This is a picture of the armor here. The image has the smaller armors labelled as childrens armor (which could be whole different question in and of itself) but even compared to the adult armor in the castle it was huge. It looked like it could be worn by a modern NBA star.

Now I know this armor exists. It's about 7.5-8 feet tall. I've seen it with my own two eyeballs. But even in the castle itself, the info about the owner was incredibly sparse.

/u/WARitter answered a question about medieval arms and armor in this question here and he mentioned that one of the notable collections of historic arms and armor was made by a duke in Tyrol. Innsbruck is and has been the capitol of Tyrol for a while and I wonder if these are related in some way? Does anyone have any info on this guy or his armor? Or does anyone know of a good place to start looking?

Often in hip-hop songs recently I've been hearing that "nigger" derives from the Ethiopian term "negus" which used to mean emperor/king. I've been attempting to find evidence where this comes from for a project and was wondering if r/AskHistorians had any evidence of where the term derived from, because I have only found blog posts referencing this subject and nothing much that is credible.

I was watching Before the Flood when I reached a scene where Leonardo DiCaprio is talking to Al Gore. Screenshots of the scene in question. There seems to be a grenade in a glass case behind him. This made me curious about its background story, but my Google-fu was not strong enough to find an answer. Do you have any ideas on why it might be there?

"Trudeau said Castro had wanted them to send Michel back to Cuba when he was seven to attend pioneer camp for children, something the family often teased Michel about." - Source

I'm asking more specifically, what would the routine be like? What was the living situation? What was the housing situation? Etc.

We looked at the chigi vase in my class today and ended up discussing hoplite warfare and cavalry use. No one knew quite how horses were used in warfare. I have read about Alexander's companions, but don't know much about the use before him and Philip II So my question is how widespread were cavalry in warfare and what were their purpose before the time of Phillip and Alexander?

Hello everyone and welcome to the 21st installment of our continuing series of Rules Roundtables! This project is an effort to demystify the subreddit and also to gather your feedback to help improve it! We aren't just covering the hard and fast rules though, but also looking at other aspects of the subreddit, with this week focusing on the community as a whole, and non-flair participation!

##The /r/AskHistorians Community

/r/AskHistorians has been growing for five years now, and we are continually amazed at what we have managed to build here. But we can't take all the credit. Aside from the 400 or so Flaired users who we are ever indebted to for their time and commitment, it is all of you, the readers, 'askers', and lurkers of /r/AskHistorians who make the AskHistorians community what it is. We know that sometimes it can be a little hard to feel connected though, as the bar for posting is quite high, and in META threads or other instances where we loosen the rules, it is always great to see the lurkers come out of the woodwork. But we don't want readers to feel like they are on the outside, so aside from using this thread to give all of you guys a shout-out, we also want to talk a little bit about the /r/AskHistorians Community, and how to be a part of it even if you don't have flair.

###Asking Questions

Perhaps this seems a little obvious, but we can't stress it enough! /r/AskHistorians couldn't exist without the inquisitive minds out there who ask dozens of questions every day. Thoughtful, interesting questions are the lifeblood of the subreddit, and help to make it a better place. We even recognize users who have long-running track records of asking great questions with the Interesting Inquirer flair.

But don't just limit yourself to posting new questions. I think I speak for almost everyone who has answered a question on this subreddit that nothing makes us happier than getting follow-up questions! Upvotes are nice, gilding is cool, but follow-up questions are the kind of engagement that all of us nerds crave. And don't be afraid to ask ones that you fear might be stupid or obvious to others. This is stuff that, in many cases, we have studied for years, if not decades, and love the opportunity to teach others.

###Say "Thanks"

Even if you don't have a follow up question, even a simple "Thank You for the Answer" can make writing an answer with 2 upvotes seem totally worth it, so don't be afraid to post that! I will note though, that while it doesn't break the rules to say Thanks, we do prefer that if someone else already has, just upvote that one. When there are a half-dozen replies to an answer all saying "Thanks", we'll remove all but a few to keep the thread from getting too cluttered.

In addition though, don't forget about the Sunday Digest threads. Submitting your favorite answers from the past week there is a fantastic gesture that respondents always appreciate, and also the best way to nominate answers for the 'Best of the Month' contest we run.

###Upvoting Questions

As I already noted, it is the thoughtful, interesting questions that really make this subreddit tick. Not to say that learning what brand toothpaste Hitler prefered isn't interesting to someone, but we know that there are a lot of topics and questions which are consistent in their recurrence, and we do now and then hear complaints about the balance of topics, or requests to implement moratoriums. While this doesn't really fit with the mission of the subreddit per se, you can still make a difference! Checking out the New Queue and upvoting questions you see there that are interesting and unique can really help shape what ends up trending, and getting the most attention.

###Report Things!

There are only so many mods, and we are only able to devote so much time to monitoring threads. We catch a lot of the chaffe pretty quickly, but some always slips through. Reporting comments or submissions which break the rules is an invaluable service that helps us keep the subreddit clean and on track! It is an invisible service, but know that we deeply appreciate it!

###Participate in Discussions!

Just because you don't feel qualified to answer a question about 17th c. Swedish basket weaving doesn't mean there aren't ways to participate. The occasional META threads which allow for 'tomfoolery' are always amazingly popular, but what many people forget is that we have one of those every week! While we don't want it to devolve into nothing but pun chains, the "Friday Free-for-All" threads exist to allow for a more relaxed space to shoot-the-shit and let our hair down. "Thursday Theory", "Monday Methods", "Saturday Sources", and "'What's New' Wednesday", also offer great opportunities for more free-wheeling conversations.

###Answer Questions!

We know a lot of people just read the subreddit, and don't think themselves to be qualified to participate on the answer side of things, but don't sell yourselves short. We've seen many fantastic answers prefaced by "First time posting" or showing surprise that a question fell within their purview. Plenty of questions come out of left-field, and present opportunities for the most esoteric displays of knowledge you never thought you'd have the chance to display in a history subreddit!

On top of that, we run the weekly "Tuesday Trivia" feature very much with the intent of getting wider participation. You might not feel qualified to write 5,000 words on a topic, it is the kind of space that you can share that little tidbit you remember from history class!

In addition, we also have been trying to increase the rate at which we hold "Floating Features" (and are always looking for more topic suggestions there), which allow for more free-flowing discussion about very broadly defined or open topics, and welcomes responses of all kinds.

##Back to Where We Started

And that is the long and short of it. Just because they might not be able to write 10,000 words to answer some obscure and esoteric question doesn't mean a reader is any less a part of this community that the most answeraholic flairs. Everyone contributes in their own way, and we really appreciate everyone who helps make /r/AskHistorians great! If you have any questions or thoughts that you'd like to share, please let us know here, as we're always looking for ways to improve the experience on the subreddit for everyone!