At least in years past, they were often quite active posting questions and help threads, and I recall even mentoring one of them a bit. However, I don’t seem them much in Python Help like I once did, at least identifying themselves as such as they used to often do.
Not to my knowledge, at least while I’ve was a moderator, which was relatively recently. I’ve seen this for many years as well, and a couple years ago I inquired of one what this was about and if we could speak with their instructor about it, and she said the following:
So per that claim it is merely a “suggestion”, to offer the forum as a resource for students with questions? However, I never heard back from the instructor, and the post you cite seems to suggest that it is compulsory.
I’d been noticing it too and wondering if something should be done, but my personal conclusion was absent a broader discussion such as this to leave it be, given introducing oneself is indeed the whole purpose of the category after all and that’s all they are really doing. It does bother me a little bit that it is considered compulsory, but taking action against it when it doesn’t actually violate any explicit rules or guidelines only punishes the students, who evidently have no choice in the matter.
If people find it bothersome, what I would recommend here (as I appropriately did some time ago to @kknechtel ), is we create one thread that all the SLU students can post in called “SLU students post your welcomes here” or similar, and merging any recent lone threads into that one. If others here agree, I can go ahead and help implement that.
Additionally, we could ask the students there to help us get in touch with their instructor, so we can inquire more into it and open a line of communication in case it does pose a problem.