#TLDR: Click here, hit send to subscribe to the AskHistorians Newsletter. ^(If ^you ^are ^on ^the ^Mobile ^App, ^you ^need ^to ^edit ^the ^message ^in ^some ^way ^to ^send. ^Simply ^adding ^a ^space ^and ^then ^deleting ^it ^is ^sufficient)
Last month, we rolled for the public our fancy new Newsletter bot. We want to sincerely thank the several hundred users who signed up right off the bat to help us work out the kinks as we continued to expand testing. We've been very pleased with the results, and thrilled by the positive feedback we've been receiving so far, so ready to start upping that subscriber count!
As regulars know, tons of fantastic answers are written on the subreddit daily, but it can be hard to consume it all. Time gets in the way, but so does the reddit algorithm, which might mean the best answer of the week is buried in a single upvote thread, or else that the most popular question all month doesn't get answered until several days later. We've worked to provide tools to get around those issues, including RemindMe bot links, the AskHistorians browser extension, /u/subredditsummarybot's automated roundups, and obviously things like the Sunday Digest and the Monthly BestOf.
But we know we can do better! Last years testing of a mass mailer feature with the Admins resulted in mixed feedback, but also showed that with some tweaks, weekly content summaries would be a very welcome feature for many of our users. That feature never did come to pass, but that didn't mean we weren't interested.
#As such, we're excited to be rolling out the /u/AHMessengerBot! Thanks to the indefatigable /u/AverageAngryPeasant's assistance in bot development, we have our own personalized messenger bot for users of the subreddit to subscribe to.
Hows Does It Work?
If you are feeling lazy, click here, hit send. If you want to do the work yourself, then send a private message (Not a chat request!) to /u/AHMessengerBot with the text !subscribe. If at any time you are sick of us, you can then send !unsubscribe.
What Will I Actually Be Getting?
You will get a mailer straight to your reddit inbox! We're still tweaking the design, but in general each mailer will highlight a few pieces of popular content from the week, a few pieces of overlooked content from the week, and notable features such as AMAs or podcasts. For a much more in-depth explanation of construction, check out the guidelines we followed in the original testing which will still be generally the case here.
The things we can say with most certainty though is that we don't want to get spammy. We don't want it to get too lengthy, and we don't want to get too many of these. Weekly is our starting point, and likely to be what we stick with. It is possible the frequency will be made longer, but we promise it won't be made shorter.
Also, we will usually include a picture of a corgi.
Why a Reddit Bot?
We have been wanting to do something like this for awhile. Using a listserv or mailing list had come up in discussions, but we never much liked the idea. Many users browse /r/AskHistorians as part of their broader redditing habits, and we wanted a solution that could integrate into that.
What is Difference from the /u/subredditsummarybot I Get?
/u/subredditsummarybot is awesome, and we still highly endorse it! But it pulls content solely based on upvotes, and gives you the top ten threads and the top ten comments blind. Sometimes those threads don't have answers. Sometimes those comments are actually just a follow-up question, or something in a META thread that trended. Our intention here is to provide a more curated experience that helps users enjoy a slice of the best content of the week, regardless of popularity. But we definitely encourage subscribing to both!
I Signed Up. Why Didn't I Get It?
We've found that some users aren't getting the mailer due to having PMs turned off. If you have done this, please make sure to whitelist the bot account so they can still hit up your inbox! Additionally, please send the message using the Private Message function, not the Chat Function. Two different things. You should get a subscription confirmation. If you don't, let us know.
I've signed up and I can confirm that there is usually a Corgi photo
Just FYI, clicking submit on mobile (app) won't send the subscription message until you actually add to the message.
I just wrote and then deleted a space and it worked.
Does the newsletter simply say "removed"?
This is the best thing that I've ever found online.
So happy right now.
Best subreddit and great idea. Was so excited I subscribed before reading the tip about editing it if using the mobile app, but it still worked.
I love this idea!
Love this sub and all the redditor nerdy expertise I read about with full sources! Such a gem.
