The Reader* makes a lot of money from paid memberships? 
I do realize that there is a big gray area there when it comes to homework. Honestly, I must give kudos for making the hard decisions and almost always getting it right, FWIHS.
This quote…
means they probably wouldn’t have been helped much by Google either, I think.
If the OP said: “How do you do these problems?” and had a list of homework questions, that would definitely not be okay. If it said, “We have to write a plain-English description of the concept of logarithms, so please help me understand them,” that would probably not be okay either, but unfortunately, most math teachers don’t discuss concept much either, and present math as a list of algorithms and formulas. Which is exactly why people like the OP get so confused when they try to actually UNDERSTAND math rather than just DO it.
Anyway, I agree that the thread should not be closed, although I think the few replies it did get answer the question pretty well, so it doesn’t really matter very much. I still hope it ends up being re-opened, as a matter of precedent and such.
Completely absurd closing, and in violation of the entire concept of this board.
There are far too many mods around here, and the overwhelming majority of them seem to make one inept decision after another.
No, I think that with the recent influx of new mods we’re just seeing a lot of settling in right now. I think the decision was wrong, but it’s an understandable mistake and pit threads like these explaining why are IMO the right way to go about letting new mods get a feel for the right thing to do.
Sam, I was a high school teacher. I would have been delighted for my students to have had help in thinking things through. In matters of grammar, even direct answers would have been acceptable.
Sometimes teachers take too much for granted. I remember well that not all introverted, isolated, verbally-inclined fourteen year old girls knew what either plane or geometry meant when signing up for the course in 1957. (I know…I know.)
This may be a first for me. I don’t generally disagree with the mods on thread closings or moves, at least not very much.
This particular one isn’t earthshaking, and I can see samclem’s point that there is a line that can be hard to spot in homework help.
But I think he was a little over-cautious here. It didn’t look like a call to do specific work, but rather a plea for help in understanding.
It seems to me a thread on the general defintion, use, and theory behind something like logarithms is tailor made for this bunch.
Just chiming in with the rest of the echo chamber…its good to be on the more popular side for once. 
The thread was a call for general knowledge not a request to do some homework. Its similar to a thread I started a few months ago asking for some cites ABOUT Project Management because I was taking a class on it…not asking anyone to do my homework. This is the same thing. Sure, the OP could have looked it up on line…but a lot of times I get more explaination wise out of folks on this board than I do seeing a dry explaination on some web site (or in some text book)…for one thing, if I still don’t get it I can follow up with another question.
Definitely disagree with the mod here…something else I normally don’t do.
-XT
Many GQ’s could be researched on the internet before being asked here (some of which Cecil or the SDSAB’s have answered). For those who prefer not a cookie-cutter answer, this board is the place to ask.
Adam
You’ve a gift for understatement. What did the Cookie monster, or crying for God’s sake, have to do with the price of tea in China?
I’ll just add my name to the petition…
We fight ignorance here. If we start shutting down threads just because what the person is asking about happens to be a school subject, then we’ll be out of threads pretty goddamn fast.
I was the first person to reply to the thread and considered pitting the closure of it myself. And for the record, I’m not about to do someone else’s homework on here (it’s hard enough for me to get my own work done, much less someone else’s).
Amazing what a night’s sleep can do. I reopened the thread. My bad.
I blew this one.
samclem GQ moderator
Kudos, samclem.
Wise is that moderator who knoweth when he bloweth one and taketh action to correct it!
You’ve been doing too much of that Shakespeare thread…
Oh, sure that’s going to work…faking a reasonable attitude. Good onya.
The Cookie Monster was in collusion with Big Bird and Gordon to use their fame and wealth to buy up all of the tea in China. In effect, this would have make the price skyrocket.
Mr Hooper found out about this and was killed because he knew too much.
Someone sig should included “blowethed by Samclem” ;D
:applauds: good call, samclem. Classy.
Not at all. (Damn, this doublet and hose sore pincheth me! Methinks I have another wedgie.)
Thanks, samclem. Good to see the human side to moderators emerge occassionally 