I can't say I find it tempting to do that. And it's not because I'm so virtuous that I don't want to do mean and awful things to them sometimes.

But it's because it wouldn't help. Someone would come along afterwards with the right answer, and correct you for your mistake.

Or the person would say thanks and leave, then get wrong answers at school. Then they would say, "Wow SpanishDict.com really sucks, I got wrong answers there!" They would probably never realize that they were intentionally given wrong answers because they were asking homework questions.

You know what? We're teachers for these kids. And part of teaching them is teaching them to behave and follow rules. Let's do our best. (But find acceptable ways to put the lazy brats in their place whenever necessary jejeje)

Mmmm. Yes, the thought has crossed my mind, but when I look at the bigger picture, I want Spanish DIct to have a good name so that it continues to have lots of patronage.

No patronage= Fewer viewers

Fewer viewers= Fewer advertisements (double-edged sword)

Fewer advertiements=No money

No money = No Spanish dict

I would hate to see that. This is a great resource and it´s free for a reason.

While the homework assignments smack of laziness and expectations of a hand-out, I'd rather gently guide the students to help themselves.

Tempting, though. Tempting.

To be honest I don't find it too difficult. I always have the same response (plus or minus) and that is "Post an answer and let the gurus help out if necessary". Most of the time it is necessary to help but at least they give some sort of an effort to their own post. I tell my students to take control of their learning and to not rely on others to do the work for them. Asking a question is a good thing, it's what you do with the information you receive afterward. Thanks for the post.

I can understand your response to what may seem to be laziness on the part of these posters.

There are many reasons people do things. Many of them have nothing to do with our thinking of what the action seems to mean on first impression.

I knew someone whose IQ was 170 but due to a learning disability could not read.When he was a child people treated him like he was retarded.He was able to navigate the internet via other skills he had. Somehow he made it through a college degree in a field that used a lot of diagrams and illustrations.If you asked him to write a sentence he would panic and almost be in tears.

This is a rare case but it is possible these questions come from another situation that doesn't include pure laziness.I just don't answer the questions right now rather than put incorrect information in a post to "teach them a lesson". I think the responses that Moe have put up are pretty fair.At least the person may try to clarify their reason for what looks like a lame request.

I'm a teacher and I've encounter some kids or even adults with specific learning needs, as we call people with learning disorders. But I wonder how many of these asking for their homework to be done by sb else do have such problems, or is their biggest disorder called simply laziness?

Quépasa and Greg, I aprove your reasoning completely - of course, the reputation is very important. That's why I've never seriously thought about "cheating the potential cheater". Maybe it's just my "déformation professionnelle" as a teacher, that I find such behaviour bugging?

yeh. It's kinda annoying when there's a word that they can find in the dictionary. You know, even though its 2009... there are still some people who don't know HOW to use a dictionary or theasauraus- it's suprising... some people are still computer illiterate

But how CAN they be computer illiterate if they managed to post a question? Not to mention register on SpanishDict.

I´m not trying to come off high and almighty, but frankly, no, I don´t feel tempted to deceive them. I surely do feel a bit frustrated at times by the experience, especially when a flood of them start showing up at what someone characterized "the homework hour" But intentionally giving them a wrong answer? That seems kinda mean-spirited to me. It wouldn't help the person for sure, and it wouldn't really alleviate your frustration either.

Sometimes I'm frustrated equally when I take the time out to give a pretty in depth answer without "giving it away", point them to tools here on the site they can use to help their learning experience, encourage them to give it a shot, and then see that someone else just gave them the flat-out answer....or when I take all the time to give answers like that, and someone comes along and flags me, accusing me of the very thing I've worked so hard not to do.

It's the ephemeral nature of the site though, i.e. people can join at any moment, and people are at all levels of experience not only with the language(s), but also the ins and outs of SpanishDict.com, anyone can flag you at any moment for even whimsical reasons....that these scenarios are going to play out again and again (and again), so we just have to try to keep things in perspective and continue doing what we know will be truly helpful in the long-run to everyone involved.

But intentionally giving them a wrong answer? That seems kinda mean-spirited to me.

That's my dark side of the moon

I honestly am not tempted to give a wrong answer. Occasionally, maybe a sarcastic answer, but never the wrong answer. For one, how would they even know the difference unless someone points it out to them? Secondly, as others have mentioned, the reputation of the site is at stake.

I don't think you, yourself would ever give a wrong answer either. You are an excellent contributor to the site and to give a wrong answer would seem to be way out of character for you. I'm guessing that you are just venting and that your question is a little "tongue in cheek".

So with that in mind, I thank you. You have given everyone here the opportunity to express their opinion and to realize they are not alone in their frustration over the "homework" issue. Maybe if we take a few moments to be cranky with each other, we will be less rude to the laziest of forum posters. Hopefully, some of them will be reading this post and follow up answers, and will change their ways.

Podría nunca engañar alguien con una repuesta incorrecta. Simplemente no respondo, a menos que una palabra o tema que necesita revisar.

Yes I had to look up the word "engañar", but me and you Izabela, and many others here, know that is the best way to learn and retain.

I find it tempting to respond with all kinds of sarcastic comments! I am kinda bewildered as to why the 'ask a question' process hasn't been modified to deal with this issue. Whilst it's true that you can't beat nature's ability at producing bigger fools by making things more foolproof, I'm sure there is still room for improvement. For example, click 'ask a question', you're given two options:

'translate a word' or 'other'

Click 'translate a word' and it jumps focus to the 'translate' search box at the top of the screen, which people seem to completely miss, most probably because people are used to not looking at the top of web sites as that's where the adverts are, and in fact people are used to not looking at anything that is trying to get their attention (like a bright 'translate' button) because things that try to get your attention are usually trying to sell you something, ie, that's what adverts do.

Click 'other' of course brings you to the normal forum post form, but at least you've caught some people who plain didn't notice the translate function.

Well, I'm a beginner in Spanish, but I used to teach English and Dutch, so I can say It is tempting indeed... . Because many learners are only interested in final results, grades and notes they can show off with, they will never learn the language. They will seek for ready answers (and many times it takes longer than just check in your course - book). I find it pretty funny when they later claim they have done the homework all by themselves and when you ask a similar question, where for ex. they just have to change a personal pronoun, they have no idea what is that you want from them. I never gave a wrong answer to any of my students, instead, I sat them in front of a weird thing called A BOOK/ A DICTIONARY and thay had to sit there till they knew the answer... . lol

I am one of the lazy spanish students who could not care less about how they get the work done. However, i have created an account on this and am steadily learning from both the advice of those who know better than me such as yourselves and from this site in general. So, although I share your oppinion that in real life it shouldnt be that easy just to post something on here and get it done for you, I believe that with your guidance you can make a decent number of spanish speakers to maybe in the future answer the lazy childrens posts so then you dont have to.

Hope this provides an oppinion of those who are trying to learn spanish with the guidance of these forums and the website overall.

I've been very tempted many times to put the wrong answer. But, the little angel on my shoulder tells me not to so I put what I think is the correct answer and guess what, it's usually the wrong answer anyways! Lol, so either way they get incorrect information from me