History is my passion, but not my profession, so writing here gives me a way to stay connected with the discipline. To be sure, I quite like it when I write something that gets popular, and it is a pretty heady feeling knowing I wrote something with tens of thousands of people have read and enjoyed, but at the end of the day, much of it is about writing for myself, and simply having a way to do so, with the added side benefit that I can share it with some people.

I know many flairs will talk about how AskHistorians helps them think about their topic in ways that they wouldn't otherwise. Doing academic research on a topic will, intentionally or not, often conform to certain approaches that are - obviously - academic in nature, but don't always reflect how laypeople might think about that same topic, so even if it is a 1 or 2 upvote question, if it is asking about an interesting angle on my topics of study, I am absolutely pumped to dive in and write about because it is a spur to me to look at that angle and think about the topic possibly in a way I haven't before. The OP made me think about the topic in a way I enjoyed, and they deserve the best answer I can provide them for doing so!

The amount of time and effort I put into an answer really doesn't correlate at all with the popularity of a question, but rather my interest in that question. For instance yesterday and this morning I spent at least five hours working on this answer, which has 8 upvotes, and probably won't get many more beyond that short of an unexpected turn of fortune (like this thread getting popular. Funny how that worked out). I've really happy with how it turned out, as it is on a topic which is fascinating, and not that well explored, namely the intersection of disability and dueling. I hope the OP of the question enjoyed it, as did the others who read it, but what matters in the end is that I enjoyed researching it and writing it. I had a lot of ideas on what to draw from, but it wasn't necessarily a frame I had thought deeply about in the past; nor, from my knowledge of the literature on the topic, have many others who study dueling, which added an additional level of interest for me in diving into it.

The subreddit is also an incredible space to grow as an historian and as a writer. Getting the opportunities and impetus to go down those research rabbit holes is certainly part of it, but so too is just having so many opportunities to write... period. It is fascinating to look back and track those changes and improvements. Not to say my oldest content on the sub was awful, but I am constantly impressed when I look back on the old stuff, and I think that it really speaks to one of the under-appreciated benefits writing on the sub provides.

The one thing I'll say though is that it can sometimes feel a little sad when you write into the void, and I think I speak for many in saying that while upvotes are nice, they aren't that important. What does matter though is the simple 'thanks', or even better, a follow up question. If your question gets answered, always remember to say "Thank you!" It really means a lot, and I'd rather trade 1,000 upvotes for heartfelt "thank you" with an insightful follow-up accompanying it, cause the former means people read it, the latter means someone really engaged with it.

ETA: I guess I should also note that I keep a detailed record of everything I write on the subreddit, which is maintained here.

There's not much to add to /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov's answer; I agree on all counts. But my perspective is a little different because history is my profession. The answers I write here either derive directly from my own published work, or they allow me to expand on that research (because the questions people ask on here are often fascinatingly different from the questions historians would ask).

Speaking from that perspective, I will add one further reason why I spend so much time writing long posts for a handful of upvotes: I spent years learning stuff about a period of history that I find fascinating, and if you have questions about that period of history, I want you to get a good answer. I want you to know what I know. Not just because you will hopefully enjoy learning it, and other readers will also see it and might find questions answered that they never knew they had - but also because it makes me feel like this is what doing all this history learning is for.

History isn't a practical skill. In fact it's often derided as a self-absorbed hobby with no practical use whatsoever. Like other fields of the Humanities, academic history constantly has to defend itself against accusations of irrelevance and attempts to defund. And if you go up to random people (or media platforms) and say you want to talk about your historical specialism to prove that it's actually really exciting, they aren't very likely to care. But here on r/AskHistorians, people come to us with their own questions, and we can speak to them directly about the things they want to know. It's affirming; it's validating; it's rewarding; it's meaningful. It may not give me any material benefits but it has so much more direct and explicit positive impact than anything I will ever write for an academic journal.

I would first state that I have only written three or four answers on this sub, and none of them have been particularly popular. Saying that, I feel a sort of obligation to share my answers because the state paid for my education through grants and scholarships so I feel that the knowledge I have doesn't truly just belong to me. Thus, when I see a question that corresponds to the topics that I am well versed in, and no one else has replied, then I feel in some small way compelled to answer.
I would also agree with the esteemed Zhukov that a gracious thank you in return is greatly appreciated.

I'm not sure if I'm a "top commenter", but...

