Nice, hopefully this will lead to an increase of people answering questions. We already have shitload of people asking them.

I've been lurking in AskHistorians since there were about 5,000 subscribers, and it is truly amazing how this community has grown and matured. I remember when it was moderated primarily by one high school student, who very wisely put together a moderation team engaged with academic history and committed to high standards of discourse. I can't wait to see how the community continues to grow in the years to come!

started from the bottom now we're here

I got a question specifically for those flaired users and moderators who work in an academic setting: Do you ever talk with your colleagues about AskHistorians? Or is it more like a "do research during the day, fight crime low quality answers during the night" kind of thing?

I am wondering on how the accepting academic community is towards forums like this. I suspect that at my university (I'm still a student) many historians would be sceptical, and deem it not scholarly enough to be worth spending your time with.

Well-deserved. This is a wonderful sub and I love reading about history from so many perspectives.

If only ALL the subs were so brilliantly moderated. Thank you, Mods!

AskHistorians is, in effect, a training ground for historical thinking facilitated by the moderators and experts

Oh very nice, I think that's exactly what AH strives to do and it's nice to see that somebody outside of reddit thinks we are. And not just a training ground for those who aren't "experts." I, for one, have found AH invaluable academically as well. Being a flaired user gives me no actual credentials anywhere, but during the time that I've been answering questions here I've found that my thought processes have become clearer and my ability to formulate arguments has become better and more sophisticated. As I prepare for grad school applications and my honors thesis I've found that AH has definitely helped prepare me surprisingly well. Plus it keeps you on your toes--I never know what somebody's going to ask, so it's a nice way for someone like me, who relies so much on the ancient texts, to maintain familiarity with them. So keep asking your questions y'all

Just an FYI for those who missed to broadcast of the panel discussion, it will be coming out next Friday on the AskHistorians Podcast.

I'm sorry, doesn't this violate the 20 years rule? MODS!!

That's a really nice write-up! For those without a free hour or so to listen to the AHA presentation, this is a pretty decent summary of the overall thrust of the panel.

Harris explained that this system may “punish subaltern members of the audience not just by silencing their answers but by discouraging them from asking the questions that might have those unpopular answers.”

So how do we fix this? There's a large volume of questions that come in daily that often questions which some of our flaired users might be willing to answer don't get noticed and thus don't get answered.

I know that for awhile we had notifications sent to flaired users, but I'm assuming that was manually done and probably more trouble than it was worth? I know that I've sometimes pinged users who I know were qualified to speak on a particular topic and I appreciate getting pings on such questions myself.

Maybe something like a weekly meta post featuring interesting questions lingering in obscurity for want of an answer?

So why are there so many medieval paintings of people battling large snails?

That answer is in this post.

Does this make us legitimate now? I don't know if I want to be legitimate!

AskHistorians is heavily moderated by a team of dedicated volunteers who enforce strict standards of scholarly rigor and civility

Good answer, OP. However, I am curious if you could provide me with some sources for these claims ; )

Congrats! A testament to the hard work and determination of the mods and community. Always a pleasure to come to this wonderful sub and have many unique and interesting questions answered/explained.

Great article! Seems a very good intro to the forum, as well as summary of the AH presentations. Could the author already be a Redditor herself?

Really nice article!

Very nice, well done! My copy of Perspectives hasn't arrived, but as someone in both the "establishment" and here, this is a very good thing to see.

Could someone show me where the link to /r/askhistorians is on the post? I can't seem to find it! I want to share this and know people will want to find this subreddit that way.

Good on you, fellas. About time the world tipped the hat at this subreddit for being among the most legit history centric realms on the internets

Love this subreddit. Only lurk myself as I do not have a background in history, but it is incredibly informative. Mods do a good job. Just wish I had something to contribute.

This is one of the best moderated subs on Reddit, it's always great coming here knowing that the facts are vetted. Good job guys!

Just an FYI for those who missed to broadcast of the overall thrust of the overall thrust of the overall thrust of the panel.