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YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

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Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#301

Post by eecsninja »

clairity wrote: post #173
eecsninja wrote: post #130

I'm really disappointed by the downvotes that sithadmin, misterbowfinger, and I have been receiving in this thread. Let me restate the argument, not in favor of cheating but why it's not the moral issue that everyone makes it out to be: 1. Cheating is only an issue in the artificial world of academia, where it goes against how the system is supposed to work. 2. We only think it is a moral issue because it's been dril…

do you really not understand that railing against the system is not the same thing as advocating cheating, as you seem to be doing? and really? cheating is only an issue in artificial constructs like academia? so if i design a building and crib the stress analysis from another building, it's ok because that's not an artifical situation? it seems academia really did fail you, as your argument just falls apart prima fa…

> it seems academia really did fail you, as your argument just falls apart prima facie. the learned person would reflect on the wealth of the feedback that you're getting here rather than assuming that you've unsheathed some gloden nugget of truth that the rest of us silly fools can't glean.

Damn right it did. I remember in a scientific writing class in college, the professor told us that we should always give credit when citing someone. I asked her if that was just a good practice and courtesy, or a moral obligation. The dumb prof just repeated herself "you should always give credit" and didn't seem to understand my question.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#302

Post by mwfunk »

eecsninja wrote: post #264
cirgue wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think the only important part of your children’s future is their ability to get hired, then you’re already setting them up for a life of misery and disappointment.

If you think the only important part of your children's education is what happens inside the walls of schools, then you're already setting them up for a life of mediocrity and servitude.

Why not do both? Learn your amazing life lessons outside of school and couple them with learning everything you can inside school. Why limit yourself? Why go out of your way to diminish your own value? It doesn’t make sense.

That’s how people end up in lives of mediocrity and servitude- they make self-destructive life choices that they rationalize by wrapping them up in some sort of bogus heroic narrative that they literally only came with to make them feel less bad about themselves. There’s nothing wrong with failure, right up until someone decides to not learn from their failures, and enshrines them instead because it’s a lot less work and it feels better. I’ve been there and it sucks. There is no pot of gold at the end of that rainbow.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#303

Post by maddyboo »

estsauver wrote: post #45

I did a little poking on some of the profiles that are listed as top essay writers. A lot of them that claim to be "Professors" are actually photos of professors, but are usually from radically different fields. This one is clearly just a stock photo: https://edubirdie.com/writer/public/750289 http://www.humanresourcestoday.com/diversity/?open-article-i...

I tried going through their onboarding process up to the point where you get bids and messages from the "professors".

They send you messages in broken English like this:

"hello esteemed customer. kindly assign me the order. i have read the instructions and understood them clearly as the assignment falls under my field of study.Thus i can guarantee high quality work, free from plagiarism and grammatical errors. Timely delivery is also my priority."

This seems like an essay mill out of India, which isn't surprising.

[1] https://i.imgur.com/MlTdNDq.png

[2] https://i.imgur.com/DqLO4Pj.png

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#304

Post by noobermin »

dragonwriter wrote: post #280
learc83 wrote: post #278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I know a smart* technical colleague who wrote at least 2 PhD dissertations for former romantic partners This is very hard to believe. From my experience this just couldn't work without near full time commitment by the ghost writer. The cheater would also have to be very familiar with the dissertation--to the point where they could have just written it themselves. Pulling this off twice (or more since you said at lea…

I find it plausible in a narrow sense of “write” that doesn't mean performing the substantive work, but merely assembling the formal written presentation of that work.

It depends but I don't really view that as full on cheating then. It'd be nice for them to actually write a bit of it (otherwise, they're going to have a tough time writing papers once they're out of grad school) but the actually bulk of work is the real thing.

Also, you can't cheat on a defense. If you can, then your Ph.D is worthless and the institution you got it from is near worthless.

