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I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

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Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#51

Post by [deleted] »

theturtletalks wrote: post #12
pockmarked19 wrote: post #5

That’s just how colleges are. I once reported to my alma mater that a somewhat obscure (but obviously public) link seemed to trigger the download of a zip of student details for no discernible reason (I think it was a WIP site), and they immediately threatened to call the FBI on me. I just sort of laughed it off, but I decided that was the last time I was going to initiate any sort of contact with them if I didn’t ab…

Wasn't a government agency rendering citizen SSNs client-side and when someone discovered it, they went after them? Wouldn't be surprised if the anti-DRM part of the DMCA is used to persecute these non-crimes.

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Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#52

Post by rexreed »

crystaln wrote: post #19
crystaln wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When I read your initial post I figured it was knee jerk reaction, and like many no’s was only the start of the conversation. Now it sounds like you’ve got some sociopaths on the line. I would gather information and fish them to get very specific about their request and threat, then kindly turn it around on them. Be prepared to go above their heads all the way to the board if necessary.

[flagged]

It's also a good "first pass dentist" but I wouldn't use it for anything critical.

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#53

Post by [deleted] »

jdkaim wrote: post #7

Update: I immediately took down my class project site after receiving yesterday’s ultimatum. I still don’t think the simple demo site violated the letter or spirit of the registration rules, but I took it down because I always want to operate in good faith. They followed up today to thank me for doing it, but also indicated that they were putting a hold on my account anyway. As a result, I am not going to be able to…

[deleted]

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#54

Post by pdpi »

gowld wrote: post #29

He wasn't disciplined for building an app or fetching data. He was disciplined for blatantly trying to "hack" (in the YC sense, in UW's view) the registration process: https://registrar.washington.edu/winter-2025-registration-ch... "Know that trading, selling, or buying open spots is a breach of the Registration Tampering Abuse Policy. Consequences include referral to the Student Code of Conduct process, a Registrar’…

> Such abuse includes, but is not limited to, buying or selling one’s seat in a class, holding seats for another student, or otherwise registering for a section that one has no intention of taking."

This bit is important.

At a glance, stubhub/ticketmaster/etc are pretty benign services that fulfil a pretty natural need for event tickets, but we've all seen the damage they can cause. There's a very real risk that OP's service could become a ticketmaster for UW classes, with all the perverse incentives that entails. Their reaction was probably excessive, but, from this perspective, understandable.

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#55

Post by nicoburns »

jdkaim wrote: post #7

Update: I immediately took down my class project site after receiving yesterday’s ultimatum. I still don’t think the simple demo site violated the letter or spirit of the registration rules, but I took it down because I always want to operate in good faith. They followed up today to thank me for doing it, but also indicated that they were putting a hold on my account anyway. As a result, I am not going to be able to…

Does your university have a student's union? I'm not sure if this is common in the US. But in the UK they're usually incredibly effective at sorting out this kind of issue.

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#56

Post by darth_avocado »

Aurornis wrote: post #21

I have several friends on the administrative side at Universities. The two things you have to realize is that there are an incredible number of administrative staff at Universities and they're extremely territorial. You rocked someone's boat and they got upset. They have a lot of time on their hands because there are so, so many people in administration. Now they're coming after you like it's their job. I think you'r…

> They have a lot of time on their hands because there are so, so many people in administration.

Not so polite take: most of them could be replaced by a 20 line shell script.

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#57

Post by stikit »

something is missing from this story. it doesn’t make sense they jumped right to blocking your account because you requested to integrate. You sort of skipped over the part where you got hold of the Swagger files. would you care to elaborate on how exactly you found those files and if this might have been the reason for the heavy handed response? usually swagger files would be locked down on the backend .

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#58

Post by robocat »

widforss wrote: post #16
ryandrake wrote: post #13

Why would the school admin go nuclear over a request to integrate with the registration system, a system that is clearly intended to be used by applications: > “The Student Web Service gives your application access to information in the Student database such as course data, registration data, section data, person data, and term data (general academic data).” It doesn't make any sense. Was there something left out of…

Everybody knows you have to be a drop-out to become successful in tech. This is basically their way of identifying potential entrepreneurs and helping them to drop out.

Independent self-starter types that respond creatively to strict rules don't like schooling. They often don't bother to start university so never drop out.

A few of the smartest people I personally know left school at 15 - they reacted badly to school restrictions and just wanted to just do something (not study) and often left home early too.

Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#59

Post by zcrossing »

dylan604 wrote: post #35
throwway120385 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

100% this. You'd be surprised what kinds of problems go away when you mention your lawyer casually or you have a lawyer send a letter. Even if you don't get the right kind of lawyer right away, they might be able to recommend someone or tell you how to research the right kind of lawyer to get ahold of. Professionals are usually helpful about those kinds of things. Also get a second or third opinion. I've sometimes go…

Don't mention a lawyer casually. Just have the lawyer send a letter. Don't give them the option to call your bluff. People casually mention a lawyer so frequently it means nothing. Receiving a letter from an actual lawyer means everything.

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Re: I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled

#60

Post by jjmarr »

gowld wrote: post #29

He wasn't disciplined for building an app or fetching data. He was disciplined for blatantly trying to "hack" (in the YC sense, in UW's view) the registration process: https://registrar.washington.edu/winter-2025-registration-ch... "Know that trading, selling, or buying open spots is a breach of the Registration Tampering Abuse Policy. Consequences include referral to the Student Code of Conduct process, a Registrar’…

If you look at the GitHub commit history, the repo was created before the blog post from UW, and also never contained actual courses.

This is important, because it's the only explicit reference to "trading open spots" they've made.

The Registration Abuse policy covers access to the registration system for:

* buying or selling one’s seat in a class,

* holding seats for another student,

* or otherwise registering for a section that one has no intention of taking.

It's unclear if HuskySwap actually violated this policy, given that it never actually accessed the registration system and no students used it in conjunction with the registration system of the school.

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