It's a struggle sometimes. /r/all threads are just the worst. That or trying to explain people in real life that running a subreddit is a major and meaningful part of my life while mentioning 'Reddit' as little as possible because normal people hear Reddit and think '...that place with the racists and child porn?'

But the community is worth it. Being involved in this project, the minutia and the day to day, you sometimes lose track of how astounding it is. We're a community of more than 500,000 people, where every day, hundreds of volunteers produce incredible content on such an incredible range of topics, all for the goal of free education and outreach. It's inspiring, and we've come so far. When you get lost in the day to day you can lose track of how breathtaking AskHistorians as a concept is, and to get brought back to that fundamental, it really is something deeply meaningful, and something we should all be proud of.

... Unfortunately we're also on the same site which hosts all manner of filth and is far more infamous than famous, so this is never going on my résumé. :P

The AskHistorians community makes it worth the effort.

Every time I get to send a PM to someone saying, "Hey, have you thought about applying for flair;" every time I stumble across a phenomenal answer while combing the new comment queue only to realize it's a part 2 or a part 3; every time I see an OP thank a user for writing a terrific answer or report a post for being "such an amateur hour critique of [Edward] Said"--it's worth it all over again.

I am an askhistorians mod in the year 1996. Where do I find my sources?

/r/AskHistorians' mods are basically the internet equivalent of the warrior monk dudes from Neal Stephenson's Anathem.

They deserve all the credit they can get, they keep on top off questions, sort out bogus and wrong answers, while, at the same time trying to keep it all civilized.

Probably some of the best mods on Reddit.

Enough said,

We're all breaking the rules so screw it, I love the mods here too. This is one of the few subs I can legitimately come to and know that I'll have learned something by the time I leave it. Keep up the awesome work guys 👍🏻

The only bummer is when I'm browsing along and see a super interesting question, only to find a string of deleted comments. Little unhappy moments that are a side effect how how the sub is run, which I love and am thankful for.

They're really the only thing that prevents this sub from becoming "The History Channel".

Is it weird that I was excited to have my comment deleted in a prior thread? After receiving the smack-down from a mod, I realised what a flagrant ignorance of the rules I had shown.

Quality in this sub will always outdo quantity. Thank you mods.

As someone with nowhere near the ability to comment on anything here (just don't have much of a historical background) it is still by far one of my favorite subs. I absolutely love coming here to see what's new.

And one of the things that really makes it for me is the superior moderating. This sub would be nothing without the moderators...so I just want to add my "thanks" to the list.

Question and I am NOT hating on mods, how do we know the mods aren't biased in telling the history a certain way? We've now had so many subreddits show their bias like /r/worldnews and the like so it makes me wonder, how do we know this sub isn't biased?

Again, genuinely asking. This is one of my favorite subs too but I'm just curious.

I love that they create a place where there is a standard of any kind.

I'm not a huge browser of this sub but even I'll admit everytime I pop by for a read, the mods and community have been some of the best in all of reddit. It's pretty nice to see the sincerity and helpfulness of this sub in action.

And let's hear it for the rockers too.

I'd like to add my Thank You! Fantastic sub.

Thank you mods! You've gotta delete a LOT of comments to make a good omelette!

I am a member of a boatload of subs and this by far rules them all for quality and using the "rules" to enhance its experience for users. If only we could clone them.

This is the single best part of reddit. Such a great job!

Yes, I also want to say THANK YOU SO MUCH! Anyone who takes the time to answer a question is much appreciated. You guys are great!

I love that the only real circlejerk about AskHistorians is about how great the moderation is...and it is true! Thank you!

This subreddit was what brought me to reddit and what has caused me to stay. You guys are fantastic!

I've wanted to make this thread for a while. You guys rock.

I'd just like to second this, but I'm not sure which reputable source I can cite to back up my comment...

Thanks for this thread. I've been wanting to say this for a while, but a mod PM seemed too..... I dunno, sycophantic?, a reply to a mod taking action would probably only get read by that one mod and them removed, and a report on a mod post just feels like I'm wasting their time and clogging up the legitimate report queue.

So, thanks to all the mods, you guys rock. This is far and away the best sub on Reddit because of you.

Yah this is easily the best forum I am on on the internet. While I do sometimes get the feeling of (very) mild political bias on a select few topics, overall the place is amazingly accurate and the most reliable source of information on the internet for me. Quality over quantity any day. Any time I open a thread to see 15 deleted comments and no actual content I am greatful for not having to have read the misinformation.

I love all of you too

Any mods from here ever find themselves in Adelaide Australia (Possibly on an expedition to see what a city looked like in the 50s) Hit me up and I'll shout you a pint

This is the only subreddit I'm okay with what I would consider censorship in other subreddits

Okay, okay, everyone... enough gushing. Time to get back to serious questions about Hitler.

Yep. One of the most well-moderated subs. When I read something here I can trust it's been verified. Neutral Politics is almost to this level, but being a political sub it is naturally given over to some slap fighting.

THANK YOU.

I'm sorry I can't afford to give you all gold, you deserve it, but I can give a few gold to the mods who are experts in my favorite areas.

Raising my beer to the mods

I second this thread, I've been increasingly coming back for more on this subreddit because each answer is so well scrutinized for quality which is no easy task.

This mods are best mods

I couldn't agree more! I learn so much from this sub. Thank you all.

Top-notch work. No drama, no stupid politics. It's nice to see a place on the internet where the egos don't run the show.

I would like to take this opportunity to make a top level comment even though I have no historical expertise.

Honestly, one of the best subs on Reddit, all thanks to the fantastic moderators. Other subs tend to degenerate with joke comments at the top and very little relevant and well-sourced information.

A big thank you to the mods for making this such a great sub.

Any chance we can get an Automod to put a Meta comment section on each thread to channel the jokes, bad questions, and crappy answers through? like /r/WritingPrompts does?

I want to take the opportunity of an active meta thread to ask the mods to consider a suggestion. I understand why personal anecdotes of historical events don't meet the criteria of the sub, yet it seems like a painful loss to delete them. Could they not be shunted to a separate sub, say /r/askhistorianspersonalanecdotes, where the quality of the anecdote and the narrator could be evaluated and judged by a separate standard?

SO true! Can't upvote this enough. This is one of my favorite places on the entire internet. I have learned not just about history but also about how research is carried out and how scholars debate. Many times I look at things I see every day and wonder how it will be seen in a hundred years or a thousand.

I think it would be very funny if this post ended up stickied for a week or so.

Is this a monthly meta thread, now? The monthly Mod Appreciation Thread? Can we pin it? Is /u/Daeres behind this? Will we ever get the real truth or just the repackaged propaganda perpetrated by /r/askhistorians?

I WANT THE TRUTH!!

yes

I made my first Smart-Ass Jokey Answer this morning after like four years of reading this sub and occasionally answering questions in my particular little domain of expertise. The surprise was not that it got deleted; I wrote the thing knowing it'd be deleted. The surprise was that it happened within minutes of me doing it. The mods here are on the ball.

Meta: This sub blows. Interesting comments are deleted all the time. Frequently answers are banal due to 'the rules'.

I fully anticipate this comment will be deleted while the congratulatory 'against the rules' post from OP will be left up.