5

The question Reporting cheating within a workplace environment was recently posted, and cross-posted in Academia as well. There has been considerable debate in the comments about whether this is an acceptable cross-post or not.

The OP believes that the two questions are distinct enough that they can be an exception to the cross-posting rule (see this Meta post). Initially the two questions were practically identical, but the OP has made edits which I believe help immensely make it much more focused towards the Workplace.

However, I am still not convinced that the two questions are distinct enough to warrant cross-posting. Primarily, I believe that the questions are not materially different. The answers that would be received on the two sites will be extremely similar, because the academic and workplace issues are so intertwined that one cannot address one without also addressing the other.

Thoughts? Should this question stay closed, or possibly be deleted? Or do the edits make it good enough as is? Or are there other edits that could be made to make it worth keeping?

1 Answer 1

Reset to default
4

I cast the final close vote and a deletion vote (which was reversed after the question was upvoted from -3).

I believe the crosspost alone is sufficient reason for deletion and the edits so far haven't erased that aspect. Aside from that, it has plenty of other problems that make this off-topic, voiding the "exception to the rule":

  • the OP is asking for advice without specifying a real question: "How would you recommend he handle this matter" OP updates this to ask "How can the risk of any such repercussions be minimised?" instead but I'd argue that that has a significant legal aspect and answers depend on the teacher's priorities and how much risk he would like to take, which ties in with:
  • he's asking for a friend so won't be able to update the question with what he actually intends to do
  • if we focus the question on the teacher's ethical responsibility, which is answerable, there's no point to having two questions and it should remain on Academia.1
  • the teacher in question is not employed. We have some leeway with that as an academic context alone is typically not sufficient reason to close a question, but that's far from the only problem here

Finally I think you've made an excellent point in your question and fully agree with this interpretation (emphasis mine):

I believe that the questions are not materially different. The answers that would be received on the two sites will be extremely similar, because the academic and workplace issues are so intertwined that one cannot address one without also addressing the other.

1 - I suspect they may close it for being off-topic but that's not relevant to the question at hand.

4
  • Your first bullet point is moot, since that phrase was replaced in an edit hours ago. I can update with any questions you might have for my friend. Also the questions are now very materially different, there having been a number of edits to both since they were asked.
    – eggyal
    May 12, 2016 at 20:04
  • 2
    @eggyal Updated, but you should also edit the title if you want to make your core question clear. I dislike working through a proxy and having people ask advice for friends who are perfectly capable of asking for themselves, but I think opinions on that differ on this site. Anyway, despite your edits I still feel that the question is too problematic to be reopened and any version that would be sufficiently on-topic here would not be sufficiently different from the Academia one.
    – Lilienthal Mod
    May 12, 2016 at 20:17
  • 1
    I was going to argue that The Workplace might have some unique perspectives to share. We have some really thoughtful and quality answerers here, but your answer convinced me.
    – Lumberjack
    May 13, 2016 at 23:33
  • 1) Lots of things we deal with have a legal aspect. As long as the question is not asking for legal advice(Should I sue, can I be sued, if i get sued what should i do, etc) they are not off topic because of that. 2) Cross posting itself while definately frowned upon does not mean the question should be automatically closed. We should evaluate the question based on the value it adds to the site. If it fits well here it should be accepted on its merits. Otherwise I agree that with your assessment that the post does not belong,,, and it has been deleted.
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    May 26, 2016 at 15:32

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .