Do YOU like threads with lots of visible comments? Have YOU ever started a post with, "I can't believe I can finally write an answer here?" Have YOU ever desperately refreshed the page waiting for the first upvote on your epic 4-part response that doesn't actually answer OP's question but is just so cool? Sounds like you're an excellent recruit for the great Stickied Daily Feature Thread Reformation of 2018!
Starting this week, you'll notice that our daily feature threads like today's Sunday Digest will undergo some changes. In brief, the new schedule:
(1) Short Answers to Simple Questions has been a great success so far. It will now be our regular Wednesday feature, every week! Those of you who might be nervous about writing a long answer or simply don't have time, this is a great place to jump in and help our community out on your time scale, at your comfort level!
(2) Theory Thursday must sacrifice its alliteration to become Thursday Reading & Research. We envision this feature as a place to discuss new or new-to-you discoveries and in-progress research excitement--essentially, a combination of the current Wednesday What's New, Theory Thursday, and Saturday Reading & Research threads. This is the go-to place to ask for book recommendations and share reviews.
(3) Most importantly: by popular demand, Saturday's feature is now Saturday Spotlight. A lot of people--commenters, flairs, even mods--have floated the idea of "BlogHistorians": offering users the chance to outright post a short essay on a topic, without the veneer of a question to answer. The mod team has always deferred to our mission statement of Ask Historians. However! The sneakily enterprising AH community has done it anyway. Our current Friday and Saturday threads are filled with amazing full-blown essays that don't deserve to get mixed in with news and gossip.
So we listened! Saturday Spotlight is your new home for original, unprompted work. There are NO scheduled posts or authors or themes. We really hope those of you who work on topics that don't get much visibility on AH can use this as a way to dive in and even inspire more interest and questions. This thread is sorted by random, too--no worries about racing the clock to post; we want everyone to get an equal chance at top visibility!
(4) Sunday Digest, Monday Methods, and Tuesday Trivia continue as currently, with MM and TT alternating weeks.
The mod team is excited to see where the new features take us. We especially hope that some of you who haven't quite found your niche at AskHistorians will see it here.
See you in the stickies!
Can essay-style posts in Saturday Spotlight be used for flair applications?
Have YOU ever desperately refreshed the page waiting for the first upvote on your epic 4-part response that doesn't actually answer OP's question but is just so cool?
r/me_irl.
Will posts in the Saturday Spotlight count for requesting a flair? I personally don't know enough about history to request a flair in anything, but I've talked with someone who mentioned he wants to get a flair on the Haitian Revolution (if I remember correctly, I know it's something about Haiti's history) and since there's no questions on it, he can't answer stuff to fulfill the requisites on it.
I just wish you'd move monday methods to another day, because that's my favourite feature and I'm usually out on mondays. Why can't it be Monday Trivia and Tuesday Methods!
I support this completely. Especially Saturday Spotlight! There's a couple of people who I've seen write some brilliant stuff, but sadly their area of expertise just doesn't come up frequently. I can't wait to see some stuff that people can write about when it's their passion and not just a question.