Reread learc83's comment and it's really true. You can't just turn in your thesis. Moreover, you have to defend it, and your committee will tear into it even on the minutiae (happened during my defense) so it doesn't matter how well you know it if it isn't your work because if it isn't your work, you won't be able to defend it. The only conclusion I can see is they are crap profs/schools but that doesn't square with the "famous people on committee" bit.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#305

Post by ThoAppelsin »

eecsninja wrote: post #300

Anecdote: I remember in a scientific writing class in college, the professor told us that we should always give credit when citing someone. I asked her if that was just a good practice and courtesy, or an actual moral obligation. She just repeated herself "you should always give credit" and didn't seem to understand my question.

It seems like she meant to say that it is wrong not to give that credit, i.e. it is not just a good practice, not only a moral obligation that you become only immoral for not complying, but a requirement, a must that if you do not do it, then you are in the wrong.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#306

Post by eecsninja »

mwfunk wrote: post #302
eecsninja wrote: post #264

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you think the only important part of your children's education is what happens inside the walls of schools, then you're already setting them up for a life of mediocrity and servitude.

Why not do both? Learn your amazing life lessons outside of school and couple them with learning everything you can inside school. Why limit yourself? Why go out of your way to diminish your own value? It doesn’t make sense. That’s how people end up in lives of mediocrity and servitude- they make self-destructive life choices that they rationalize by wrapping them up in some sort of bogus heroic narrative that they l…

Thanks for sharing, and for pointing out that it's ultimately about self-improvement. I'd upvote you more if I could.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#307

Post by ThoAppelsin »

sithadmin wrote: post #66
badlucklottery wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>I don't really see meaningful value in degrees anyway Do you see how that's a rationalization strategy? Maybe you honestly don't but discounting the value of the degree to zero makes your actions victimless. But, if the value is non-zero, damage has been done.

Rationalization? No. There's no rationalization going on in my head. I just don't care. But if people are going to argue about it? Sure, I'll raise a counterpoint.

You should care. It is your responsibility to care from the point on when you've decided to take a part in these events. You shouldn't have initiated with them if you wanted to be so careless.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#308

Post by ohashi »

Buge wrote: post #263
baldfat wrote: post #2

As a former University Librarian and Residents Director A) Cheating happens more then it doesn't. In a Philosophy Class which had a dozen seniors all cheated in Spring Semester. Professor flunked them all by giving them an F and told them they were lucky they weren't expelled. President Graduated the students and fired the professor. Then on appeal the President was fired and the Professor rehired with a raise. B) Sh…

>Shocked that YouTube or any stock traded company would allow these videos to stay up. Morally this is wrong since cheating hurts everyone in education. Is it Youtube's job to enforce morals? Is it Youtube's job to prevent anything that might hurt education? If it was determined that memes hurt education (by distracting students from studying) should Youtube ban memes?

It can be it's job. The upside of keeping them - you get more business from companies operating in grey/black. The downside, loss of a tiny bit of revenue, possible public backlash/outcry, and the loss of morality. It's hard for people to die on the hill of a service for cheating. If you really want to, go for it, but it'll be lonely.

Re: YouTube Stars Being Paid to Sell Academic Cheating

#309

Post by eksemplar »

basementcat wrote: post #201
cmplxconjugate wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My partner is finishing their masters in China currently (native Chinese). The levels of cheating that go on within her course alone are mind boggling: 1. Girls asking their would-be boyfriends to complete their essays and attend modules. 2. Purchasing completed essays from Taobao. 3. Copy pasting others work from Baidu with only name alterations. 4. Paying exam setters for exam questions. Of course this is anecdotal…

I've observed all of these in the USA. I suspect this sort of thing transcends cultural and international borders. Possibly amusing anecdote: I know a smart* technical colleague who wrote at least 2 PhD dissertations for former romantic partners. As in "best dissertation award" + famous people on committee + etc , etc. The former romantic partners went on to have distinguished careers in management. * Depending on yo…

I think your colleague may be lying. It’s next to impossible to be granted a PHD you didn’t write yourself after years of hard work.

It’s really hard to even have your work accepted by the review board if the empirical evidence and the methods aren’t solid.

A PHD is not a candidate or a bachelor, it’s where your work is reviewed by a board of experts in your field. Often some members of the board won’t necessarily want you to pass either, because it’s very likely they disagree with your thesis.

I mean, it’s a cute anecdote but there is virtually no chance it actually happened.

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