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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

#531

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#532

Post by brailsafe »

withinboredom wrote: post #359
brailsafe wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also worth noting that it would be incredibly naive to expect good faith to be reciprocated by any institution at all throughout the course of one's life, which sounds cynical, but lets be real. If there's a way that almost any institution or person that you're transacting with in good faith—including schools, workplaces, lawyers, medical professionals, the leader of your country, sometimes family, whatever—can get a…

> If there's a way that almost any institution or person that you're transacting with in good faith [...] can get away with fucking you over, they might. Not always, but expect it. This. Always protect yourself, even when operating in good faith. You may only interact with someone professionally, but you never know what kind of person you are really working with. Sometimes people may seem nice, but are pure evil. In…

Yep, they'll walk all over whoever they can, until they receive just enough bad publicity or pushback, and suddenly it's not an issue anymore.

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

#534

Post by antoinebalaine »

polotics wrote: post #383

Amidst all of the talk about the reported coercion attempt, which is bad, may I also ask something about the bait and switch: so you paid a lot of money to attend a given university and then even though your grades and everything else would in theory allow you to follow a class you can be blocked because of resource constraints that are not advertised as something you would have to contend with when you paid the big…

Isn't this the case in most universities?

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

#535

Post by mmcwilliams »

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…

If the university offers an API then it's not a "scrape". If you're describing unauthorized use of an API then you've disclosed a possible CFAA violation, not web scraping.

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

#536

Post by storyinmemo »

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…

Am I reading it correctly that you asked for a read only access token, never received the token or accessed the site with your software, and got a take down notice for your demo that only had fake data hours after asking if you could read data?

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

#538

Post by autoexec »

withinboredom wrote: post #359
brailsafe wrote: post #297

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Also worth noting that it would be incredibly naive to expect good faith to be reciprocated by any institution at all throughout the course of one's life, which sounds cynical, but lets be real. If there's a way that almost any institution or person that you're transacting with in good faith—including schools, workplaces, lawyers, medical professionals, the leader of your country, sometimes family, whatever—can get a…

> If there's a way that almost any institution or person that you're transacting with in good faith [...] can get away with fucking you over, they might. Not always, but expect it. This. Always protect yourself, even when operating in good faith. You may only interact with someone professionally, but you never know what kind of person you are really working with. Sometimes people may seem nice, but are pure evil. In…

> You may only interact with someone professionally, but you never know what kind of person you are really working with. Sometimes people may seem nice, but are pure evil.

It's not even always a case of being evil. Large institutions/companies are full of polices and processes designed to protect the system at all costs and some nice people will turn their brain off and strictly follow those policies either because they feel they have to, because it's the easiest thing to do, or because they know that as long as they stick to the policies (or what they think the policies are) they'll be safe.

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

#539

Post by petercooper »

morgango wrote: post #505
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…

Please don't listen to all of these folks who are trying to bring conflict into your life. You did something interesting, and learned a lesson about how big institutions actually work. It is a great story, and one that you can tell your friends. The easiest path forward is to do what it takes to graduate, it sounds like you are one quarter away. Smile, play nice, help out where you can. Get everything in writing. Def…

That's reasonable advice if he could cease to work on his project and status quo were resumed, but from his telling of events, it sounds like they're saying he can't study at all unless he works for them for free. Such a scenario would be extortion, and is worth taking the stand on IMO.

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

#540

Post by red-iron-pine »

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…

Unlike most of hte other commentators I also have personal experience fighting a college administration -- and winning. By threatening lawyers, too.

I got into an Honors Study Abroad thing through the school, but was worried about an incomplete grade screwing up my GPA or causing issues. Emailed the admin about it + study abroad office -- they said all good, it's kosher.

Turns out it wasn't, and after dropping 41k to lock in housing and study abroad they told me I couldn't go because I couldn't transfer credits. Well here is a lesson in "keep your emails" cuz I dug that out and picked a fight with the administration.

They eventually gave me all of my money back minus the $600 non-refundable deposit. I was ready to go to the mat for that, too, but they offered to get me a guaranteed slot for on campus housing and permanent first crack at class selection similar to athletes and disabled students. I was sick of commuting by that point and took the offer. I figured out it was a way to get more money out of me pretty quickly -- solve an issue and make money via housing -- but my RA in the on-campus apartments was super cool and basically let me and a roommate squat for multiple summers. Still friends with a lot of those folks I met living on campus too.

Worked out okay, all things considered. Lawyers won't be a guaranteed win, but don't assume that just giving up is a better deal.

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