Just under eight years after this subreddit was created, we have hit the 1 Million Subscriber threshold!
It is absolutely amazing to see the community that has grown here, and which works every day to make this subreddit what it has become, and who will continue to help it grow through the next million! Automod got the day off today and we're instead posting a SPECIAL EDITION or the Friday Free-for-All to mark this occasion!
#A big part of that though is the /r/AskHistorians Census. Every once in awhile we conduct one to get feedback from our users on what is working well, what could be better, and occasionally we just find some really good ideas to test out as well. We figured the 1 Million User mark is as good a time as any to do one, so before you start popping the champagne and partying in this thread, please take a moment to participate in the census!
#You can find the discussion thread for it here, or if you just want to jump right to it, click through here.
Wooohooo!
I'm so proud I got to see this and that this community is thriving! Thank you, fellow mods, thank you fellow flairs, and thank you, all of you readers, lurkers, question askers and people interested in history out there that make this such a great and amazing space. I'm so happy I am and can continue to be part of this.
And to preemept the inevitable question: Here's what Hitler thought about AskHistorians courtesy of /u/kieslowskifan
Also I just can't stop sharing this great meme made by /u/Abrytan.
And here is my own effort from almost exactly a year ago! Long before I was a mod, and even several months before I was a flair. At that point I was just a humble lurker with a thirst for history.
What a freaking awesome and incredible achievement! And one that’s built on the work, toil and enthusiasm of everyone! From the flairs and non-flairs who go out of their way, sometimes spending hours, to write up some fantastic and engaging post. To the subscribers who read, watch, upvote and love learning history, not to mention asking brilliant questions. To the FAQ Finders and others who dig through old posts and old history to make sure it’s not forgotten, and making sure it connects to those looking for it. And my fellow mods, for the unbelievable work they put into this sub to make it the place it is. Believe me, you have no idea the amount of time some of these fabulous people put in here, all to make this such an awesome place. Every one of you involved in this community are truly inspiring.
History has some kind of a reputation for being boring and stodgy. I’m willing to bet I’m not the only one who spends hours upon hours of time here, eagerly consuming every scrap of history I can find. The writers here have found a way of making even the most boring history engaging and exciting. Not to mention one of my all time favorite things is finding a topic I thought I knew well, only for someone to come along and blow my mind showing just how much more complex it is. AskHistorians is a bright jewel on the internet that spreads a love and fascination of history far and wide. I’m honored to be a part of it.
I’m also pretty thrilled that you fantastic subscribers managed to push us over the limits on the day I have off from work. Forget about chores and actual errands. I’m spending my entire day here partying it up! How many references can I cram into this thread? I’m warmed up from the new mod announcement one and good to go!
Of course, if you’d been able to hit a million last night I’d have won the bet, but not every day can be perfect.
As your friendly neighborhood digestman, I ask you to please, please check out the census in the link above. It will play a big part in the growth and running of this fantastic place. Not to mention make things easier for future histories to research AskHistorians. Which will no doubt be useful for explaining our meteoric rise to eventually ruling the world. The Historian Coup is coming, mark my words.
Now let’s get this super awesome incredible party started! Here’s to one million subs, and here’s to the ten million I’m aiming for now!
The hype train has no breaks! Choo Choo!
A big shoutout to u/steelcan909 here, who managed to guess almost (within 68 minutes!) the precise time that r/AskHistorians hit a million subscribers. They're either incredibly lucky, or incredibly skillful - either way, deserving of acclaim!
As a Jewish history/culture flair, I'll just say mazal tov!* Yashar koach!** Ad meah ve'esrim (million subscribers)!***
*congratulations- literally, "good fortune"
**may you grow even stronger- literally, "may your strength be straight"
***until 120 (years)- a traditional blessing for long life based on the lifespan of Moses
Big props on including the wide range of sexualities and gender identities!
The only suggestion I could've made is maybe a wider selection on the political question, as (for example myself) selecting progressive/liberal doesn't quite encompass my ideology (communist)
Awesome, congrats to all for keeping on keeping on!
I put together a history themed music playlist a while back that seems to fit the occasion. In “very broadly” chronological order:
Edit: Added TMBG and Kinks, thanks to /u/sunagainstgold and /u/khosikulu for the suggestions :)
As a long time lurker, I just want to say thank you.
This is one of my favorite places on the internet and I’m always in awe of the knowledge, passion and generosity of all the people involved in making r/AskHistorians so special.
What a long, strange trip it's been.
Well done y'all! I hope that I'll someday join the prestigious ranks of flaired users, but until then I'll answer to the best of my ability and enjoy other peoples' brilliant work; to another million!
Side note, does anyone know any Marxist analyses of the Holy Roman Empire (short of Engels' one which I know)? I asked on a previous Thursday thread to no avail, so I might as well try again.
Nice work ladies and gents! I remember celebrating 100k subs, can't believe it's so long ago now.
When is the plan for the next census? 2 million might be pushing it!
Yay! This is one of my favorite subreddits. I felt very special (and a bit disheartened) ticking the box indicating that my field doesn’t receive enough questions for a flare. Not everyone likes, or is familiar with, ethnohistory. Specifically, genocide and history’s intersection with archaeology.
That said, this subreddit is managed so well. It’s a pleasure to be able to find in-depth answers to some of history’s questions! It’s also a great way to procrastinate reading assignments.
Edited for clarity.
Since we're all posting our AskHistorians memes, here's one I made back in the day after a classic round of moderation.
I have nothing creative to post, so here's my favourite bit of upbeat 'classical' music – the third movement of Holst's First Suite in E♭.
Congratulations for Askhistorians, a greatly deserved number. I'm relatively new, but happy to see a community that i loved grew to this number
My one complaint about the survey was that the political ID options were too limited. Give us the full compass already!
Honestly, this thread inspired me to pursue history in undergrad and to continue to pursue history through a PhD. I want to one day have a flair next to my name and comment on here with a quality post.
Edit: I meant to say subreddit, but I was tired when I wrote this
Congratulations, that's fantastic. I'm relatively new so I hope I do this right.
Can anyone help me find a book, A War Betwixt Englishman: Brazil against Argentina on the River Plate.
https://www.amazon.com/War-Betwixt-Englishmen-Against-Argentina/dp/1860644562
I tried US and UK amazon, Abe books, Ebay, google is no help. It is so hard to find English language books on South American history. Any tips on that would be appreciated, too. I am not a student, so I don't have access to an ILL close by.
Long time lurker (I don't comment because I'm not remotely historian to be justified to do so), my go to place (usually land here from google and "site:reddit.com/r/AskHistorians") to learn about something I didn't know before after getting a glimpse in wikipedia, for early modern period and newer that I'm interested.
Moderation and requirement for good quality posts and the users that don't have bias make this place great. 1 million is a big number, the quality of the subreddit resembles to the kind of smaller, well moderated subreddits
Gonna just hijack the top of this thread to remind people that we're running our super-duper awesome Summer 2019 Floating Feature series right now.
The ones that have already happened have some great content to read, and we have a half-dozen still to come. This is especially timely to mention in a META thread like this, as it is always great to see lurkers come out of the woodwork and participate in the community even if they might normally not feel able to answer questions, because Floating Features are modded very lightly! We want to see contributions both bit and small.
Full schedule of past and future:
