A few days ago I went into /r/AskHistorians FAQ to read a bit into Soviet history and realized that a good number of the answers regarding the topic are 7 to 8 years old (that's the case with a lot of the questions in the FAQ) and the quality of the answers is much poorer than the standard of today. I'm not trying to say that those old answers are wrong or anything like that (I'm not knowledgable on the topic to even begin to suggest that), but those are questions that most newbies to this subreddit are more likely to ask, so I think updating some of those older questions might be a good idea, to make what's already an awesome subreddit even better.
I would like to know the people of this subreddit, and it's mod their opinion on the "issue"?
If this was an already asked question and mods already addressed this I would love to read your answers.
This has been an issue that's come to our attention. Like any sort of living, growing community, curating the content of the FAQ is a process of constant gardening. We do make an effort to periodically go through and try and update links and re-evaluate some of the older answers to see if they meet current standards and/or are still relevant, but it's a continually ongoing process.
Probably 3 years ago now, I went through and tried to update parts of the FAQ that were somewhat in my wheelhouse,which I probably spent a good part of my spare time in a relatively quiet week doing. Some of it was definitely very Wild West, full of things that would never pass muster today - the thing I most remember was that one of the links in the Oceania FAQ was to a one-liner joke. I did a bunch of cleaning up, adding new things etc, and improved it a bunch. But making the FAQ as good as it could be is hard work requiring a very good knowledge of the subreddit, and a lot of reading (because you can't just include something because it exists, you need to have a sense of how good it is, and that involves quite a bit of reading) for kind of little gain - you don't know if anybody would even realise you did that work. Honestly, I don't think I could update anywhere near as much of the FAQ now - I've become much more busy than I was then, and am less on top of which flairs regularly answer what kind of questions, and so whose comment histories could be mined for the FAQ etc.
But basically, any of the flaired users on the subreddit can edit the FAQ, and we as mods would actively encourage flairs to go for it! We're happy to provide guidance via modmail if you're not sure about what to include and what not to include, how best to search for things, or how best to get the advice and help of other flairs who might be interested parties.
As u/AncientHistory has pointed out on the part of the mods, the FAQ is something I imagine (by the very nature of this sub) something which constantly requires updating and reviewing to ensure the answers the meet the standards as well as encompass the scope and depth of historical topics. I personally however, find the FAQ as a great starting point to write responses and questions, because the answers there cover all manner of periods, persons, and regions, so I get a rough idea of what's already been asked repeatedly and what an answer to that question might look like.
Perhaps its sheer size is a double-edged sword however, since reviewing and updating the FAQ takes (even with an amazingly dedicated and talented mod team) a considerable amount of time. Still, it is great that we have an FAQ on here in the first place so I'm all for its continual updating and existence.