Homework is no longer a tag on Stack Overflow.
Keeping this post for historical reference. --Shog9
The result of a rather lengthy discussion concludes with the homework tag needing to go away on Stack Overflow. As far as tag burninations go, this is quite large, with over 20,000 questions to examine. When the tag is removed, it will be blacklisted - banished to the outer realms and never spoken of again.
The need for preemptive cleanup
Before we put the torch to the thatch, it's worth taking a minute to review these questions manually. One of the reasons why the homework tag is now being discouraged is that it was so often used pejoratively - a way for someone to say, "this question looks useless or lazily-written" rather than offering advice or... Cleaning it up. While the majority of the questions are decent enough, that still leaves hundreds that should've just been closed, and many more that could use some editing.
How can I help?
Jeff suggests the following strategy:
View the tag ordered by votes, then go to the bottom (lowest voted). Deal with the "worst" 100-200 of these first.
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/homework?page=1222&sort=votes
If your page size is set to something sane, you'll want to click the last page number at the bottom there.
View the closed questions in this tag, order by whatever you like (votes?) and deal with the worst.
https://stackoverflow.com/search?q=%5Bhomework%5D+closed%3A1
Try to remove the worst of the worst, then we can remove the tag from the rest en masse.
So... I just need to edit out the tag on these then?
NO!
The vast majority of these questions will be re-tagged without anyone looking at them directly. We're looking specifically for questions that need some attention but will get lost in the noise when the tag is removed.
After you've given it the attention that it needs (whether that's editing, closing, or flagging), then remove the tag - but remember, you're re-tagging purely as a signal to others that this question is done. Only remove the tag once that question is as close to perfect as you can get it.
What should I look for?
Is this even a real question?
If you can't make sense out of the question, or it's simply a dump of an assignment with no context or additional detail, or an indecipherable mess vote to close it or flag it as "Not a Real Question".
Does this only make sense if you know it's homework?
In some cases, an assignment is so contrived that it sounds completely insane unless you know that it is homework. If possible, edit these to clarify the purpose and intent, so that they can stand alone - but if that fails, vote to close as Not a Real Question.
Was the tag inappropriately applied?
There are some very basic but still perfectly decent, on-topic questions that may have been closed once someone other than the OP made an edit to apply the homework tag. If a closed question is basic, but on-topic and well-asked and was not closed as a duplicate, vote to re-open it.
Why do you hate students?!
We're not discouraging students from asking questions on Stack Overflow! However, the consensus is that everyone can benefit from answers that explain why not just how, and everyone should be encouraged to ask questions that are clear and complete (and list all requirements up-front, even if they're the nonsensical products of an out-of-touch professor or manager).
By getting rid of the "homework ghetto", we hope to make it clear that asking good questions and writing good, informative answers is something everyone should strive for. And if you feel the same way, we're all grateful for your assistance!
homework
tag being applied.[homework]
is fine on Meta because it's not a meta tag here (as weird as that sentence looks).homework
questions, not the questions themselves. But even if that were not the case — are you seriously trying to tell me that the removal of thehomework
tag will remove a single vague question, homework or not? All you do by removing that tag is to remove a guideline for answering questions in a way that aids learning, rather than getting a job done. This will make the web a slightly worse place.-1 you just did his homework for him!
... that has to stop.Looks like homework, tag it as such or ur a cheatin!
.. has to stop. So much about it just has to stop.[I-don't-know-how-to-google]
and[I-didn't-know-the-question-should-contain-a-question]
tags are out of the question. ;)