I know some of the other folks here can write entirely off the top of their head ("I'm writing this on my cell phone, I'll put sources when I get home") but generally speaking I never know a particular answer in full until I write about it. (Sometimes I know basically 0%, like in the question about early-20th-century bathroom breaks.) So I learn a lot more about something in the process, and oftentimes make some connections that I've never seen in a particular text.

Sometimes there's just the dread feeling of There's Something Wrong on the Internet. Not even just a wrong premise in a question, although there's been those, but seeing attempted speculation where it's clear more context would help everyone.

While it's nice to have an answer get seen, I have just as much fun with a low-vote one like this about why the Yugoslav peace accords were in Dayton, Ohio of all places. Really, I'm thinking about just communicating with the person who asked the question, and if lots of other people get something out of it, bonus!

10-20 karma, what luxury! Maybe the question should be the other way around - what do you get out of receiving 10-20 karma?

I just answered a question the other day that had cruelly been downvoted to 0, and it's very possible that maybe only the OP and I will ever see it. But it was about women in the crusades, which is a super interesting topic, something that has been written about a lot in the academic world but maybe not so much for a popular audience, and (I guess most importantly here) something I knew how to answer. I had sources at hand and I was also able to cannibalize a few previous answers to cobble together something new.

I don't think it matters if it's a popular or highly-visible question. If one person took the time to ask, then it's still important for that one person to know, isn't it? The OP for the question about crusading women said something like "I didn't expect such a detailed answer". Warms the cockles of your heart! That's more satisfying to me than hundreds of upvotes.

Of course, it is fun when there's a really popular question and you get a lot of karma for the answer. With a question no one else has noticed, I can sit and think about it, even for a few days. But the way Reddit works with really popular posts is that hardly anyone will see an answer if you wait a few days, even if thousands of people upvoted it. The pressure of writing a good answer really fast is a very different process (still fun...but different).

Otherwise I think I'm just repeating everything that u/Georgy_K_Zhukov said. I'm "an historian" by training but history is not my profession, so AH is a great outlet to share all this stuff in my head and on my shelves that otherwise isn't really getting used.

It's just something moderately interesting to do that sometimes helps people. It's no different than if you asked me these questions in person, or in a class. Occasionally it is an excuse to look something up or learn something in the process of answering a question — no harm there. Sometimes the work I put into the answers is useful in thinking about future things I might want to research more, or unearth useful things for teaching, but that's just a benefit, not the motivation.

Also occasionally my students will discover how much Reddit karma I have and be amazed, which I find highly amusing.

I don't think I'm a "top commenter," but I've had some very popular posts on this sub. Like /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov History is not my profession - I studied it in undergrad including writing a fairly lengthy thesis, but that is as far as I've gotten. I think my primary thing is that I love teaching and sharing knowledge - so when someone is genuinely interested in something I know, I'm incredibly excited to share it. I tend to not do research for my answers beyond brushing up on some sources if I'm rusty, so the sharing of knowledge is really the pleasure for me. Rarely I get so interested in a question that I want to look it up myself to write something about it - but my life right now doesn't really give me the time to do so. I'll hit the remindmebot and let one of the other brilliant writers teach me!

EDIT:

After a moment's further reflection, I've stumbled on one more reason I write. Though I don't often do dedicated research for an answer, the brushing up process will often lead me down rabbit holes I find fascination - so I also love that every time I write an answer I learn something.

I think everyone here has given some great answers, but I think I can add another perspective. I finished college as an anthropology major, and will be applying to graduate school this fall for pre-Hispanic American archaeology (I've already asked a few people on this sub for tips, and they've been incredibly helpful!) As much as my friends are fantastic and intelligent people, I don't have that many who are as interested in archaeology as I am - and I don't know any at all who are interested in archaeology of the pre-Hispanic Americas in the way I am. So the community here has been a fantastic way for me to reach out and speak to people about a topic I love that I can't find that many places to discuss in. And, as someone who'd like to think that their (hopeful) future archaeological work won't be limited to articles and books only read by academics, AskHistorians is an inspiring reminder of public interest in history. If I become a professor, I sincerely hope I'll have a community like this to help keep pulling me out of the ivory tower.

The karma isn't why I post. I want to educate the public. After all most historians don't make money from their writing. My first book has earned a couple hundred bucks in royalties, which is a pittance for the amount of time and effort it took to write. It got me tenure but it is not profitable. So similarly, worthless internet points are not really the motivation. I want to educate people and dispel myths and misconceptions.

