put in any effort into correctly presenting your question in a readable form, why should anyone spend any effort answering it?) Other issues are conceptual: they're mostly to do with the fact that you're not asking about any concepts or methods and in the current form you just want people to do your work for you.

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    $\begingroup$ Certainly all of the issues you've identified are real issues that should be fixed, but it might be worth emphasizing that it's specifically the last one that the close reason calls out. (Generally I quite like this answer. Well written.) $\endgroup$ – David Z Aug 11 '17 at 3:34
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    $\begingroup$ "A string of equations with no connecting text is never something you should present to other people." A thousand times that. $\endgroup$ – dmckee --- ex-moderator kitten Aug 11 '17 at 21:10
  • $\begingroup$ +1 to "what matters in this case is that your post is exclusively about a set-piece, that you're not asking at any conceptual depth, and that the question is of extremely limited usefulness to any future visitor." $\endgroup$ – ZeroTheHero Aug 12 '17 at 21:44

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