TubeNet

I posted a question about my thesis topic to everyone and it keeps getting deleted. WHY???

If I'm not mistaken, the owner does not allow questions regarding coursework help to be posted on this site.

Check your private messages to see if the moderator left you an explanation.

That makes sense

While I do respect Sean's right as operator of this forum to police it as he sees fit, I do respectfully disagree with the decision to remove Mr. T's research question.

I completely agree with the idea that this forum should not be the place for every college freshman to get help with music theory homework, but I find a doctoral dissertation to be a wholly different matter. Mr. T's topic is, at least in my opinion, not exactly one that lends itself well to English language library research. This is, of course, the general idea of doctoral level scholarship. Why should he be denied access to the collective knowledge of this board contains simply because, at some point, he will get a grade on it? Why would the question be allowed if it came from someone who wasn't in school? What if I, as someone not enrolled in any music courses, were to now ask the exact the same question simply because the original one piqued my interest? To me, Mr. T's question was simply making an effective use of resources to further his research. While I probably wouldn't cite TubeNet directly in a scholarly project, I'm sure that the original question would be able to generate some valuable research leads; some names and email addresses at least.

Again, I am not taking issue with "the rule" or with the reason for having "the rule," but I find it puzzling that it is applied so mechanically without any regard for the content.

Respectfully,

Kyle

Well, there is an obvious solution to this problem, ain´t there ?

Simply avoid terms that hint at the true reason why you´re asking, such as "homework", "assignment", "research paper" or the likes. Be careful not to give anyone the impression you were asking them to do YOUR work.

Obviously in this forum, there is no real need to try and underline the urgency of your question to be answered. People are online all the time, and will happily JUMP at the opportunity to answer a SMART question calling for an answer that is worth considering.
Really inventive and successful questions (in this forum) will show that someone has bothered to use the "SEARCH" button before asking.
Such questions will allow for several different opinions and make room for well developed trains of thought.

Edit: just realised I hit the "submit" button before checking sentences for plausibility...

Elephant,

I agree with you. May I add that it just might be a good idea to take the time and read through most of tubenet, beginning on page one, to stumble over true gems of tuba-related knowledge.
I´m serious. I´m sure there are hints all over the place, leading one towards literature worth checking out for reports.
All it takes is less time on "World Of Warcraft".

When you research a book, you give the source author, title and page in your footnote reference.

When you do field research, you formulate your methodology and your procedures, and document your process, then footnote accordingly.

When you interview original source material, you cite the interviewee, the date, time, place and context of the interview, and if you don't have a verbatim transcript, which is preferable, you take copious notes or have a scribe with you to do that. Then you cite, etc.

When you do statistical research, you interview multiple sources with a structured focused question or series, and cite the methodology for your extrapolation of conclusions from the data.

So, as long as you structure the mode of research, define your methodology and criteria, cite your sources and keep good reference and project notes, and carefully analyze your data and set forth your conclusions, you tell me the functional difference between posting and contacting members individually.

If I had access to web and all that's available when I was in the middle of research, Oh, what a grand thing it would be.

The flat ban assumes "cheating" of one sort or another. Tell me the functional difference between asking an experienced person on this forum for a direction, and asking a staff librarian the same thing.

If "originality" is the concern; then I submit that if someone on the forum also knows enough to go off on the new direction, then it isn't "original" enough to warrant a PhD.

I don't claim to be an "expert" on research, but a B.A. summa cum laude, a J.D. and over 20 years of having my trials and briefs (depositions are nothing but structured interviews for original data sourcing, and appellate briefs are nothing but research papers which are probably on par with most master's thesis material) held up on appeal, I do know a nit and bit here and there about research.

I respectfully request the administration review this policy.

I don't know anything about the original post, but I just wanted to add my two pennies.

the elephant wrote:Asking us to share what we know in this setting is avoiding that research, using the work done by us in lieu of doing it yourself.

Disagreed, to an extent. If I were doing a research paper, I may want to know what sources there are available. I would, of course, ask people who have knowledge on the subject to suggest worthy research material. This forum, while having many amateurs and younger students, also has a plethora of professionals and music gurus who rarely peek their heads out on the boards until there's a worthy question to answer. Many of them are spread across the world, so this would be a great medium to ask them all at once, provided they read the topic.

the elephant wrote:But merely asking us to collectively list a bunch of publications is asking someone to do the leg work for you.

This (hopefully) wouldn't be the only method of searching for publications to research, but it certainly isn't asking someone else to do the legwork. Asking people with knowledge on the subject is the first step towards finding good sources. The person wanting the information can select what he needs and what he doesn't need for the paper as he sees fit. Any time I had a paper, the first place I went was to my professors who had knowledge on the subject to suggest good sources to look into. Perhaps they owned the book themselves and were willing to lend it out. Posting a harmless question on Tubenet is asking more people the same question to get more results. While this is a forum, and nobody is quotable on a forum for a paper, any suggestions they may have for research can be gold. Suggestions for great sources can save more time for the paper rather than spending it reading the first few chapters in a few books that eventually turn out to not be useful to your thesis.

Nick