WHY ARE ALL THE COMMENTS DELETED??!!11!1!!

750k subs and the quality hasn't lowered. Damn. If this isn't a statement on what a good job the people active in curating this sub do, then i don't know what is. Props to everyone .

You May Post Your Frivolous, Lighthearted, and/or Witty Comments in This Thread!

...and a thousand trolls suddenly found themselves unable to come up with anything to say.

Ask yourself, do you have the knowledge and wit to post in this thread?

I feel like this is just a trap and all these comments will be deleted.

Thanks to all the people who run and contribute to this sub for making it so awesome. Here's a picture of my cat in a box.

What military tactics are necessary to break through the moderators defensive positions? It seems almost impossible to get a comment through the withering hail of comment deletions!

Music! Lights! Let's celebrate!

Meine Damen und Herren! Mesdames et Messieurs, Ladies and Gentlemen; this is askhistorians!

You have to understand our rules

Mein Herr

Not in-depth answers are for fools

Mein Herr

No google image search

Mein Herr

No plagiarism and link drops

Mein Herr

but rather, some context

Mein Herr

So before you respond, be honest

Mein Herr

ask yourself these questions:

Mein Herr

Do I have the expertise needed to answer this question?

Mein Herr

Have I done research on this question?

Mein Herr

Can I cite my sources?

Mein Herr

Can I answer follow-up questions?

Mein Herr

If you disregard these these rules, you're through

You're through

You're through

Toodle-oo!

Bye-Bye, Mein Lieber Herr.

Farewell, mein Lieber Herr.

If all of history's generals were alive today, which of them would have the highest winrate in World of Tanks?

What did Vikings think of Hitler [fourth time posting]

I am hoping that here I can finally get the answer to a question that I have been dying for an answer to.

/u/sunagainstgold what did Hitler think of Ghengis Khan’s musings about Caesar’s hairstyle?

Quickly everyone, unsubscribe so that AskHistorians will reach 750,000 subscribers everyday

So during WWII when the allies would send thousands of bombers over the channel all at once at what point did they switch to German air traffic controllers? How did the Germans handle the influx and did they get more efficient at directing them towards their cities as the war went on?

What was the impact on medieval history of the air-speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

You guys are the greatest. Thanks to everyone who makes this subreddit such a positive experience -- mods, flairs, question-askers, upvoters, podcasters, Twitter-runners, follow-up question askers, drive-by historians who drop major knowledge with sources to die for, and everybody who's ever reported a blatantly rule-shattering comment. It takes a village to curate a subreddit.

This clearly calls for a musical number.

Break out the rum kegs!

...mostly so I can unsee those deleted comments...

(But seriously a huge thanks to all of out readers, questioners, and flairs for doing what they do. Thank you for listening and supporting our podcast!)

I think the greatest moments on this sub are when you're the lone survivor in a string of deleted comments. It feels glorious.

one of my biggest disappointments on Reddit is to see an Ask Historians thread with lots of replies only to go in thread and see [deleted] [deleted] [deleted] [deleted]

but the threads that do have answers, they ALWAYS deliver.

Congratulations on doing your best to educate the huddle masses of Reddit yearning to break free of the hive mind. And thank you for the book list.

If all 750,000 Redditors asked who was the baddest dude, Hitler, Stalin or Genghis Khan, would someone have to answer it?

Well...this calls for a celebration.

I think the only appropriate joke/meme comment to post for this occasion is: What did Hitler think of /r/AskHistorians hitting 750K subscribers?

Julius Caesar's military campaigns sure took a lot of Gaul.

"I am a minor nobleman in medieval England..."

No, you're not. Just ask the damn question.

Can I break the rules? If so, I'd love to hear which events right now our historians anticipate will be the subject of /r/askhistorians questions 20+ years from now.

Jared Diamond did nothing wrong.

Hey, I would just like to say thank you to everyone who contributes here. You earn nothing from what you do, and yet you still go through all the work that is checking sources and writing amazing answers for all the many questions around. I've found this sub about a year ago now, and I visit daily.

