What do you think of this business model?

I want to create a website dedicated to cheating on tests for students. Like it or not, this is a blossoming category and can be hugely successful. I'd like to mainly base it on a forum, along with a website. We'd incorporate some teacher-not-friendly resources to make it so that these methods would remain with the students only, and not the teachers.

Do you think this could be successful?

 

Not a bad idea at all, but how do you want to keep the teachers away?

 

You'd probably be closed down sooner than you think or worse; face a court case.

The only reason essay websites exist is because plagarism is now checked in most institutions through software, which is updated often.

A true student should be able to pass, I know about the stress so that can't be a justification.

Think of a worthwhile idea that is beneficial to the world, not to make cheaters a success.

 

It's kinda ironic why you have "hard work" under your recent blog post. I wouldn't want anything or any idea related to what you mentioned. It's ethically not correct.

 

wwill be for a while because you will probably get a lot of press... Is there anything like this at present... Im sure there has to be. I think it would have to be submission based... Meaning you couldnt get teachers text books and post the tests from those... even though teachers who use those tests are ignorant in the first place. I dunno maybe, what name did you have?

 

There'd be no plaigarism involved as, to what I know, if a person offers his answers up (e.g. a person who has already taken the test and tells answers via forum) that's not illegal.

Also, the person scrutinizng me. Thanks, because I really do value your opinion 110%. Just because I'm looking to go into a profitable business (imo) and you don't like it doesn't make it unethical.

 

depends on the content you put...

 

If you are doing stuff like "5 tips to cheat on your next exam" that might work. However, test questions and answers can get you into serious trouble. You probably won't see any current sites doing that because they have all been shut down. (Users will inevitably post copyrighted material. Remember, you're dealing with cheaters, they don't care!)

Here's one minor example that should help out: http://www.boingboing.net/2007/12/08/scribd-introduces-co.html

 

Thanks for that advice. Everything can be solved with a TOS.

 

You could create a list of every teacher in every school in the entire US... then tell them you have the answers to their tests...

Then, when they go through the signup process - make them choose their teacher before paying... then once they pay - tell them

"Thank you for your purchase. Unfortunately, we respect all hard working, under paid teachers and these funds will be forwarded to his/her bank account. You may contact your teacher/professor and request the answers to their test/quiz.

If you would like a refund, this will not be a problem. We will send a copy of your receipt to your Teacher/Professor and your parent(s) as soon as the money is refunded.

Thanks for playing...you lazy spoiled brat."

You could get plenty of Teachers supporting your efforts =)

For those who thought I was serious...

JK people............

 

That's quality.

I want this to be legal, but I know for some it's not "ethical". To those I say this: Look around.

 

Hey Soccer, I think you have got an excellent site idea on your hands. I do not see how sharing exam cheating information is in any way illegal, i mean its not "illegal" to actually do the act of cheating so why would sharing "how to" information be so.

I am curious about how you plan on keeping the teachers away though.

Good luck with your site. I would be willing to share some of my stories and the methods we used back in high school to cheat when the site goes live

 

Well, I was bored in school so I began an outline for the site.

First off, the site will be INVITE ONLY. Yep, all the way thru, invite only. I am thinking about letting users with a university email address and some other requirements register but be admin approved before they can do anything.

The front page will be a login, very secure. After that, I plan to give out invite privileges to members with 500+ posts on the forum ONLY. This is to weed out people selling them, etc.

This will not be a willy nilly site, I'm willing to put $x,xxx into development because I think it's that good.

 

Invite only is a good idea for keeping the teachers out, but it kind of kills the money making prospects don't you think? It means your only traffic is from members and forum members are the least likely people to click on ads.

Also, the more rare an invitation the more likely it is to be sold. If you give unlimited invitations to anyone who was invited, then the invites become easy enough to come by that no one will pay for them. You just have to rely on your members not to give them to teachers.

Also also, it should be recommended that members do NOT use their university email addresses so as reduce the risk of their account being traced back to them, should a teacher ever find their way in to the site.

Sorry for shooting down your ideas so quick, the site is a good idea, you just need to find the right approach to making it

 

That's the purpose for me in making this -- I hadn't even thought of the user being traced back via eMail.

I think unlimited invites for users with X number of posts is fine. Also, I'd probably only keep the forum portion locked, upon further review. I think a homepage with "teasers" would be a good idea. That way, if users are interested in a technique, they can read up on it at the blog, then find the link to the corresponding forum post.

The hardest part would be moderating the invites, but I think with some solid thought it can be done.

What would you suggest?

 

As long as you put in your TOS that you aren't responsible for any user content, then you can't be held legally responsible for them cheating. Another recommendation is to not get hosting in the US, then US copyright laws don't apply. Then the only problem you'll really have is morals, which you don't seem to have many, so this should be no problem for you. I recommend running this with a small team, in order to moderate everything.

 

I resent the opinion that I don't have "morals". I could write up a very long essay on how the US educational system is flawed and doesn't provide the student with anything but grades, but I won't.

 

That's what I do, see the 1st link in my sig. Anyways, I didn't mean it offensively, I just meant you don't seem to mind cheating. Sorry for coming across wrong.

 

Oh, okay. No harm, no foul. Nice blog!

Anyone got any ideas?

 

My suggestion for invite control (and this is just the first thing off the top of my head) is to make the invite trail (who invited whom and who they invited and so on and so forth) visible to all members. This way, should one member ever become suspicious of another member being a teacher, then they can retrace on the trail how that person got invited and confront their fellow members about it in school.

I'm not sure if that is clear or not. It sort of puts the onus on the members to protect their own interests. Of course its not bullet proof and relies completely on members being suspicious of other members but it could be one wall of defense in your system.