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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

#691

Post by johnnyanmac »

Aurornis wrote: post #113
dylan604 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Having a lawyer send a letter isn't an automatic win. Once you turn it into a legal threat you force them to escalate to their legal team. Reasonable lawyers would likely roll their eyes and talk the university back from this weird move, but you're not guaranteed reasonable lawyers on the other end. If they feel threatened they might start looking even deeper into into contracts you signed as a way to protect themsel…

>Having a lawyer send a letter isn't an automatic win. Once you turn it into a legal threat you force them to escalate to their legal team

Sure. But I'd love to see what a legal defense would say to this situation of soft-expelling a student who was making use of a school provided API. then potentially extorting him with his graduation as leverage.

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

#692

Post by johnnyanmac »

sethherr wrote: post #257
dylan604 wrote: post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Whether it ends up being successful or not while still having to pay the lawyer is how the lawyer always win. This is not the gotcha you think it is

Hmmmm. Yes but, if I hire a programmer to build me an app and no one ever uses it, I still have to pay the programmer. This is exactly the gotcha. You paid for a service. The outcome isn’t guaranteed.

If we're going to go the programmer goalpost: I charge a lot less to give a brief diagnosis on a code base than to go in and fix it. I'm not trying to be some cold moneu-grubber, I want to help solve problems.

I imagine consulting a lawyer is also a lot cheaper than preparing a case to sue for.

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

#693

Post by johnnyanmac »

pc86 wrote: post #435
dylan604 wrote: post #289

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you need to use a tractor to move those goal posts?

Did they move goal posts though? The original claim was that "once lawyers are involved, lawyers are the only winners." "Only" because "even if you win you still have to pay the lawyers." Even if your app is successful, you still have to pay the programmers. Even if you sell the building, you still have to pay the construction crew. Even if you're packed during dinner service you still have to pay the chef. None of t…

>I think it's projecting anger from spec attorneys taking 40% of personal injury judgments, or class action attorneys making $50 million in fees when the people affected get checks for $8.72, but neither of those apply here particularly when you're paying an attorney $75 to send a demand letter template on their letterhead.

Yes, that's the issue. He's poisoning the well. They get paid, but they aren't on the clock for $500/hr the moment you step in their firm.

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

#694

Post by johnnyanmac »

fakedang wrote: post #320
KPGv2 wrote: post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Because even if you "win", you now have all of those lovely legal bills that the lawyer sends you Oh come on, that's like saying when you involve engineers to build a bridge, the only people who wins are the engineers because you have to pay them.

Engineers don't get paid more when a project gets further delayed.

Depends on the contract. If you're hourly, no. If you're on a time constraint yes. You need a new contract. It's a whole spectrum.

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

#695

Post by johnnyanmac »

croemer wrote: post #199
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…

One half of me is sympathetic with you, the other wonders whether you're trying to get attention for a job (this is how the end of your LinkedIn post makes it sound). It's hard to judge from the outside as you haven't shared the actual writing from UW. I would probably cut this from the end of the LinkedIn post, this makes you look like you're possibly trying to blow this out of proportion for attention: > I'm schedu…

>the other wonders whether you're trying to get attention for a job (this is how the end of your LinkedIn post makes it sound).

Good, this market is brutal and I don't think it'll get much better in June. Gotta do whatever you can to stand out as a junior.

>How can you graduate in a few months already?

Various factors. Assossiates degree. Hyper accelerated program between AP classes, certain CC programs in high school, and high college workload. Simply grammatical errors on dates.

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

#696

Post by School-Cotton »

sneak wrote: post #306
School-Cotton wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It seems reasonable to at least attempt to resolve the situation by emailing someone higher up than whichever random bureaucrat put a hold on his account before immediately jumping to hiring lawyers.

The lawyer emails someone higher up, otherwise the higher up will simply smash the hammer harder to protect against liability. Showing up without representation here is a mark of unseriousness. Adult businesspeople always have lawyers do the fighting for them; if you don’t it says more about you than the fight.

That’s just not true dude. Most professional adults try to resolve things amicably before immediately getting lawyers involved.

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

#697

Post by ec109685 »

MichaelDickens wrote: post #628
ec109685 wrote: post #349

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, with a completely clickbait intro (given he took the site down after the university warned him, which he said later in his post). To be fair he follows up the first post saying that the university is holding his future registration hostage unless he builds them a similar website: https://www.linkedin.com/posts/jdkaim_github-jdkaimhuskyswap...

I'm not saying the story is true, but the intro is accurate to the story AFAICT. The university is allegedly threatening to expel him if he doesn't build them a website for free.

It wasn’t true when he wrote the first post. Maybe he updated it.

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

#698

Post by renewiltord »

johnnyanmac wrote: post #690
renewiltord wrote: post #524

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Essential expenses it certainly makes sense. But it seems some amount of it is treated as disposable income rather than liability.

Based on the breakdown, it sounds like she has $100 leftover per month. That pretty much sounds like "liability" money to me. Barely much to dispose of.

The average student loan debt is $38k. If you borrow $100 extra per month, and defer your first payment till the month you graduate, your extra burden is $5300 or so or about 14%. The average borrower takes 20 years to pay off the debt. They’d pay it off 2 years earlier without this extra expenditure.

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

#699

Post by croemer »

Someone who says they were OP's teaching assistant for this project replied on LinkedIn (seems trustworthy)

> JD, this has just been brought to my attention. I was the CSE 403 TA in charge of this project last quarter, and while I don't have the full context of how the site developed after the quarter ended and the token request, hearing this I am genuinely baffled and do not understand in the slightest what the UW has found a violation in and the legality of their actions. From my heavy experience with the site, it was developed completely independently from the UW registration system and did not even include any UW-specific information. I don't understand how they could request you take it down. If you need help in advocating for yourself or testimony, please let me know. I can also get in contact with the professor from your quarter. From the information I currently have, this seems like an insane and incomprehensible violation of justice, and I'd fight to overturn it.

https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:7282891...

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

#700

Post by KPGv2 »

croemer wrote: post #312
KPGv2 wrote: post #304

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That would mean you'd just take 2 years instead of the normal 4? FWIW my wife was a fourth-year the start of her second year at uni because she'd tested out of a ton of basics or taken dual-credit courses in high school. I was a fourth-year the end of my second year. I AP'd my way out of 6 hours of English, 14 or so hours of Spanish, 8 hours of physics, 8 hours of calculus, and a hodgepodge of psych, sociology, etc…

Only saves time if you consider being in university a waste of time instead of an opportunity to be free to learn what you are interested in and surrounded by like-minded people.

University is an expensive credential to check off a box for most people. I'm not one of those people, and sounds like you aren't, but for most people, it is.
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