AskHistorians, unlike other major history subreddits (and most of the internet) has a strict quality control policy in place. Moderators routinely remove all comments that are either not contributing to discussion, or do not meet our standards for an in-depth and comprehensive answer. Unfortunately, due to the way Reddit is designed, removed comments will show up in the comment count for the thread, giving the false impression that answers exist when they don't. You can fix this particular problem using this browser extension.

For an explanation of why we remove low-effort or low-quality comments, you can check out this longer post explaining the logic as well as why frequently proposed alternatives to this moderation style are unfortunately not practical. You are of course under no compulsion to continue to browse the subreddit - we realise that it's not for everyone - but curating answers is part of our core mission, and won't change.

Most of them do because they are often short answers without citations. They’d rather a question go unanswered rather than a poor and incomplete one be posted.

And I believe it’s just top level comments.

This is a tightly moderated subreddit. We require answers to be in-depth and comprehensive, showing a familiarity with sources and scholarship on the subject. Anything that falls short is removed so it doesn't end up misleading readers and hogging the limelight.

This doesn't mean that all comments are removed. We have our Sunday Digest as a regular showcase of all the great answers that are posted here every day. It's those high-quality replies that people come here for.

If you are interested in more casual discussion, speculation, half-answers and misinformation, this is simply not the sub for you. We recommend checking our r/history or r/AskHistory instead.

It's all right in the rules

Read the rules.