I probably don't really count as a top commentator, but I'm going to post anyway because I spend a good 6 hours minimum writing the digest up this week and meta threads are the only time the other mods led me out of my box.

The digest never gets many upvotes. I think my average is 10-12 upvotes on the most upvoted comment. BUT I constantly get feedback on in. PM's, meta threads, in random passing. Tons of people tell me they use the digest to find answers they missed, or to browse through during the week. That kind of feedback is wonderful, and I get deep feeling from knowing that this thing I just randomly started typing up one day turned out to be useful.

But honestly even if it got 0 upvotes I'd probably still do it. I spend hours of my week reading all the fabulous answers here. Even before I did the digest I'd evangelize on discord or amongst friends and show what a cool place this is. The digest write up to me hits two important spots. 1) it shows my deep appreciation and thanks to the writers and contributors. I read everything that ends up in the digest and its pretty important to me that I spend some time each week calling out as many people by name as possible. These writers deserve so much more appreciation and attention, so this is quite literally the least I could do.

The second reason ties into that, and its attention. I personally, and deeply again, feel that many of these fantastic write ups are criminally underappreciated. Everything I can do to draw a bit more attention to them is worth it. If only one person consistently read the digest I'd be happy, but I'm pretty confident the numbers are significantly higher then that. And that my friends, is a glorious victory!

Also I get a lot of mileage out of meta or popular threads when someone says there's never any answers. Being able to whip out a collection of hundreds of answers feels sweet.

I just enjoy my subject area. My work is as a researcher in a research-heavy university linguistics department, but a lot of the many years of education in historical linguistics and the historical situation of languages of East Asia doesn't get much use in that role. Answering stuff here let's me engage with that and with someone who's asking in good faith and has real interest. Plus it keeps the knowledge current, and keeps me up on the latest literature on those topics, both of which are good.

There are a few reasons I do it.

One, I have a million research interests. Only one of them became my current PhD topic, and it was really hard to choose. I'm constantly reading about things that interest me outside of my "official" research topic. So when I see a question on one of those, I think, "Hey, I get to write about this!" I love telling people about what I'm reading, so when someone actually ASKS, that's a whole nother level of incentive.

Two, I'm chronically ill. There are a lot of times when I have no energy to do much other than scroll through Reddit. When I can spend some of that time doing a no-pressure AH answer on a topic I enjoy reading and writing about, that is so much more rewarding than deep-diving r/AskReddit or r/AmItheAsshole. I mean hey, sometimes even AH is too much and those sites are good for those times, but I love being able to spend that time helping someone else and distracting myself with a fun research question.

Three, I care a lot about correcting misconceptions and expanding people's perception of history. There is SO much that goes untaught or taught incorrectly - certainly in the US and UK systems with which I'm most familiar, but really in all countries' educational systems. So I love getting to share information about people and places that might not normally pop up on someone's radar, since a lot of people's understanding of history is based on what they got in school and the few topics that historical fiction does over and over again. I've done professional work in public engagement with research so at the end of the day, it's just something I'm really passionate about.

I joined Reddit in order to answer and ask questions on this sub. Sometimes it can be annoying, but most of the time it's really fun.

I'm a professional (i.e. academic) historian and while I don't have the time/energy to be a "top commenter" when I do respond to a question it's either because I'm curious about the answer or it's something I already know. Responding in the sub isn't much different from teaching for me, so if a student asked me "Was there really cocaine in Coke a hundred years ago?" I'd probably answer in a similar way to what I would here. Though probably with fewer footnotes.

I don't care about the karma. Many of the responses I've posted on Reddit requiring the most effort were outside /r/askhistorians and were so far down in a thread they only got one or two upvotes. I don't care about the points but do enjoy engaging people. I skip over about 90% of the alerts I get from AH simply because I don't have the time to respond...at least during the academic year I'm too busy reading student work and managing my classes to do much else.

As ever, writing this with reference to what u/Georgy_K_Zhukov already said, but as someone who does work as a historian professionally (to a given value of 'professional', at least), for me there is an element of duty and purpose to it. I have spent a significant chunk of my life being trained and building my own knowledge of history. I didn't do it so I could be a history dragon sitting on top of a (fairly meagre compared to some users tbf) hoard of knowledge, but rather because I think building and sharing knowledge is important. AskHistorians is the best platform for this kind of public history I've ever found, particularly as it doesn't involve either a long career full of distinctions or the right connections to access, like most such platforms. So I'm willing to invest time not only in answering questions (which I do less of these days), but also in trying to shape and improve the platform itself, because it's achieving the goals I thought were important when I became a historian.

