Ed Etiquette

We will encourage more student participation on Ed rather than answering right away, that is, we will wait until other students step up and answer questions.

Of course, we will still provide clarifications on logistics, typos, subtle points, etc.

We want to make sure that you are helping each other out, and having instructors give away the answers isn’t the most beneficial for your education either.

1. Post in the relevant threads

We’ve created individual posts for notes/lecture, discussions, and homeworks. Please ask questions, discuss problems, or help out in those posts only. Before asking a question, read through (or search) the whole post to see if your question has been answered.

As a general rule of thumb, students should not be making a new public posts, unless they can find no relevant threads where they could otherwise make their post.

2. Don’t post answers in Ed

Please don’t give away the answer on Ed. You can explain things in a way that still lets other students figure out the essence of the problem on their own, but don’t spoil the problem. For example, don’t point to a useful YouTube link that works out essentially what the problem is asking about.

If you are asking a question which involves discussing your answer or approach in more detail than appropriate for a public thread, please make a private post.

3. Post in public threads where possible

While not violating Rule 2, try to make your questions in public threads, because others might have the same question and we don’t need to answer them multiple times.

4. Ed is not OH. 5 minute-test

If you think your questions may take more than 5 minutes to answer, please come to office hours or homework parties instead.

5. Neither Ed nor TAs are for pre-grading

Please do not post questions of the form:

• “Is this the correct solution to HW X problem Y?”
• “Would this receive full credit on HW X problem Y?”
• “Is this the right level of detail for HW X problem Y?”

Please do not use Ed as a medium to ask instructors to check your homework in advance. We simply cannot check every student’s homework through Ed.

Feel free to ask questions of clarification, or ask questions about the course content to achieve a deeper understanding, but at a certain point, you must apply your knowledge, give it your best shot, and submit your answers with confidence.

6. Post a screenshot of any resource referenced

Your question should be self-contained. The TAs (and other responders) should not have to scan through PDFs to even figure out what the question is. Ask yourself: am I referring to some lecture slide/lecture note/HW solution/discussion solution/past exam?

If the answer is yes, post a screenshot of the relevant part.

7. Complaints / suggestions on course policies

Please email these concerns to cs170@berkeley.edu. Ed is reserved for content questions and clarifications.

8. Post all your steps

Don’t post one line saying:

At step n, I get XYZ, and I’m now confused.

This forces the TAs to guess:

What happened in steps 1, 2, …, n - 1?

Most likely, the TAs will guess wrong, and we run into a mess of follow-up questions trying to figure out what steps 1, 2, …, n - 1 were.

Instead, post:

Starting out, we have: …. Then, I do …, and I get … Next, I do …, and I get … Next, I do …, and I get … Now, I get $&%&#(, and this makes no sense.

Then, the TA can respond:

The mistake is at step 3, you’re not allowed to apply ABC to XYZ because …