People have been trying to find shortcuts to doing homework since time immemorial. That students who are too lazy to actually think would post their homework here is the least surprising fact on earth. As noted here, there are perverse incentives via the rep/gamification system to answer such questions. Some of the more clever of the lazy students are doubtless aware of this.
My point is, unless there are fundamental changes to the way SE works, nothing we do is going to stem the tide of such questions appearing at the site. We have tools at our disposal, as noted here, such as closing for lack of context. But we are able to dispose of only the most egregious of offenders mainly because of some of our eager answerers.
Although I make efforts to evaluate each question on its merits before answering, I honestly could care less whether @user8675309 is stymying his or her education. As I have said many times before, I am here for my own enjoyment. I am not a tutor: that is a paying job. Thus, my efforts here go into solving problems I find fun. That means, many times, I simply don't post a solution. I solve, and if I post, I will post a bare bones walk-through insufficient for a question poster to understand without work (but sufficient for someone who knows the subject matter to get my point). Those adverse to any work are quickly exposed as the vampires they are.
I do have one thought, however: the War on Drugs. You know, where the US Gov't decided it would be a fantastic idea to combat drug addiction at home by establishing a paramilitary outfit to bomb drug suppliers into next week. No, I am not suggesting that we establish a paramilitary outfit to bomb the vampires' homes as part of a War on Rep. I am suggesting that, as we've seen happen in our War on Drugs, targeting the askers of Zero Effort Questions (ZEQs) is doomed to failure. Our efforts, rather, should be focused on the drug (rep) users.
I am going to start down voting answers to ZEQs for which hints have already been given. To counteract protests that "This answer is correct and is what the OP asked for," I will explain my actions in the comments so that the context is clear. I propose language such as "Although this answer is correct, such answers encourage the misuse of this site by people who are not interested in Mathematics. As such answers do harm to the site and the people who care about it, it is only worthy of downvotes."
Maybe rep farmers will not care, as a downvote or two will not affect the amount rep they collect from an accept and uproot from the OP. However, enough answers with negative scores will help people see where someone's rep comes from, and I assure you, that person will make the effort to reverse that by ceasing the behavior.
As we are many hundreds of humans acting independently, I doubt that such a scheme will stop much of anything. But even if used on occasion to identify the most egregious farmers, then we will have helped matters a little, without wholesale changing the site.
