So, if you participated in the AH user census, there's a chance you left a comment or a request on the free comment box. Yes, we did read all of those, and while we're going to collate the data and come up with a statistical report for you soon, I wanted to post something responding to the most common feedback from users.
The last thing I want is to be too self-congratulatory here - there is always room for improvement and reform, and areas that need to be addressed. And we have to be aware of the bias and self-selection in the survey.
Still: Variations on “the mod team is doing a great job, keep it up” are, by far, the overwhelming majority of comments on the survey. My informal count suggests that comments saying “don’t listen to all those people telling you the rules are too strict” outnumber comments saying “the rules are too strict” at least 10 to 1.
While we try to curate the system and maintain high standards of content, we don’t dictate what content gets posted, for the most part! If you want to see some neglected topics get more love, you can always post your own questions, browse the new queue and upvote posts that interest you, or answer questions on those subjects that you’re qualified to answer. If you know an expert in that field, nag them until they agree to participate in our community, then make them message us about an AMA.
We got a lot of requests asking to see more of virtually all subjects. We’ll be tallying them up to identify areas that people feel are underserved and try to do more AMAs and such, but remember that the bulk of the content is made by you, the community.
We agree, but sadly the link flair system on reddit is woefully limiting and it wouldn’t really help. If it was designed as a tagging system, we would be all over it, but since each link must have only one flair, it’s difficult to apply consistently, especially for users tagging their own questions. For example, if someone were to ask, “Who were the political backers of the Slave Trade Act? What was their reputation in the colonies?”, is this a question about European history or North American history? Is “Why did the American film industry relocate to Hollywood?” about North American history or Art History?
Even AskScience runs into this problem, and here our different specialisations overlap even more than theirs do. We're going to investigate better ways of doing this, and we're always hopeful for better organisational features on reddit, but we can't really promise anything.
Reddit does a bad job of explaining it, but when you report a comment or link, that gets put on the mod queue. Moderators on the subreddit the link/post was on can see it, and then choose whether to approve it or remove it. It doesn’t remove the comment, it’s not a “super-downvote,” and it doesn’t call the reddit admins. So don’t be afraid to report things; at worse, it takes us a second to approve something, and ideally we try to look at all the comments and links posted to the sub anyway.
Have you read our rules? Then congratulations, you’re more than qualified to report things. Here’s your reporting stick. Use it liberally! As long as you're reporting in good faith, there's no harm in reporting something that we end up choosing to approve.
That's just a sign you're not browsing the new queue enough.
So do we, and we understand it’s disappointing for the original poster. But our assumption here is that you posted on AskHistorians because you wanted an expert to weigh in. We’re don’t think things are improved by giving people the “consolation prize” of a low-effort answer. If you’d like to see more answered threads - browse the new queue, upvote threads that interest you, and try to convince experts you know to join us!
So do we! We’ve asked the admins to fix the way reddit displays the number of comments in a thread so it no longer counts deleted comments, but apparently it’s difficult and will take time to implement.
Uh, yeah. So as it turns out we never became a default, and we don’t plan on ever becoming one. We were asked, yes, but turned it down. It seems a lot of you guys thought we did, though.
We don't want to be a default subreddit. We're commited to growing this community organically by adding users who are interested in us, specifically; we feel like the massive influx of contextless posting caused by being a default would be detrimental to the quality of the subreddit.
Reddit has no way of doing that, other than maybe replying to those answers pointing out they break the rules. And ultimately, we wouldn’t even if we could; the last thing we want is to see people get highly upvoted or linked to for posting subpar content. We don’t want people to break the rules to start with, and not deleting those posts would encourage them to do so.
That empty box on the "Submit a New Post" page can be daunting. The important thing to remember is that this sub is about answering the questions from out community no matter what their level of knowledge about a subject. Sometimes what seems like a very basic question can actually turn out to be the start of an in-depth discussion. Remember that the few rules we have about questions are not there to punish anyone for asking stupid questions (No such thing) but to encourage good content.
Sometimes not, though. So if you find your posts are routinely going unanswered, or even getting downvoted (despite that fact that we disabled the downvote button ಠ_ಠ), you can always send us a modmail. Collectively and individually, we've looked at a lot of questions. We can probably give you at least a few pointers on how to narrow down a broad question or broaden up a very narrow one.
We do reserve top-level comments for the use of people who are confident in their expertise, so don't feel bad if you don't feel up to it - I and many flaired users/members of the mod team make very few top level comments ourselves; even those of us who are historians or experts are only able to comment on a minority of threads.
Keep in mind, you're always free to ask ancillary/follow-up questions, or make more general (Serious) comments. And of course we have threads such as Friday Free-for-All which aren't subject to those controls.
So do we. Sadly, we have no control over it, but you’re always free to ask the admins for better search features. Meanwhile, I will direct you to our FAQ. Also, some tips for getting better searches:
We are! It's going to take some time, as updating such a huge bibliography is a mammoth undertaking, but we are going over it and reviewing everything.
I can read the deleted comments. Trust me, you’re not missing anything. And while this was a common request, it's still a minority view among our user base by a significant margin.
If you actually believe that I would kindly direct you to check out the rest of reddit first, then get back to us. /r/AskReddit, /r/History, and /r/AskHistory all have different moderation styles you could check out. Among survey respondents, this is an extreme minority view.
Zhukov, please stop replying to our own surveys.
We’re actually working on developing our own cryptocurrency, backed by a combination of well-written answers and Yishan-FunBux.
I can read the deleted comments. Trust me, you’re not missing anything.
The mods fight the monsters so we don't have to.
You're the heroes we don't deserve, but definitely the ones we need.
This is really awesome. I agree with y'all completely. Thank you mods for making this subreddit a diamond sitting on top of all the shit.
You guys are one of the major reasons I still browse reddit, and I can honestly say I have learned a lot from all the excellent questions and answers.
We’re actually working on developing our own cryptocurrency, backed by a combination of well-written answers and Yishan-FunBux.
Can we use that money to buy privileges with you mods? Can we use it outside the company store? Or does all that go to you guys as payment for upkeeping the hamster wheels liquor cabinet JSTOR subscriptions subreddit?
First of all, thanks for the great job and response to the survey.
/r/AskReddit , /r/History , and /r/AskHistory all have different moderation styles you could check out. Among survey respondents, this is an extreme minority view.
For those now considering a visit to /r/History. /r/History certainly has a less strict style due to us being a more general subreddit and a default. That doesn't mean it is a free for all subreddit though as you can see in our monthly meta thread where we also share our mod action statistics.
So feel free to visit /r/history, but also make very sure to familiarize yourself with our rules. Thank you!
I can read the deleted comments. Trust me, you’re not missing anything.
Agreed, on bad days they can make me rather cynical.
I sure do love that Zhukov guy! (Can I get paid now in AH coins Zhukov?)
Reddit searches for full word matches and simple plurals only.
Actually you can search for word suffixes by adding an asterisk at the end. For example, searching for "Cana*" will match Canada, Canadian, canal, and canary.
In terms of flairs. Is it ok to PM the flair users with the related flairs to your questions?