I could easily echo several other people's answers—passion for history, love to teach people new things, don't care for karma, yadda yadda—because there's truth to that, but I figure I'll add a couple personal and kinda more out-there reasons, both as a FAQ Finder/Digester and as someone who writes answers about both Greek theatre and invented languages (though not flaired in either category, obviously):

• Writing answers is oddly intoxicating. I've lurked this subreddit for seven years, only very occasionally posting questions or asking follow-ups, and never became an answerer (well, except for that one April Fools several years ago) until a couple summers ago when I saw a question about Greek theatre and thought Wait, I actually know that one! because I had taken theatre history the previous year. I've learned a lot more about the subject since writing that answer—honestly, you can probably track the evolution of my Greek theatre knowledge just by reading my AH answers in chronological order—but it was pretty well-received, and getting a couple shoutouts on the Sunday Digest was an unexpected but welcome surprise. I became hooked: I needed more of that joy. So I kinda just kept going. It's just fun!
• Conlangs are again a pretty obscure and random field in history—most people don't even really think of it as a historical subject in the first place—so this topic in particular, I love getting the chance to teach people about it. There've been a few really good questions in just the last month regarding repression of Esperantists, which got me really excited because Holy cow, people are actually wondering about this! when at first glance, it's hard to imagine that governments would even care about people speaking a made-up language. But they did, and it's awesome getting to showcase a slice of history that is often never thought about. It's not necessarily important, the way it is to understand a lot of more mainstream political issues, but it's cool.
• A lot of my Greek theatre knowledge (after expanding on what I learned in the two weeks of class that covered that period) was research for a play last year that never got to be performed because covid. While I did get to share that research with the cast and crew, I never got to put together and display a presentation for the audiences. I like to believe this is a good alternative usage of that research.
• Honestly, I'm just kinda bored. Life has been pretty stagnant since the pandemic started, so writing answers or hunting down old ones when I have the energy is just something to do.
• My brain is just kinda floating with information that I want to share with people but otherwise don't have a reasonable outlet without being that guy to my friends. If people want to learn something about plays or language, and I want to tell people about these topics, I just see this as a win-win situation. I don't know much about history beyond the basics they teach in high school (really need to work on that), but the obscure stuff I've tried to learn (when I perhaps could've been learning more useful things) is still stuff that other people are curious about, and it's really cool being a resource for that.
• FAQ finding in particular: I just like helping people. Kinda simple as that.
• Digest: Others have waded into this fact in their responses here, but there is something special about AskHistorians where the questions can be very unique, addressing things that you just can't figure out as easily just by reading a textbook or asking your teacher in class or scanning through Wikipedia. Not just because they address complex topics, but because often mainstream discourse doesn't focus on it; the answer often lies in obscure passages of obscure primary and secondary sources and never sees the light of day. While there are a lot of questions on here that deal with topics that expand on what we (particularly Americans) learn in high school, there's a lot of really cool variety on this subreddit, and I try to honor that every week.

(As per usual, this wound up longer than it should've.)

I have one very specific specialty, that is so weird and general obscure in the English speaking world (left-wing German terrorism of the 1970s), and has more than it's share of misinformation surrounding the subject; I feel duty-bound to offer some factual analysis. At a certain point, however, my responses end up being "check out this response I wrote here four years ago." I think we may be running out of questions about the subject... : )

One of the great joys is when legit masterly contributors like /u/commiespaceinvader takes the time to praise your post, even though its got like 7 upvotes. I always consider that like a mega-upvote worth 1000.

I'm not sure I qualifiy as a top commenter but hey, who knows ?

Feeling that I can help people. I'm very curious myself and I love when I can find the answer to something I have asked myslef for ages. I love helping people when I can.

Talking about a passion too. That's not always easy to find people willing to hear you talk about the military and the nobility of France and Burgundy in the early XVth century. And you generally have drowned them in unsollicited funfacts and lessons already.

It is also quite validating. I kinda lack confidence and seeing people praising what ou wrote really is a good moral boost. It's the little things, like having your name pop up in the sunday digest !

As for the karma, I don't really care. Sure, seing the little numbers go up is good for the confidence too, but I know that this is a "little audience" sub and that's not my main goal.

Two main reasons, one personal and one more altruistic...

First, like Zhukov I love history, but it isn't my profession. Writing answers here helps me use another part of my brain, and gives me a creative outlet for writing good, popular history. I need that mental challenge to stay sharp, and frankly, sane in the midst of this wild life.

Second, understanding of Native American history in the U.S. is abysmal. I love writing material that shatters one dimensional myths and helps novices learn something new and complex and challenging about the Americas. There are so many great stories waiting to be told to a larger audience, great authors doing amazing work but whose books don't end up on top ten lists or in the chain bookstores. This hidden shared history informs our present world, and helps us understand how we got here, and a popular outlet like r/AskHistorians is the best way to bring the knowledge mainstream.

I haven't really answered many questions here, but I always enjoy writing them when I do. History is my passion, as well as my vocation: I'm currently a doctoral student in ancient history, and answering questions here is a nice outlet that keeps me well-practiced (so to speak). It sort of works as small, bite-sized practice pieces for the thesis, and keeps me from losing my edge when it comes to writing about history!

Not to mention, the questions I answer tend to be within the realms of my overall thesis, but slightly different (be it in terms of time or geography), and it's a nice break from reading countless articles and letters about late antiquity to be able to do a little research into a different subject. As much as I love my research project, it's nice to have a break and look at something else.

I write because I care.

I find public history a fascinating topic and it's incredibly important. Not just in terms of sparking an interest in history (though that never hurts) but by offering some more insight and background. Public history is the sort of history offered by museums, for example — brief background sketches that offer some context and sketch out a bit of what's going on.

Colonial Williamsburg, Plimouth Plantation, both of those are public history. Putting up plaques that are actually verified (no, Leif Erikson did not, in fact, build a house in Cambridge, Massachusetts on Mount Auburn Street) is public history.

It's showing how known history both affected our ancestors — how they lived, what they ate, how they worked, what they wore — and its intersections with us now — how do we dress differently, and why? What kind of food did they eat, and did it give them nutritional deficiencies? What sort of construction techniques did they have? And so on.

It's true that many of the history questions here (including some of my own questions in the past) tend towards either pop(ular) history or esoteric "hey why this one weird thing", but … that's how people learn.

I'm nearly forty years old, took an undergraduate degree in history, but … my discipline informs relatively little of what I write here, and I've never worked professionally as an historian. Sure, if someone wants to hear about comparative colonialism in the 17th and 18th century on the North American continent, I'm down to clown, but lots of other questions are written that I've answered.

Moreover, I learn a lot here, some of which informs my interests, some of which becomes, "huh, cool, did not realise that!"

Karma is always nice — seeing that lots of people liked your answer is always nice! — but I appreciate even more when the mods allow an answer of mine to stand. (Which I say happens about 85% or so of the time. Occasionally, I don't cite enough or don't offer enough nuance.)

The moderators here are the real heroes. Because of their tireless, slogging work, you can trust what stays here. If it's interesting and if it's factual, it stays. If it's vague or useless or a summary of Wikipedia, it goes. In essence, the mods have both the public trust (they have a good reputation among users of this subreddit and others, they're known to police heavily, they are themselves prolific and thoughtful contributors) and trust you. The moderators believe that you already know how to Google. That you can check Wikipedia. That you posted here because you have questions that can't be solved quickly.

Many people post because they've read a popular history book (anything by Stephen Ambrose, Jared Diamond, etc.) and have background questions, or because they've read a historical novel or seen a historical movie or television program and have questions such as, for example, "wait, was Queen Charlotte really Black as they showed her in Bridgerton?"

If you're curious, she had ties to the more ethnically diverse Portuguese royal family, who had intermarried with nobles of el-Andalus, but that isn't saying much, as so did most of the European royal families. This claim is more of an alternate-history thing, though it's also a point of controversy with some historians looking at her contemporary portraits and some contemporary reports … but it's definitely very far from a mainstream accepted position.

Regardless, that's the sort of thing that we can answer, do answer, and if you search the archive rather than waiting at the mercy of someone to have the time and expertise to answer, we most likely have answered.

TL;DR: my motivation is doing a fair presentation of a historical question's answers as far as they are known — karma is merely a bonus, but always nice.

I'm definitely not a "top commenter", but I do fit the "10-20 karma points" on most things I write. I write about legal history, which tends to be quite niche (both questions and answers).

