I'm currently writing a historical fiction novel about pirates. I'm able to find the answers to the majority of my questions through Google, primary sources, and history books from the library. However, the scope of my novel is quite large (I'm thinking about making it into a series). Because of this, I still have so many questions about minutiae that I have that I'm not able to find sources for, or don't have time to look for. That's usually when I go to /r/AskHistorians.
However, I've gotten the impression that people here are tired about questions about pirates. I (and other redditors who ask questions about pirates) tend to get a "is this because of Black Sails?" kind of an answer.
So, are there certain kinds of questions that people are just tired of? Romans, Nazis, and pirates probably make up for 75% of the questions on here. If people aren't tired of answering them, is there still a limit to the amount of questions we can ask? I've been trying to avoid spamming but I do still have plenty of remaining questions I would like to ask.
We have no official policy on frequency of questions asking. In practice, the mod team politely requests that you wait at least 24 hours in between asking each question. This is a nice thing to do whether the topic is the same or different.
We don't set any kind of topical limit on questions, or questions per user. A big reason for this is the nature of the flair team. Since we're all volunteers with work, schools, lives, etc, we're not always available to answer questions in our field. When there's only one person in the field, and the specialty is rare enough that a lurker or newcomer is also unlikely to have knowledge, if they're not available on a given day you won't get an answer.
We get a lot of questions about Hitler. We get a lot of questions about Spartans. We get a lot of questions about medieval sex. Some of those go unanswered, but some of them do get answered! There are two reasons why we mount up for questions in the same old fields (besides "I know shit and I want to show that off.")
The first is a creative question or a new approach. One of the reasons I still enjoy answering questions about medieval sex is the incredible diversity of ways redditors come up with topics. I might be recycling and rearranging pieces of evidence from older answers, but it still lets me think a little, make new mental connections, and have fun.
The second, equally important, is the belief that people will listen. I personally do not respond to requests that start with "I'm writing this story, and..." anymore. This is because, in my experience, 100% of prospective fiction writers who come here wanting to make their stories realistic are not actually looking to make their stories realistic. They want confirmation that their particular vision of the past, as the plot of their novel or screenplay demands, is accurate. In my experience. I've never been thanked for suggesting reading recommendations to help improve someone's story, or for pointing out that a given situation would never have happened. Please, writers of AskHistorians: give me a reason to change my stance. When I recommend a couple books that will help you dig into a medieval person's worldview, or suggest that yeah, Christianity was kind of a big deal and your characters better be practicing Christians (Ken Follett, I'm looking at your monks who never sing the liturgy), maybe consider that I'm genuinely trying to help you with your original request.
So that's what we generally look for. (1) The time to answer a question, which you can't control, so fire away within limits (2) A fun and challenging question to answer (3) Some confidence that either OP or other readers will actually benefit from what we're writing, even if it's just learning a little.
Stick to those guidelines, and you're awesome. :)