Hello!

First, I want to let you know that linking to the FAQ is always encouraged, as we have a treasure trove of amazing past answers that we want to draw on as much as possible. So thank you for your effort with regards to trying to help others access the amazing resource that is AskHistorians!

At the same time, your FAQ links were a little tangential and didn't really directly relate to the question at hand. I absolutely understand the inclination to provide whatever information possible, but we try to keep tangential answers in check as much as possible since it's a hard line to draw of at what point do tangential posts become too tangential.

As for the unanswerable nature of the question, we do indeed allow for informational general answers. But we also require that answers have greater depth than the average collection of facts. The goal of moderation is to vet answers so they go beyond simply stating/collecting general facts.

If the poster in that thread can expand on their answer with better coverage and in depth exposition about the general ideas their original answer brushed upon, we are always ready to appeal a removal.

Always feel free to send us modmail questions!

I checked out the linked answers and do clearly see why you posted them. As someone who has linked other users to FAQ before, I usually try to do this when I spot a question that is, well, frequent, and I'm 100% sure that it's discussed elsewhere on here. Your comment was kind of an edge case, since the question has not been adressed and the FAQ has answers to more broad questions.

That thread is getting a lot of attention from elsewhere, so I believe that mods are simply trying to tame the influx of the rule-breaking comments. While yours was basically OK, it would attract other people commenting on it with off topic responses (maybe negatively, since you were getting a bunch of unwarranted downvotes) and making the workload for mods larger. Let's also not forget that the mods are human (I mean, I'm 50/50 on that) and the decisions are still subjective, so the other answer probably didn't seem comprehensive and might be allowed after some refinement.

I can't make you not sad, but I certainly don't think you have a reason to be. I understand that having your comment removed is not great, especially when it was made in good faith and trying to keep within the rules, but I'd maintain that the only way the moderation affects this sub is positive.