The recent comment This sounds like a homework/test question is
- unhelpful as it offer no guidance and is not actionable
- bad because it raises the false flag that there can be something wrong with questions about homework simply because they are about homework.
This is the opposite of being welcoming to new users, especially on their first question.
There is prior art on this here in Astronomy meta:
- Homework policy
- I can't find this site's "homework policy" or find out how "suspected homework question askers" should be treated
and in Space SE meta
and generally the guidelines are that we can generally never know if a question is really about a homework problem that is due or not, and so the only way to proceed is to treat all questions the same; simply ask the OP to kindly add something that addresses
- "What have you tried so far?"
and/or
- "What research have you done?"
and to remind them that adding this kind of information is done in general and that you are not singling them out for special treatment.
"This sounds like a homework question" can sound to the OP like "I think you are trying to cheat" and it can make other users reading the comment (remember, comments can be read by anybody!) begin to believe that there is a rule against homework, which there is not!
What topics can I ask about here? (help/on-topic) and What types of questions should I avoid asking? (help/dont-ask) have no mention of homework whatsoever.
Question: Shall we stop the off-hand "this sounds like a homework question" comments that offer no guidance and raise false flags?
In fairness the same user later commented:
Astronomy SE, like all other Stack Exchange sites, are meant for Q&A. Sometimes we let by a few homework questions. See the meta discussions: Homework policy and What is the policy here on homework?
but the second item is 13 years old and way, way before Stack Exchange has become the nearly 200 separate sites and communities it is today and so probably irrelevant.
"Sometimes we let by a few homework questions." once again is both false and raises a false flag. There is no "letting" of a few homework questions. We treat all questions equally and we absolutely do not deem to have knowledge or suspicion of the OP's situation or context unless they share it.