I feel the exact same about this as I did when they recently started putting crossword puzzles in "The New Yorker"... I CAN'T CONSUME ALL THAT IMPORTANT CONTENT IN A TIMELY FASHION NOW! ...AND YOU GO AND PUT A GIANT, DELICIOUS, CAN'T IGNORE ROADBLOCK AT THE END?
...sigh. Sign me up. I can't wait for a brain computer interface that can just start dumping this stuff directly into my head so my subconcious can wrestle with it. I haven't even gotten to Wandavision yet. Heck, I haven't even gotten to "The Wire" yet.
This is amazing! I always save interesting questions so that I can come back later, but of course I never do...
The newsletter legitimately propelled AskHistorians to one of my favourite subs - amazing work. Thanks so much! 🙏
Yo this is pretty dope. Plus bonus corgi!?
i mean this without any offense meant: why is /r/askhistorians on reddit at all? tons of great content gets posted here, maybe it would be better suited to a community blog/tumblr?
Mods of AskHistorians once again showing how it's done. Best mod team on reddit.
Thanks folks, love it.
Oh wow, the comment section for this one isn't a graveyard. I wonder if my comment will stay up... Crazy to think that we've had two free for all threads on this sub within a couple of weeks.
This sounds amazing! Looks like opening Reddit is going to be a much better experience from now, with this newsletter to look forward to. This is one of the best things I've found on the internet yet
This sub is god tier
Hello, I super love this subreddit and I totally signed up for this, and this is awesome!!! This may be the first newsletter I have deliberately signed up for in my entire life for a reason other than getting a discount on a purchase. I'm actually fairly certain it is. I actually can't think of a single other time I wanted a newsletter. This rocks!
However, I prefer kittens. Could we sometimes have kittens instead of corgis? I would appreciate this Very Much, thank you. ❤
This is the best subreddit by far imo. such great material to learn from. I'm currently reading the Trial of Temple Anneke, a woman executed for witchcraft. It's so interesting. I also got another book recommendation on the Sengoku period of Japan.
Really interesting stuff that I don't think I would've ever discovered on my own or even had the barest sense of where to start. So experts explaining in layman's terms what's up then recommending basic entry level material, is brilliant. I love this sub.
I am super hyped for this, and its an excellent way to get some more AskHistorians in your life. Big threads you saw but had no comments? Heres the follow up! Little things that are sweet but skipped the front page? We have you covered!
Thank you! This is awesome!
This plus the Ask Historians Comment Helper extension is a great combination for getting the good stuff on this sub. Thanks for everything y'all do. It's a lot of work, I'm sure. As a long time reader here, I really appreciate it.
You son of a bitch, I'm in.
Edit:
Added to AH Digest successfully!
Sign up was very easy. Thanks for setting this up and for the coming content!
Great idea. Thank you for doing this
Just want to say that this is amazing and I thoroughly enjoyed the first “issue.”
thanks!
wasn't there one of these before, that stopped or something? i could have sworn i used to get these before and then nothing so was just counting on it breaking through the clutter in my subs.
great sub!
Feedback: Please use a ​ between each category for the sake of clarity. Please find an example of what the latest post could look like with additional formatting as a reply to this comment.
Brilliant idea. I always see interesting questions before they have a chance to be answered and then forget them again.
Immediately signed up. You guys are the best.
Finally, ty fam
YAAASSSSSS I love this!
Petition to include the occasional Shiba Inu included too?
Why a Reddit Bot?
We have been wanting to do something like this for awhile. Using a listserv or mailing list had come up in discussions, but we never much liked the idea. Many users browse /r/AskHistorians as part of their broader redditing habits, and we wanted a solution that could integrate into that.
I'm sure this came up in your discussions, but personally, I would prefer an email to a message on Reddit. On Reddit, I'm likely to just mark it as read so I don't have a notification constantly, and then forget about it. It would also fit very well into my current email for Substack and newspaper/magazine subscriptions.
There are also people I've recommended the sub to who don't use Reddit -- but a teacher or my grandma might happily sign up for an email newsletter.
Might it be possible to have both?
