Honestly what annoys me most about seeing a thread with a bunch of deleted comments is not the fact that they're deleted but the fact that for some reason Reddit still counts deleted comments in the comments count. So I'll see a post with "100 comments" and think "Surely one of those must be an answer" only to find out that not one of those 100 comments actually exists. And unfortunately this is something Reddit itself needs to fix.

I think it wold be cool to have a "response" flair! It would avoid using the language of an "question answered" flair

There seems to be good reason to not put up an "Answered" flair or something similar.

But how about a bot that adds a flair that just says "X comments" Exactly like the normal description for number of comments, but it shows the number of "real" comments instead.

It can count the number of comments that are not deleted or a mod message explaining why they were deleted.
This should not discourage further posting, since it does not assign any value to the comments. All it does is fix the broken system of the comment count.

Also if we can do it automatically, it would not put more load on mods.

This was discussed previously in a Rules Roundtable.

I just want to say that I have no problem with the way this site is currently moderated. If I have to click on several all-deleted threads in order to see an interesting question brought up and answered, so be it. It's not a hardship.

Thanks, mods.

This is why I am close to unsubscribing. I get excited to see an interesting, thoughtful question with numerous comments only to see they've all been removed.

People really need to just adjust expectations when they see comments on a thread in AH.

It isn't some great discussion you are missing out on. There isn't some great revelation or take that is going to change how you see a topic.

The staggering majority is absolutely trash. With literally 0 value, one line pithy answers, complaints, or edge Lord garbage.

I really don't think it's too terrible to say, on this one(and a handful of others) sub out of thousands, you need to adjust your expectations of seeing comments and equating that with "content" or anything valuable.

Doubly so when there are an entire gaggle of subs that cater to that which don't get close to asking this sub to compromise on some foundational aspects that it's reputation is built on.

It’s really depressing to see a question that’s really intriguing either never get answered or get all responses deleted.

I know you Mods here get a lot of flack and jokes thrown around about deleted comments and such but, honestly, the professionalism you show in your responses and the way you manage this sub is truly refreshing. Thanks for all you do.

I understand that it's sometimes disheartening to see posts where you think there might be answers only to find out that there haven't been, but as previously discussed (and as discussed in this thread) there are several pitfalls to introducing an 'answered' or 'X responses' flair, including the enormous amount of time-consuming work that would fall on the already overstretched mods.

Essentially, to even begin to think about implementing an answered flair of some sort, you have to think of the time needed to a) trawl the AH archives and flair all of the posts that have discussions/answers before the change and b) the time needed to individually inspect every thread for high-quality answers and flair them appropriately. Factor in that some questions receive answers months after first being asked (I like to browse through the archives on the weekends and answer questions that are nearing the 6 month archive mark if I can, for example), and you're asking for a nearly impossible level of time and dedication to this sub from the mods. They do this for fun and to curate an accessible yet appropriately academic space for historical questions, not as a full-time job. They just don't have that kind of time, nor do they have the academic expertise to know whether an answer outside of their specialty is actually a "good" answer (and flag it as such).

There are several avenues that AH already takes to curate lists of answered questions and questions that have active discussions going on:

• For example, we try to make sure that most questions that have gotten answers end up in the weekly Sunday Digest that gets stickied to the top of the sub every Sunday. If you read an answer that doesn't end up in the Digest because we missed it, you're more than welcome to add it yourself.
• There are monthly 'Best Of' voting threads, which you can access via our sidebar.
• The mods run both a twitter feed and a Facebook page where they put some of the better answers.
• We have FAQs, a podcast, a Wiki, and all of the flaired users have profiles where many of us keep links to most of the answers we've given on on the sub.

While it is nearly impossible to implement an "answered"-type flair and still uphold the way the sub functions as well as our quality standards, the mods and flairs have tried to cultivate a community that is conducive to finding answered questions if you just take a minute to seek them out.

How about adding an "Unanswered" flair for threads that have absolutely NOTHING but deleted comments?

When I'm scrolling, and I see an interesting question, and one or two comments, I assume that's actually zero responses and don't waste my time.

When I see one with a bunch of comments, I click through, and then I'm mad that I wasted my time when it's just a bunch of deleted comments.

I know you can't control how Reddit reports comments, but you can definitely control expectations by recognizing that it's really annoying to get excited about a lively discussion and see absolutely nothing to read. If you mods delete more than, say, four comments, you tag it unanswered and remove the tag as soon as there's a comment you don't have to delete (that isn't a follow up question). That way there's no evaluation on the mod team's part of the quality of answered.

Or, even just have a tag that says "many removals".