What I enjoy is a mix of four things, neither of which are much related to the amount of upvotes:

1. A question is a push or a prompt to research or write about something, which is at least semi-productive. Answering a specific question can, in my experience, make it easier to just sit down and focus.
2. The questions sometimes come from angles or perspectives, or ask about things I haven't considered. This can be both useful, funny or interesting. Again, answering a question can in that sense be more rewarding than reading on your own.
3. Not being a history major (Law and Polsci), Askhistorians in total gives me a reason and an excuse to value the history in my own fields, and spend more time on that. I like cross-field work, and I think history does improve my perspectives on the fields also outside of history.
4. I enjoy and used the site before I answered questions, and that fact is definitely a motivation for answering questions as well. It's enjoyable to "give back" or get recognition from people whose answers you enjoyed, and you do feel like you both teach and learn from others (though, mostly the latter).

This isn't to say that upvotes don't matter. Upvotes can at least signify that what you wrote was readable or well written, and enjoyable. It can be demotivating if something get's no response at all, even from the person asking the question. But as long as you some response signifying that the person asking (or others) found it useful, so your answer achieved what you wanted, I don't think upvotes changes my enjoyment much. The answers I enjoyed and look back on the most weren't my most popular.

I don't comment much but I wait for the heavy metal questions. That's all I wanna do anymore. I lurk and read everything else unless it's either turn of the century South African history or maybe post Cold War politics, and even then that's a big maybe. I like writing the answer more than I like the karma. Knowledge > internet points

OP, this is a great question! And totally not because it's one I asked for my PhD dissertation and was the question that took me from lurker to mod (eventually)! If you want to read what I found, the details are in Chapter 5 of the PDF linked here. That's pretty long and super dry because it's my actual dissertation, but I also wrote a summary of the most relevant finding here.

As a committed member of the <10 karma club, I'm really not sure I can be considered a "top commenter".

But generally there are two circumstances where I answer a question. Either it is something I find interesting, so taking the time to look up some examples or brush up on some relevant literature is as much for me as it is for you. Otherwise, and I'm confident I'm not the only one here, I will end up fixating on some point about a question/thread (be it out of interest or more often annoyance about popular treatment of a subject), and so looking some stuff up and writing it out is frequently the best way to be able to get on with my life in general.

I am not a top person because I don't have enough time to reply as often as I want but for me its about sharing the joy of history. There are so many fascinating things out there and when someone asks a good question and I can answer it I do so. To encourage their curiosity, to educate, and to have fun. It's fun for me to a point. People should be allowed to ask these things and should be encouraged to do so. There's tons of people who have nit had the educational opportunities I had so they're not necessarily able to access the tools to answer these questions also.

If many people like my post, I am happy.

However, I am answering a single person’s question. If I can do that, it also makes me happy.

A long time ago I decided that I liked the description of the scholar in Canterbury Tales, “And gladly wolde he lerne and gladly techie.”

It seems like a nice way to live, and I try to where I can. Plus, “aut Cesare, aut nihil” only works in so many places.

I've only ever posted one actual answer to a question from this subreddit. I spent, like, a whole day on it I think. I did so because I viewed it as an opportunity to apply the knowledge I'd gained from a military history class I took as an elective in college. Given the thread topic, I figured there was a deeper cultural and political answer that could be provided that expanded on what would be the more standard answer on American unpreparedness for World War I. Often times, those answers are more focused on the more immediate reasons for unpreparedness rather than, I think, providing a more holistic answer that takes into account the fundamental relationship the average American had with the military at the time.

Apparently, it was a good enough answer to be included in the weekly roundup. That was very flattering because I certainly wasn't expecting it.

So, I'm not a top poster by any means, but that was my reason for spending so much time on answering that poster's question. I wanted to utilize the stuff I learned in both that class and in my own spare time.

What I get is very personal. Not only do I get to engage in my love for history and specifically the history of my people and fellow Indigenous Peoples, but I get to help in the vindication of existence and correct the narratives that plague us to this day. Engaging in historical work has very real effects for my community. American Indians are seen as objects by mainstream America and we're often robbed of our agency to tell our own stories, to retell history from our perspectives. To have a public platform such as /r/AskHistorians, the opportunity to speak with the possibility of gaining recognition and changing people's minds, to educate them...it actually impacts my world. Even if only one person sees it, that is one more person who won't deny the genocide of my ancestors. That is one more person who won't vote for legislation that will erode Tribal sovereignty. That is one more person who will acknowledge my existence as a person. That is my motivation.

I'm not flaired, and I am certainly not a Historian, but I have a Magpie mind and I collect lots and lots of eclectic bits and pieces of knowledge, some of which is even factual. Cliff Clavin if you will. Once or twice over the years, there has been a question that I can actually answer, and I have the citations to back up my assertions AND, and this is the big pay off for me at least:

My comment didn't get deleted.

