r/AskHistorians is a heavily moderated subreddit. We have strict rules for two main reasons:

• We want to provide our users with informed, reliable answers to their questions about the past. This means we remove anything that doesn't demonstrate a solid understanding of a given historical subject, and encourage people to cite their sources.

• We want to build a platform that attracts historical experts who are willing to spend time to write a detailed answer. To do this, it is necessary to remove all shallow, speculative and/or wrong answers that might steal the spotlight.

We are very transparent about the requirements for answering questions on our sub, and will remove any reply that does not conform to those standards. When a thread gets popular, it is often necessary for us to step in and point out the rules to any new subscribers or visitors. That's why you'll often see a top thread with some posts by the mod team; it's all part of our effort to keep the sub running as it should.

That said, in the majority of threads, we mods do not need to interfere, because the only replies will be from experts answering the question. You can see lists of amazing answers every week in our Sunday Digest and as a running feed on Twitter.