Has there ever, in the history of r/AskHistorians, been a post that reaches the front page that actually has answers that are meaningful. Like has it literally ever happened?

by daviddisastrous
Georgy_K_Zhukov

TLDR: Yes. You are just impatient and never check back.

Here is a statistical study of the top 50 threads every month back through the beginning of 2016, including both whether it is answered and the times that it takes. This is part of a larger work in progress that I've been doing for the past month and is not yet ready to be posted, but as this portion is complete, I see no reason not to share it.

Month Response Rate^1 Answer Rate^2 Average Time^3 Median Time^3 Max Time^3 Min Time^3
2016-01 98% 94% 4:41 3:41 20:32 0:19
2016-02 98% 96% 6:59 5:50 21:40 1:07
2016-03 94% 92% 5:45 4:40 19:14 1:21
2016-04 98% 90% 5:35 4:55 19:09 0:42
2016-05 94% 92% 6:10 5:21 15:08 0:15
2016-06 98% 96% 6:12 5:37 19:13 0:46
2016-07 96% 90% 7:46 5:53 22:04 0:50
2016-08 96% 96% 6:14 4:47 2:01:19 1:18
2016-09 96% 92% 6:44 5:39 18:16 1:34
2016-10 94% 86% 7:24 6:17 23:11 0:18
2016-11 92% 88% 6:29 5:49 21:45 0:33
2016-12 96% 88% 7:19 6:05 20:54 0:31
2016 AVERAGE 96% 92% 6:26 5:22 20:06 0:47
2016 MEDIAN 96% 92% 6:21 5:38 20:43 0:44
Month Response Rate^1 Answer Rate^2 Average Time^3 Median Time^3 Max Time^3 Min Time^3
2017-01 94% 92% 7:27 6:23 30:58 1:31
2017-02 98% 94% 10:51 8:10 6:07:22 1:32
2017-03 92% 90% 6:58 6:06 14:57 0:35
2017 AVERAGE 95% 92% 8:25 6:53 2:22:00 1:12
2017 MEDIAN 94% 94% 7:27 6:23 30:58 1:31
  1. Response Rate: The percentage of questions which receive a response of either an answer, or a link to a previous thread or FAQ section. Other visible responses such as follow up questions
  2. Answer Rate: The percentage of questions which receive an answer, excluding responses which link to previous threads or the FAQ, except in cases where it is the original author linking.
  3. Times: These are for the first visible answer that appeared. This excludes comments which are links, and does not factor questions which remained unanswered. Average excludes outlier threads where the answer was >48 hours after posting. Minimum and maximum only note cases where there was an answer, not a link.

Edit: One of the averages was done wrong. Fixed.

commiespaceinvader

To pile on to /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov detailed statistics, here are some of my own top submissions:

This answer went a up a mere 46 minutes after the question was posted.

This one went up an hour and five minutes after the question was posted.

This one went up an hour and 24 minutes after the question was posted.

And this one went up about two and a half hours after a question was posted.

Given the fact that writing these things takes time (I mean, consider in the first case, how long does it usually take to hammer out 2 single-spaced pages, which is about the length of these things about a topic; even one you are familiar with), 46 minutes to two and a half hours is pretty quick, if I do say so myself.