Will there be an RSS feed? It would be significantly more convenient than reddit PMs.
This is the best sub on Reddit! This will be fantastic!
This will be the second time I've ever signed up for a newsletter.
This is so exciting! I’m looking forward to it.
came to this post from /u/ subredditsummarybot roundup message
this seems like an upgrade! subscribed!
mods please keep this as pinned post for few weeks many like me will notice it late. Or even better - repost the same next month.
I think it's pretty funny that this showed up in my roundup.
Did the sliced bread question ever get an answer? I was hopeful for a good reply.
I am one of the fortunate ones that got the newsletter twice. Thank you x 2 !!!
So I’m already subscribed, but never got the newsletter. Was it actually sent out? I subscribed weeks ago I think.
I would love to get this in an email instead of a DM. Is that on the horizon?
Hi! I got the newsletter yesterday and it was awesome! I have a suggestion: What about a subreddit called /r/AHNewsletter or something that the bot ALSO sends the newsletter to, and it makes it so that the two stickies are always the two most recent newsletters? Then I can be subscribed to the newsletter and also pin this sub in my RES toolbar, and if I don't read it all in one sitting I have a super easy link back to it for the next month so I can finish reading it as I have time, instead of the not-so-great UI of finding a no-longer-unread reddit inbox thing.
Alternatively a lower-commitment way to sub to the newsletter would be to subscribe to this subreddit
Also maybe one of the stickies could be like a meta post that gets refreshed every 6 months and only 1 of them is the most recent newsletter (since probably submissions should be restricted to just the bot), this way there's an easy way to give feedback or just say how awesome the newsletter is lol (though idk maybe you don't want to moderate this so maybe this part is a bad idea)
To get a sense of what the newsletter looks like, here is the one that was sent today!
#A Recap of AskHistorians 2021-03-12 to 2021-03-18
Popular This Week: You might have clicked too early, so here are the responses to some of the most upvoted questions from the past week:
"Why did Irish river dancing explode in popularity during the 1990s?", responses by /u/CopperPegasus and /u/ny-batteri
"In The Great Gatsby, Tom reads white supremacist books and goes off on a racist tirade against interracial marriage. Nowadays we see this as proof he's a scumbag, but what would Fitzgerald's original audience have thought of it?", response by /u/hannahstohelit
"How did the average European citizen in the 1490s react to the discovery of the Americas?", responses by /u/partymoses and /u/gerardmenfin
"How did so many different countries come to converge on a higher education system that universally offered Master's degrees and PhDs?", response by /u/Erft
"I'm just an ordinary person, how "Roaring" are the 1920s for me?", responses by /u/jbdyer, /u/alex1596, and /u/pinkycatcher
Things You Probably Missed: Great stuff flies under the radar every week! Here is a selection of responses the Mod Team enjoyed, but didn't get the attention they deserved:
"When did the fascination with the sinking of the Titanic begin in western popular culture?", response by /u/yourlocaltitanicguy
"Though it was not criminalized in most countries prior to the late 20th century, how socially acceptable would marital rape have been?", response by /u/veryshanetoday
"15 of Shakespeare's 37 plays feature suicide as a significant theme, how common was suicide in everyday life during the Elizabethan Era?", response by /u/amandycat
"In Tolstoy’s War and Peace it’s mentioned that Emperor Alexander views duels unfavorably, was this sentiment common among 19th century European nobility and high society?", response by /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov
Features You Might Have Missed:
Corgis
Plenty more you might have missed though, so as always, don't forget to check out the most recent Sunday Digest or else to follow us on Twitter!
If at any time you would like to unsubscribe from the AskHistorians Newsletter, please reply with !unsubscribe.
Sorry if this is a wrong place to ask, but is the bot okay? I haven't received recap from the past week and I'm pretty sure bot is not blacklisted.
No, I get tired of clicking on a link and all comments have been deleted by the mods.
If there's nothing on the post, why is it on the front page?
I’ve found that the reason I can’t view top comments on posts is not because there are too many comment or posts, but because every comment on every post is deleted 30 minutes after the post is made