I don't know if that's even remotely suitable, especially for me as someone who lost his flair to not finding time to write in depth responses anymore, but I recently thought of a bot similar to the RemindMe bot. That one, when summoned, displays a link that other users can click to also be reminded about what the person who called for the bot requested.

I'd love to see a bot here that posts a stickied link to every question that people can click on if they are interested. And as soon as there's an answer good enough for the subreddit, those who clicked the link get a notification.

It might even encourage other historians to respond to questions that had already been buried.

I encourage people who want this sub to change to allow unsourced answers to visit r/history or r/askhistory.

There is a reason those subs are less popular. I can usually find a robustly upvoted comment that is just pure bullshit history. I only have an undergrad in the topic.

I've already done a top-level post, but part of the issue as well, even if we were to assume that there were no methodological problems with an 'Answered' or indeed a 'Not Answered' flair, is that it would be mutually exclusive with the already-implemented 'Great Question!' and Theme of the Week flairs.

I’m not really satisfied by that answer, it seems like it’s based more on semantics than actual practicality. Change the language to “an answer given” or “answer begun” if that’s the issue.

Or maybe even just a "1+ response" when a moderator first reviews and allows a response.

It would be even nicer to see a count of approved responses like ... "3+ responses" etc. but probably don't bother to keep counting after 3 or 4.

This is one of the best subreddits, and also one of the most frustrating. Here's a perfect example. This is on my front page right now: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/bnui65/how_long_have_pillows_been_a_thing/

Except...no answers. Maybe there'll be one three days from now, but by then I'll have forgotten about it. And I'll never remember to go back and check. Rinse, and repeat.

There must be some solution to this...

Edit: I'm supposed to ping the OP, apparently: /u/sadcedTM

While there are always new questions or suggestions which can be made, there are many which have been previously addressed - including variations of an 'answered/unanswered/responded' flair. As a rule, we allow META threads to stand even if they are repeats, but we would nevertheless encourage you to check out the META Section of our FAQ, as it is possible that your query is addressed there. Frequent META questions include:

• Why is everything deleted?
• Why isn't there an 'answered' flair?
• Have you considered relaxing the rules or letting the upvotes decide? (or my personal favourite really snarky response I gave someone once - here )

This isn't intended to be the last and final word, and we encourage you to bring up any further questions you might have which are not addressed there as well, but we hope that this will at least provide you some additional information.

We also ask that readers take the time to read the numerous responses already provided in this [META]-thread, as many likely follow-ups have already been asked and addressed.

Thanks!

I'd like to see an option to be reminded about a thread 24 hours later. Many times I've seen a question and thought "I hope this gets a good answer" only to forget and then not be able to find it.

In my humble opinion this sub is the best curated sub on Reddit. The moderators do a phenomenal job handling such a difficult endeavour. However I am appalled at the animosity expressed by some people in this thread. Very few people, if any, are calling for less deleted comments, and suggesting people find another subreddit is counterproductive. Many responses have suggested that the status quo is great, and that people should expect to have to click though multiple empty threads before finding a good one with responses. I would argue that ascribing intrinsic value to potentially unnecessary frustration and waste of time is inherently against progress. People should continue to strive to make the sub better, not stay the same.

As many moderators and contributors have expressed, there are multiple problems with "answered" labels, but I do believe there is a potential solution in the use of a bot to label posts with number of nondeleted comments. This is far out of my realm of expertise, and I understand there are lots of logistical hurdles to such a change, but I think a more focused discussion on this matter would be beneficial.

This is all just the opinion of one frequent subscriber, and hopefully I'm not offending anyone here, just want to see the best possible version of this sub.

Good call but I also wonder -- how do you source an anecdote? You can't. And that can very well be some of the best information we can get on a subject.

I feel like a toddler here sometimes. I know how to check sources -- if someone has a plausible andectotal reply, I don't think it should be deleted immediately. Let us check into it and decide eh?

An active discussion flair would be so great.

As am alternative, how about creating a new heavily moderated sub that just posts links to AskHistorians posts that have received quality responses?

I'm kind of amazed at the number of moderators who seem intent on misunderstanding the request as "don't remove low-quality replies".

Clearly none of you have ever tried to post a response to answer a q. I straight up wrote a 20 page paper in college (and got an A, thank you very much!) Yet when I posted a brief factual answer to the question; I was banned for three days from posting. I think the mod(s) are just too harsh for this sub to really take off.

I'm guessing I'll be perma banned for posting this....if so it's been real.

Can we overthrow the mods and make this a free community in which there can be unsatisfactory answers, but at least there are attempts at answers, which is better than nothing?