Hi again Zak

You said that was your last post so I don't know if you'll come back and read any responses, but I have to respond anyway!

First of all, I'm really sorry if I in any way made you feel unwelcome on the forum, that wasn't my intention, and I didn't mean to come across as preachy or goody-goody. I was genuinely trying to be helpful by suggesting that what you were doing COULD be seen as cheating (I'm not suggesting that was your intention at all). But a lot of people do cheat in their university assignments as you know, and universities now actively seek out to catch people cheating - again, to clarify, I don't at all believe that you were trying to cheat, I understand you were having a specific genuine difficulty and were using what resources you could to try and solve that.
BUT there is a very fine line between discussing general topics and problems related to your course (which is fine), and asking for a specific solution to an assignment problem, and I've seen people get awarded a zero grade for a particular assignment if it's deemed that they stepped over that line.

If you were sitting in an exam, you wouldn't expect to be able to ask the person sitting next to you how to do something, or phone someone for help, and the course assignments should be seen in a similar way. Of course, as Pete says, fostering research skills in students is a key function of universities and that is of course why assessment is not just by exam, but with assignments that necessitate students researching answers, which certainly involves the internet, and yes, discussing topic areas with others.

It could of course be perfectly acceptable on your course for you to do what you did, I'm not saying with 100% certainty that it's wrong, which is why my original post was in the form of a question: 'Are you sure you're allowed...'. My feeling was just that asking for that kind of help on such a public platform COULD be risky, and I stand by that.

Again, please don't feel that this forum can't be of help to you on your course, it definitely can be a support and can help you get the real world perspective on your studies, and again, sorry if I came across as unhelpful/unwelcoming/preachy/moralistic, my intentions were good, really they were.