Whatever upvotes or discussion I could have from that point on... pure gravy. The mods did not give me the thumbs down and execute my tiny little nugget of knowledge whose faint ember I kept barely alive in my mind until such time as I could breath life into it here in this forum... that it might blossom into brilliant flame for a brief second, casting its tiny light on the vast panoply that is history. Or something like that.

Karma is irrelevant, I don't even understand it and definitely do not go looking for it. I see reddit as a place to exchange information, not a game where you can score points.

If someone asks me a question and I know the answer then I am happy to do what I can to spread knowledge. A "Thanks" from the questioner is reward enough.

This is just a random aside. I am a history student, almost finishing my second year- I have done modules on everything from WW1 and WW2 to German history, Asian history and medical history. Currently I am doing essays on the Atlantic world- America from 1492- so Columbus discovery of America up until 1765, German history and a module called Image wars in Asia history. For reference, I’m a second year at Aberystwyth University and am loving history. I am thinking of becoming a history teacher. Was just a stand alone comment that I love this sub.

It's funny, I wrote an answer three years ago in response to the question 'Before electricity was understood, how was static electricity explained?'. 9 upvotes! I edited the answer a little and reposted it in response to a similar question here a few months later. 8 upvotes!

Seen from the perspective of effort per upvote, you'd think that this a waste of time (though of course, like others, sometimes I'm curious and want to find things out, and so reading through some stuff and writing about it can be fun, and I do touch on ancient people and how they saw the world in lectures in my work every so often - so I'm not doing it solely for the upvotes.

However! While those particular questions didn't get highly upvoted, people asked similar questions 1 month ago, 1 month ago, 2 months ago, 3 months ago, 3 months ago (somehow /u/DanKensington and the other FAQ finders missed linking the previous answer that time...or just were really really bored reposting the link to my ye olde answer), 3 months ago, 3 months ago, 4 months ago, and again 4 months ago and...well, I'll stop there, but you get the picture.

People keeping asking about static electricity on /r/AskHistorians! I'm a bit baffled as to why this particular question keeps coming up, but it does. I guess it's just a kind of natural thing to experience static electricity and then realise that our understanding of electricity must be relatively new, and to wonder what people thought it was before that.

So, ultimately, you can play the long game with upvotes here. While those original answers might have only got 8 or 9 upvotes, it seems pretty likely that those original posts from a few years back have been seen by thousands of people over the last few years, as people keep asking the question! And then of course, finally, one of those questions got about 4000 upvotes about 9 months ago, and then I got around 1000 upvotes simply for reposting my previous answer.

Not all questions are the static electricity question, in terms of people continuously asking about it, but if you keep a good database of your answers, an answer might get 2 upvotes the first time, but someone might ask it 2 years later, and your repost of your old answer might go gangbusters. That's the weird algorithmic/random nature of what ends up in peoples' front pages to be upvoted, I guess!

Stupid things written on the internet make me angry, and I feel that if enough people counteract that by writing intelligent things eventually balance can be brought to the internet.

For me it's an opportunity to practice some research and writing on subjects I'm interested in. A lot more helpful for college too and relevant to my major when you're reading academic texts instead of wikipedia pages.

I'm not going to lie sometimes when a post blows up it's nice to get a lot of upvotes and thank yous, but I try not to focus on that aspect too much. Nonetheless it is courteous for a question asker to provide a thank you after someone has spent a couple hours on a composition, that's something you don't get as often as you'd think.

Hi, thanks for the great Meta-question as well as the compliments for my colleagues and the amazing volunteer mods on this subreddit.

For me, there is a short and a long answer, but they both revolve around "love," at least as Thomas Aquinas defined it (basically, the love that promotes goodness and wisdom for the benefit of others).

Short: I love history and I love the chance to tackle a topic I am interested in or passionate about. I studied a lot to get my degrees and sacrificed even more (missing social events, being occasionally absent from my child/spouse's life, missing out on "fun" stuff, etc.) because I felt a calling to understand and to unlock mysteries, engage in debate, and to learn. In many ways, answering on here is an extension of that. My sacrifice for the love of history is paid back by my love of talking (writing) about history. Plus, it gives me an opportunity to learn more!

