Rule 2: Ask again in 20 years!
When I clicked this I honestly figured I would only find 46 deleted comments.
A post from a reddit admin.
Tl;dr Skynet has come online.
To fully understand the scope of what happened, one cannot ignore the Hellenistic period of Greece.
See, it all started when Octavian defeated Mark Antony in....
Just commenting so in can tell my grandkids I once commented on /r/AskHistorians and it's wasn't deleted
Yay free comment thread
Yeah, well... as someone working on AI as part of his job I'm not even surprised after reading their explanation. Problem with automated systems is that they work like trying to enforce one clothing size for everyone - outliers are hellishly huge.
For example when YouTube tried to remove videos propagating nazi philosophy they used automated bot. Which is reasonable, even army of FBI agents would not comb through entirety of YouTube content in acceptable time. But then the criteria of the bot lumped together historical channels with nazi propaganda, because AI is very bad at recognizing context. Is swastika here used as a flag of nazi Germany in historical video or revered as a symbol of failed philosophy? Humans can recognize context from very young age, AI still can't do this. So after few waves of bans, demonetisation and suspensions YouTube creators removed swastika from their historical videos (some replaced it with YouTube logo and I find it hilarious).
Another example of AI not understanding what is going on would be that one guy who tricked Google Maps into thinking he is a traffic jam. AI uses data from GPS-enabled phones moving down the street but it can't recognize whether they are in cars, bikes or carried in a box.
When one of the first versions of Google Flight was created it used automated system to create a list of airports. System was very simple - access the database of flights and mark every place where flight started or ended as an airport. And yeah, since automation again forgot about context and outliers first version of Google Flight marked World Trade Centre as an airport because a flight ended there. According to u/CarlosPorto it was because WTC was registered helipad location never removed from list of codes. Also a lot of random crash landings became new airports too... It didn't fly well with more sensitive people and it had to be fixed.
TL;DR: AI in automation is like a vicious genie - it does exactly what we asked for, but rarely what we wanted.
In the distant future, historians will write volumes about the Day of Black Sun, when the AskHistorians moderators were faced with the toughest question of them all: why is everything [removed]?
This is machine learning in action, the machines are learning. Source: I'm a professor in skynetology.
Admin smokes bath salts
Even in a free thread I feel paranoid the mods will delete me
have they tried turning it off and on again
Trying out the IPO requirements at random?
anyone else picturing the guy in Airplane unplugging the cord, snickering, and plugging it back in?
You see it all started in Constantinople in 1453...
Hi Mom, I made it into a non-deleted comment! I've peaked, it's all downhill from here.
This might be the first time I get to comment on r/AskHistorians and not get deleted!
I had to look at the calendar after seeing this thread. Almost thought it was the April fools thread.
Why are all the top comments usually deleted?
This comment has absolutely no purpose except for myself enjoying my ability to comment without being deleted. Thank you. Keep reading now.
Wow a chance to comment! Hi! Oh boy I do not do well under pressure.
Finally my dream came true. I commented on a thread from AskHistorians.
rouge admin
Someone messed up and published code from prod or something along those lines. Friend of a friend was stuck fixing it today. Repeatedly banned a bunch of subs
This raises the risk that Reddit could go down or this sub getting banned permanently. The risk might be small but should not be ignored.
Given this, is all the good content generated by this sub archived somewhere else than on Reddit?
This is the most comments I've ever seen to any entry in r/askhistorians since I joined. Did all 1.3 mil come by to say hi?
Commenting here is like entering an empty lecture hall and speaking through the microphone.
[Loud, muffled mic voice:] HELLO. hehehe
Reddit goofed up and now Ultron is an admin.
Now I can brag to my friends I have answered a question on this sub!
unrelated, but since this is a meta post and those are rare, i'm gonna ask it here:
this sub used to be really useful for nonhistorians, and we used to be able to ask followup questions to the original question or to the people replying. since history is full of people selling subjective interpretation as objective fact, this also helps keep some of the "historian" replies honest as it allowed us to call into question some coldwar warrior responses that are over the top biased but no historian has called out. without implying anything, simply asking a further question or asking clarification would often be enough to provoke an awful response that exposed the supposed "historian" and often led to their seemingly reasonable reply being deleted when it turned out they were talking out their bums.
i've stopped replying entirely on askhistorians threads however, as it feels your moderation has shifted to a no one but historians allowed to comment policy.
is this what the policy is now? or did i just panic?
Thank goodness, because I thought I was banned from this sub. This will be the only time I’ll ever post on here because I’m too stupid to answer in the format requested
i’m willing to bet these recent sub bans has something to do with the “does this subreddit include nudity?” surveys that keep popping up on every subreddit.
Oh my god I can comment!
Everyone: "Askhistorians is a subreddit full of bitter people that delete lots of comments."
The comment section of this post: Monty Python level humour.
Well, I'm glad it's resolved for the moment.
Look ma, I’m commenting!
History is written by the powerful; and deleted/banned!
