IIRC, “no off-board projects” came about to prevent Dopers from being unwitting participants in psych studies. There’s also the bit Czarcasm mentioned about not wanting anyone to drive traffic to an off-board site for a project.
Oy veh, if this were really a problem I’d be on my fifth or sixth warning by now. I’ve asked several questions for background research related to my novels and online serial, usually looking for info that would steer me in the right direction after I’ve become stymied from bad Google-fu. For example, trying to find out exactly how long a Victorian-era wind-up gramophone cylinder would play on its own. A plot point hinged on someone entering a room and finding the gramophone still playing. People asked me questions and as a result of their guidance I was able to do further research that revealed Edison had come out with an electrical gramophone just a year before my story was set, which solved my problem. That kind of thing.
However–and I could totally be wrong here–I don’t think that’s the sort of off-board project the rules are referring to. There have just been too many questions that never triggered any mod action (not just my questions but other writers or coders or designers) for me to think that’s what they’re talking about.
FWIW, I’ve always interpreted that rule as, “Don’t try to use the SDMB members as subjects of a focus group or psychological survey or research project, or anything where their responses would be used to further the study/report/project.”
I wonder if that’s accurate or just something I invented to justify my own requests for help? Hopefully not!
Edited to add: Or… what Skywatcher just said, much more concisely.
I just don’t know how I managed to get through school. I mean, all I had were libraries, teachers, TAs, professors, and a honed, learned skillset on how to ask questions, do research and listen. And walking. Plenty of walking. And midnight oil. Plenty of midnight oil. Bologna sandwiches. Pizza.
Kids these days. No batteries or Cat 5 cable and they cannot even tie their own shoes …
I would think that CAT 5 shoelaces would be very difficult to tie.
OK, everybody please stop posting. We’ve received a report that this forum is useless, so we’ll be shutting it down now to make room for a Starbucks.
I have a confession to make: 9 and a half years ago, I needed to pass a survey around for a 5,000-word social psychology paper I was working on. After handing some copies to friends and fellow students, I posted the survey here, disguised as an IMHO thread. I got a lot of good responses - from a better sampling of respondents than the usual bunch of college kids, I must add - and I ended up with a 95/100 for the paper.
Anyway - I’m sorry I deceived you. In my defense, it was a perfectly cromulent IHMO thread.
Confession fail, darling…you told us in the OP that it was for a college paper. 
(No, I’m not stalking you and remembering 10 year old posts…for once, the Search feature worked really well this morning!)
Well, darn.
I’m sorry, Alessan, we’re going to retroactively deduce 10 points from your assignment for failing to correctly defraud the board.
Sometimes at night I dream that I’m still in school.
Those are the best nights ever, because then I wake up and remember, to my surprise and joy, that I’ve already graduated and there’s nothing anyone can do to change that, so nyah nyah nyah!
Besides, I think you posted that thread before there was a policy of asking permission before starting surveys like that.
But there’s no constitutional protection against ex post facto prosecution here, my idealistic friend.
I say we retroactively lock Alessan’s thread and give her a stiff retroactive warning about doing homework research without retroactive permission. (Unless she quickly seeks retroactive permission… in which cases, it would be “rats, foiled again!”.)
ETA: And by “we”, I mean someone with actual authority, not sarcastic blowhard guest lurkering troublemakers*.
*And by that I mean me, not anyone else. At least this time. :o
Him. Him!
OK, I give up. Mods: I want to change my username to something more masculine. Brock Gonads, maybe. I’ll get back to you.
To be fair, this forum is fairly useless anyway, and we kind of like it like that.
Use? Use? What is Use?
In 1976, amid the festive pandemonium of the U.S. Bicentennial, a young Midwestern boy wrote a letter to Cecil Adams for help with his “What America Means to Me” essay assignment. The flippant reply left permanent scars.
They say snark abuse survivors grow up to be abusers themselves. Cycle of violence, and all that. Yeah. Maybe so.
:smack:
I have no idea where I got my pronoun choice, because there’s absolutely no foundation for one way or another.
Maybe I’ll just declare victory in my internal fight against inherent pro-male gender bias and go home. :mad:
If you decide not to use it, could you please throw it into The Repository? 
I say we put Alessan in the comfy chair! drama button! :mad:
Moderator Note
After receiving clarification from the OP, the thread in question has been re-opened.