This is objectively the best sub.

You are right.

A lot of people that come here from the front-page don't read or don't respect the rules.

I myself was guilty of this when I first stumbled upon this subreddit, however after I made an insufficient comment and it got removed, I read the rules and realised what this sub is about.

The mods only follow those rules. They don't censor, just remove what doesn't fit here, which is already predefined in the rules.

Yes this makes the subreddit a different place from most subreddits, but this is what it's all about: Actual answers, well researched and properly presented. It may take longer for an answer to arrive, but when it does, it's far more qualitative and better sourced than in almost all subs I find myself in.

If a redditor doesn't like it, they can go to other ask subs or make their own after all.

Thank you, mods, for keeping this place so civilised and emphasising quality over quantity!

I've been involved in some debates on online "free speech" and "censorship" in Internet (and especially Reddit-based) communities recently, and it's revealing to see that the most instructive and interesting online community I know is probably the most severely moderated.

I can't imagine what the mods are going through. Their merciless moderating style is completely at the opposite of what the average web user and Redditor expects. But I really believe that this sub (and probably the other AskXXX-style subs, I'm not sure I'm subsribed to any of them) is the best thing that came out of this website - at the very least, its core philosophy is the most productive use of Reddit's mechanics.

Are you qualified to thank the mods? What are the sources to support your gratitude? Just joking, this place is a welcome respite from the rest of Reddit. I mean it is absolutely meme-free, it's a meme vacuum, what other subreddit is so isolated from r/all reddit culture for better or worse?

Yay for the mods! I would love to help somehow but as a non-historian with little free time, all I can do is upvote and say yay!

Opening multiple threads full of deleted comments makes it even more satisfying to find one with a nice long high-quality reply.

If this is a chance to talk about the moderation, usually I'm glad that there is a level of discourse maintained by the moderators, but I still have no idea what the hell they were trying to achieve with their moderation in this thread.

I’ve been on Reddit since the beginning and as I’ve watched the rest of this site get continually worse, AskHistorians has always been my favourite sub.

The mods and contributors here do an excellent job and the majority of threads are interesting and insightful. I would guess that over the years this sub has helped educate countless people on interesting aspects of history, which is more and more important as time goes on.

Seriously, thank you!

I do think their work would be a lot more appreciated if we could see all the things they remove, it really is a wonder that this subreddit manages to be as civil as it is.

Thank you so very much for the kind words and your support! Although we do occasionally allow these threads, as we know that the readership appreciates the opportunity to come out and have the occasional thread they can contribute to, we are removing this one today. Nothing you did wrong, and if anything it is a victim of its own success, namely that so many people are upvoting it, we don't want to risk the chance that this one hits the top of the subreddit on the same day we have a great AMA going on with Dr. Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones (Please check it out!). We'll bring this back 'live' later today perhaps, but we just want to make sure that the focus of the subreddit today is our knowledgeable and talented guest, and not the mods!

Regards,

The Team

Have you guys considered that this is just a sign of how poor reddit's tools are? Full removals being the only tool a mod has is a bad idea. I especially love how removals cause new comments to be "oh I wonder what the mods removed". And gotta love how the mods will shit on people for asking, like people aren't going to naturally ask "what was in the deleted post" in every sub that it happens.