[Removed]
Skynet just came online.
Thank you mods for all your hard work.
Before we understand what happened in March 9, 2021, we have to go back all the way when fish decided to walk on land.
Sorry to add to the spam but this kind of an opportunity only comes once in a lifetime, and I'm not missing this one
Where are all the nuked threads...? Where am I?
Finally i thread I can chat as well. Well hello there people!
Obligatory comment for the archives
Hehe. This isn’t me taking my chance to get a comment on r/AskHistorians.
oh wow, uh free thread, uuuhhhh, did you hitler actually had wings and when fog covered the battlefield he would fight stalin and Churchill in a 3 way battle. apperently they were all fallen angles of god for wanting to create pineapple on pizza, anyway. yeah one day some dude on a tank shot himself out of a tank for fun and flew high and hit hitler and killed him. so thats how hitler actually died. that man in the tank. that man was oprah.
Yes, finally my first comment on here
Finally, a post a top-level comment on in here I can contribute to without getting deleted!
I've no idea. Hope that helps.
This is interesting.
here to be a part of history
Free Thread boiiii
No sources dudes, mods can you take care plz take care of some of these answers? Thx
Probaly mentioned something about a square that happened in china
If this sub gets banned I'm gonna loose my cool.
Obligatory comment for the archives
Blame Archduke Franz Ferdinand.
We don't really know either. We were banned, unbanned, then rebanned, and now unbanned again, all in the span of about 15 minutes. We weren't the only subreddit impacted. I know at least /r/videos and /r/pics were as well. The Admins released this statement:
Hey everyone - Sorry for the bumpy ride, it looks like one of our automated systems took out a few of our bigger communities. We're still looking into what happened, but believe we've stopped the bans... for now....
We'll share more information once we have it!
We'll update if/when we know more. And if it happens again, please bear with us!
Entirely unrelated, but if you are an AH fan, check out the Newsletter Bot we are currently Beta Testing!
It’s SO easy to get lost on the Internet. Seriously, I was looking for information on an ancient god that slept (biblically) with his mother. Somehow, I found myself here *shrug*
Concerning, but might just be a terrible accident. Or putting off updating something expensive until the last minute. Who knows.
All hail Skynet?
Zhuky baby, you so fine, you so fine you blow my mind! Hey Zhuky!
This is probably the only time I'm qualified to comment on this sub
Free comment thread!
This is my only chance to comment in this sub. Hello
It’s so bizarre to be here without a whole string of [Removed].
[Removed]
What danged standards were they using? Too many deleted posts?
wooo i can comment :>
Just hopping on the undeleted comment train don’t mind me.
[removed]
Jk, cool that this is almost definitely going to be my only ever comment on here.
Comment
This is it. The once in a lifetime opportunities to post a stupid comment here without it being deleted.
BABY YODA LOVES YOU
Yay! Finally can top level comment in AskHistorians without feeling wholly inadequate!!!! =D
I'm just here so I won't get fined.
Just gonna add my own comment to the bandwagon.
Well see y’all over at Parler
In before comments get locked.
Too bad r/dogdiet is still banned though
I COMMENTED. YAY!
We will all run afoul of the current purge eventually.
Commenting for posterity
Answer: Nobody knows
I have now commented and not been deleted. A first for me here.
[Deleted comment]
Quick, comment while you can!!!
I yes the day History forgot.
Looks like old questions are still there
in b4 locked
Just commenting in so I can tell my kids, grandkids, and great-grandkids that I once commented on /r/AskHistorians and it wasn't deleted
Why the heck isn't this journal article available online anywhere? I'm sinking 80 bucks* into this 3D modeling project I'm doing for fun because I'm such a stickler for details
* I should be grateful it's only 80, as buying it direct from the publisher is like 250
freedom
SO WHY WAS IT BANNED!?!?!?!?!?
Comments that haven't been deleted????????? My God!!!!!!! What's happening????
[Deleted]
Or am I?
Let’s keep it comprehensive in here everyone.
Never seen the comments this populated before
The Russians escaped while we weren't watching them
Every time I see a good question all that’s here is deleted replies
Glad this sub is still here!
Why are none of the top comments deleted? This isn't the /r/AskHistorians I subscribed to!
/s
My first post in /r/AskHistorians that didn't get deleted 😎
For now...
Mom get the camera!
Should've kept r/pics banned tbh.
Also, hi everybody.
Would you accept an answer less than a million words?
It’s not that active, unless you count 95% of posts that only consistent of “deleted” to be active
Did someone say something about China or Taiwan again?
My guess is they accidentally started applying their ban tools that they normally only use against conservative subs.
I don't know why I'm still subbed tbh, I've never had a question answered and every time I've been interested in a question every answer has been deleted. Maybe someone just got overzealous with the delete button and deleted the sub when someone posted a question they didn't like.
They purged content.
Truth was deleted to aid propaganda.
Tbh, Thai entire sub is kinda useless they delete anything that isn’t to their demanding specifications