I had to take down my course-swapping site or be expelled • Hacker News Board

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

#411

Post by MadnessASAP » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 1:48 PM UTC

cbozeman wrote: post #331

joecool1029 wrote: post #325

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unlike most of the other commenters I have personal experience fighting a college administration in court. It was a massive time waste and I came out losing a years of my academic career where they lost nothing (money is absolutely not a factor for a large university, nor is stalling court proceedings to waste your life). I'm not even allowed to elaborate deeply on what it was about, the settlement for putting it beh…

I didn't have it quite as bad as you, but I did go to war once with my alma mater regarding a particularly small lab director and part-time instructor who had a Napoleon complex going on. He was directly and obviously infringing on student's First Amendment rights, not to mention bullying the class as a whole and attempting to threaten people. Ironically, his heart was in the right place, but his execution was way of…

Funnily enough, today I am I am (re)starting my post secondary education after a decade and counting in the military.

Your comment reminds me of one of the misconceptions that friends have of me/military. I am not as it happens a particularly good shot/fighter/camper/adventurer. However the military has more then prepared me to wade through a bureaucratic swamp to tell a room full of people paid more then me that they're wrong and will fight to the proverbial death over it.

That being said, other then some culture shock, not expecting anything too dramatic, ought to be a good time really.

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

#412

Post by dns_snek » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 1:51 PM UTC

ahahahahah wrote: post #107

hooverd wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yea, I don't understand the response to him here. You can just tell the random student who wants the keys to the student database "no" and go about your day.

It's almost like this one-sided story is leaving some things out.

Victim blaming is not cool. These types of over-the-top legal threats in response to good-faith engagement are extremely common and it's why bug bounties have safe harbor protections.

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

#413

Post by lowercased » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 1:52 PM UTC

> Unless, that is, I agree to work on a comparable solution for the university focused on solving the underlying problem I was building HuskySwap for. They would presumably own the IP and were clear that I wouldn’t be compensated. But it was implied that they would then remove the hold, allowing me to graduate.

I'm really baffled here because the code Kaim published is itself MIT licensed. The university could use it however they see fit after his version, and perhaps make a modified version which they then incorporate in to their system as the 'official' version.

Perhaps this code being public may expose potential flaws (logical, security, etc) which they don't want to have to deal with. Or might even be known flaws they don't want to expose.

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

#414

Post by fazeirony » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 1:53 PM UTC

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…

if anything, thanks for letting us all know that University of Washington blackmails their students in bad faith. hopefully this will save at least one other kid from being taken advantage of like you are clearly being and go to a superior institution that doesn't do these kinds of things.

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

#415

Post by Aurornis » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 1:57 PM UTC

joecool1029 wrote: post #325

GrantMoyer wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I am not planning to get a lawyer involved as I have faith that UW leadership will make it right in the end. All evidence so far indicates they will not make it right, but instead they may make it even worse. Your faith is wildly misplaced. Seriously, talk to a lawyer. Keep in mind, just because you seek advice from a lawyer doesn't mean you need to take legal action against the school. Talking to a lawyer is not a…

Unlike most of the other commenters I have personal experience fighting a college administration in court. It was a massive time waste and I came out losing a years of my academic career where they lost nothing (money is absolutely not a factor for a large university, nor is stalling court proceedings to waste your life). I'm not even allowed to elaborate deeply on what it was about, the settlement for putting it beh…

Thanks for speaking up. The internet talks about getting a lawyer like it’s a magic (and free) button you press to resolve a situation.

It’s not, and in some cases it can turn your problem into a more expensive and protracted different problem if you’re not careful.

I’d be especially cautious around a University that has already proven itself to have bureaucratic people who will turn small issues into threats of expulsion. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have legal counsel who is equally overstaffed and itching for something to do.

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

#416

Post by throwway120385 » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 1:59 PM UTC

dylan604 wrote: post #173

DennisP wrote: post #168

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That might be the way to bet but casually mentioning a lawyer once worked for me on a used car warranty claim. I didn't make any threats, I just said "my mechanic says X and my lawyer says Y" and they said we'll call you back, which they did in ten minutes and said I was covered after all.

If that's actually what your lawyer says, then there's nothing wrong with that, but if you don't have a lawyer and they call your bluff, you're worse off than before you ran your mouth. So it's not really too much different than me telling about that one time I was in Vegas and I rolled a seven.

So you just have to make sure you actually talk to a lawyer before you talk to anyone else.

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

#417

Post by zifpanachr23 » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 2:02 PM UTC

numeri wrote: post #351

cbozeman wrote: post #331

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn't have it quite as bad as you, but I did go to war once with my alma mater regarding a particularly small lab director and part-time instructor who had a Napoleon complex going on. He was directly and obviously infringing on student's First Amendment rights, not to mention bullying the class as a whole and attempting to threaten people. Ironically, his heart was in the right place, but his execution was way of…

The First Amendement limits what the US Congress/government can do, not what a private person can do. > Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

That's a wild oversimplification, it of course applies to state and local governments as well and has for a long time. A public university is a state entity.

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

#418

Post by dns_snek » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 2:03 PM UTC

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…

What they're doing isn't just wrong, it's abusive and possibly illegal, and I'm sorry that you're having to deal with this.

Please seek legal advice and do not take anything they say at face value. They're engaging in bad faith and preying on your fears and ignorance.

Just remember that your didn't do anything wrong, and I hope that you don't get discouraged from your future pursuits, I'm almost certain that there are employers out there who will love this and offer you a great start your career.

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

#419

Post by macNchz » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 2:04 PM UTC

DaSHacka wrote: post #309

loeg wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd heard of people writing these kinds of scripts but never heard of anyone getting expelled for it (ca. 2010).

At my University, scripts like these are pretty much universal. We even have an alumni-run site that scrapes the registration platform's API for the details of every course to provide a better UI interface. It even has a tool to generate an AutoHotkey script so students can insta-register for all their classes seconds after registration opens up for them (it's usually a mad rush at midnight when course registration o…

> Seems inane an institution would crack down on it.

Mad rushes to register requiring people to use automations like that sounds like a bad system to me, and something the university should be trying to address. That said, rather than a crackdown on tools, it’d make more sense to implement a harder-to-game system like spreading registration across a long period and assigning students to have their access unlock at a random time during the period. My college had time-slot (in person!) appointments like that 20 years ago.

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

#420

Post by jccalhoun » Thu, Jan 09, 2025, 2:06 PM UTC

The_suffocated wrote: post #387

“...find partners to trade spots in critical classes after they filled up”. I am not from the USA and I don’t understand the context. What does “trade spots” mean? Does it mean that if I have registered to course A but not course B and my friend have registered to course B but not course A, we can swap our registered courses in the official registration system?

I assume it means that at the start of the semester or just days before it starts that if class A and B are both full but I am enrolled in class A but wanted to drop it and get in class B and you are in class B and wanted in class A then we could swap enrollments.