So, thanks a lot for everything!

I'm a hot-blooded young man out for a night of fun in Rome circa 50 AD and I just read this great book called Guns, Germs, and Steel and I want to know WHERE ARE ALL THE COMMENTS WHY DOES THE COMMENT COUNT NOT REFLECT THE

Just out of curiosity, is this sub in an Eternal September state or has there been a measurable improvement in the numbers of comments that need to be removed, the types of questions asked, etc? I mean since rules were introduced and enforced. From the looks of it, 20% of threads take up 80% of moderator time. Is that the case?

Too bad this comment will be deleted

How long has it been since the last milestone, any projections on how long til we hit 1,000,000?

Really important question: What did Hitler think about martinis?

To go along with the trend, what was Hilter’s thinking on Hitler’s thinking? And, follow up, how did that thinking affect Hitler’s thinking up until the application of high-velocity lead rendered such thinking obsolete?

I notice these things.

The Empire did nothing wrong!!!!!

If a time traveler (from the future) joined the community, would that affect the interpretation of the "20-year rule"?

This isn't very witty, but it seems like a good opportunity to make this suggestion: As a non-historian who will never write anything undeleted on AskHistorians (i.e. I am solely a "consumer" of this sub), I would love it if there was some way to flair threads once they have actually been answered. It can be disappointing to come by, see a lot of interesting questions, then click each one and (even if it says there are 60 comments) everything has been deleted. I totally get - and appreciate! - why most of the replies get deleted, it would just be nice if there was a quicker visual filter of which questions had been answered.

My second suggestion is to add more practices that keep high quality answers in view for longer periods of time. I really enjoy the "overlooked answers" recurring thread and the annual "best of" threads, but wish there were even more threads like these - like a even a weekly best of.

Thanks for giving this space for me to speak my thoughts, and keep up the good work.

Why does nobody answer my questions?

There is only one pressing question that hasn't been asked:

"What about Hitler's bath soaps? Did Eva pick them out or did Adolf?"

Since I do not feel like waiting 3 more years, could jet fuel really melt steel beams?

Well, I guess it's time to unsubscribe.

I'm a hot blooded young Reddit-user man of the late /r/AskHistorians subreddit hitting the thread for a night out with my mates and I've got gold burning a hole in my purse. What kind of vice and wanton pleasures are available to me?

Thanks everyone for his great subreddit, I learned so much thanks to you!

Steps on to Soapbox

Clearly this thing that happened two years ago is the greatest event in history EVER.

I don't actually know anything about it, but someone I met once told me about it, and I can provide a Wikipedia article to prove it too.

If you don't agree with me, then clearly you are yet another example of the uncivilized barbarians that must be crushed!!!

Let me digress about my clutter.

That is all.

When can we get "I posted in r/askhistorians and didn't get my comment removed" flairs? Can I preemptively apply for one?

I like the little things I learn in this subreddit. In the current top thread about possible rape stories in the Bible one of the commenters talked about the contention around the translation of the Hebrew word "yadda." And apparently one of its translations is "to know."

Now when people say "yadda yadda" to abbreviate it translates to "I know, I know." Before I saw the thread I thought the word was just a made up garble.

meta question - do flaired users decide not to answer a non-popular question, as it will not fetch them many upvotes?

Has anyone done study about likelihood of getting answers on a non-popular (say less that 5 votes) question?

This open format does seem to justify your serious moderation criteria; but it also suggests that less rigorous answers can add value. Is there any way to have two sections in this subreddit, the top being more rigorous than the second?

Questions answered to date: 5

Could an English longbowman pierce steel beams?

Congratulations! I've so enjoyed my reading while lurking here. Fantastic subreddit!

I don't know why so many people use this awful sub when the HISTORY CHANNEL is so much better.

You'll never hear any of these so called "historians" address bigfoot or aliens?

Coincidence, I THINK NOT.

What's the high speed velocity of an unladen swallow?

The one time I will ever be able to post in this subreddit and have it not be deleted. I feel like a kid leaving a hand mark in a setting sidewalk.

How did Hitler feel about Palpatine's becoming of, and then later abolishing, the Senate? Is there any evidence that this inspired his Reichstag fire and takeover?

Nobody answered my question on a post I did a few days ago :( Can someone do so?

From some one who is waaaaay too scared to answer anything on this subreddit due to potentially not having a good enough answer I appreciate everyone who answers the questions of the many! Also, the Webster-Ashburton Treaty was clearly the most important treaty in American history, and Jimmy Fallon agrees with me. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gn2FzuPyFlY

What did Hitler think of Southern Song urban fashions?

Could Moche pottery artists construct a life-sized ceramic Tiger Tank?

Would gender relations in the Songhai Empire have made them the awesomest snipers at Stalingrad?

In Game of Thrones, the Red Woman is seen putting leeches on a guy's dick and throwing them into fire in order to put mortal curses on rival claimants to the throne. Is there evidence of this happening in medieval Europe? I'm a Chinese scribe in the Song court, how would I react to this news?

Yaaaaas I finally get to post!!!! Coooool

Nothing worse then seeing ten comments posted on a topic you’d love to read up on. Only too see they’ve all been deleted!!

Edit: I love that it keeps the quality high, just disappointing none of the comments are accurate.

Why is history always from the human point of view? Won't someone think of the poor turtles? D:

Also, what is /r/AskHistorians favourite food?

I’ve always wanted to post a comment in this subreddit and now I can!

Finally a thread I'm qualified to post on.

Those who don't know their history are doomed to repeat it?

.... but nowhere else, ever.

Something I heard from someone, and I know it is true because I saw it on Wikipedia.

(Banned)

Three-quarters of a million subscribers and this still has as many upvotes as I would expect

How do you culture a Marxist? What's the growth medium?

What is the second most historicaly popular box to stand on and shout angry dribble discuss things in slightly elevated tone? And did the soapbox industry really use Irish slaves to rewrite their history in a positive light?

Do i need to have an expertise or done a research to comment on this thread?

Jokes aside, congratulations! This sub and the flaired users are a great source for getting my references, aside from the answers of course

this is where it all goes downhill

I love this sub, and one of the things I love is the subtle dry takedowns that the mods come up with sometimes. I keep thinking about asking to add the best takedowns to the roundups and bestofs, but maybe it's not in the spirit of the sub. Funny though!

Grover Cleveland did nothing wrong.

This might be the only time I’m qualified to write in /r/AskHistorians and I have nothing to say.

Two things: A) this is my favorite sub. I never post, but I read every thread and I appreciate you epic badasses for answering questions and I really appreciate the moderators for making this sub so amazing. 2) in the question about sailors cursing I was reminded of a story about my cousin. He was going into the Navy and at his going away party he was just joking around and having fun and his father said "I really wish you wouldn't curse so much" to which he replied "I'm gonna be a fucking, sailor dad".

This morning our subscriber count ticked over 750,000 users! That’s an amazing testament to the number of people who are interested in history, and specifically in the type of high-quality answers we use this subreddit to highlight. This milestone wouldn’t have happened without the people who ask questions, the people who answer questions, the people who moderate the subreddit, and all the people who participate simply by being readers. THANK YOU for making this the largest professional history forum on the Internet.

This thread is a celebration thread, so jokes, banter and amusing comments are quite welcome! You can even post celebratory gifs. But even though we will moderate lightly, we still do ask that people abide by our civility rule and be excellent to one another.

We’re also going to use this thread to shamelessly plug the other ways you can get AskHistorians content — specifically, our Twitter account, our Facebook page, and especially the AskHistorians podcast. Please follow, like, subscribe and share the amazing answers from those channels with your friends!

And — most importantly — keep reading here and keep asking questions! The mod-team and the panel of historians absolutely couldn’t do this without the amazing subscribers we have.

Thank you, thank you, thank you.