Long: History, both as a subject and its contents, is really, really needed in this era of digital information. When I began my studies, I never knew that the sum of human knowledge would be at one's fingertips at a moment's notice. And now that we are here, I worry for us. That's because all of that information, in and of itself, is unmoored from context and adrift in a sea of misinformation, misinterpretation, and myth-making. And that scares me. I love my country and I have loved living in several other countries around the world. But we are at a juncture where I truly, absolutely fear for the future.

To be fair, it is not the overhanging dread of mutually-assured destruction that I grew up with during the end of the Cold War; we are probably not teetering on the edge of a nuclear holocaust (yet). But it is a dread that a new weapon of mass (intellectual) destruction has emerged and twists history into soundbites bereft of context or at least poorly contextualized.

Instead, we face a worse future, IMO. We are awash in waves of anti-Democracy, anti-intellectualism, and blatant misinformation on a scale and on fronts that never before existed. A good example is the so-called "flat earthers" who believe in a conspiracy so ridiculous, so nonsensical, so anti-historical that it was used as wholly-untrue propaganda by Washington Irving to mock the alleged "ignorance" engendered by Catholic teachings and embellish an already fascinating story. In other words, Irving was making a "Catholics are so dumb..." joke and now idiots are putting up YouTube videos literally demonstrating the Dunning-Kruger effect in real time!

Such conspiracy thinking has been around for quite some time, sure, but only recently gained traction. Why? IMO, a confluence of anti-intellectualism, anti-academicism, and the profitability of sensationalist lies. Sure, Yellow Journalism has been around since newspaper took off, but social media (and certain opportunistic pundits and politicians who use these lies to advance their own interests by echoing these lies, thus legitimizing them) has made stupidity and fantastical nonsense pervasive in every person's online and offline journey.

With the erosion of the basic foundations of truth (such as the earth is round, the moon landing is real, and vaccines work) you make it possible for Authoritarian-minded Neo-fascists to thrive. The world is complex, and its problems and histories are complex, and they demand nuanced thinking as well as reflection. In a world where such demands are made in the midst of a flood of bad actors peddling bad (or at least problematic answers), the group or person that says "I have the answer and it is simple" becomes very attractive. When people hear things they dont like, which challenges their world view, or that makes them uncomfortable, they are faced with confronting thorny, difficult problems or just believing the simple falsehood that absolves them of guilt and reflection. It's very appealing. And it doesn't help that Historians rarely speak in simple, straight lines (at least, not the good ones)

That's where my love comes in again: I love my country and I want to see it healthy and well-educated, so I answer here to feed that impulse as I answer you, our earnest and eager students. The hope is that you can forward that healthy, educated response and assist in some way to stem the tide of lies. I love those other countries too and I want to see their contributions recognized. Moreover, I want to not see them maligned simply for their religious, economic, or political beliefs by my country. I want us (All of us) to see the beautiful mosaic that is the world and history, not just the single color of simple views and interpretation.

When we academics stand up for history, even though it only nets is 1, 2, or 5 imaginary internet points, we are shoring up the eroding underpinnings of human society. That's not to say we don't care about our audience; that's not true because we care deeply. It's because none of us got into History for selfish reasons; very few people become "rich" or famous as historians which makes Reddit upvotes even less important.

Means I get to add "professional good-post-writer" to my CV.
Also, I got a mug once.

I do it anyways for my show, so it's not out of the way.

This has been a very interesting thread! Me, I spent 9 years in grad school, got my PhD in history, and then decided not to go into academia. In fact, my current profession (project manager) has absolutely nothing to do with history. I still do historical recreation/reenactment and practice a few hands-on skills, and there’s certainly also translating random things (like mottos) into Latin, so I haven’t completely left the field. But I realized when I started following this sub that there were questions I could answer. People were actually asking about manuscripts, theology, medieval clothing, and medieval daily life, and I had information to share! Sure, most of them got maybe 10 karma if I were lucky, but that wasn’t the point—it was exercising that historical muscle again.
And then I had a post just blow up and go over 4.2K. Not only was that completely unexpected, it was the pick-me-up I needed to tell me yes, I’m still a historian. And that felt really nice when I had log into work the next day and spend hours staring at spreadsheets. The other thing? Reading the questions others answer, and the fascinating stuff that turns up. If you’re like me, you have the ability to get sucked into historical rabbit holes from a wide variety of eras. (I’m just waiting for the day when a question comes up in a couple of niche fields where I’ve done a ton of research beyond my main expertise—but they haven’t come up yet, so for now I’m enjoying reading other completely fascinating niche field answers.)

This is probably the wrong place to make this suggestion, but I really wish that there where more "Ask..." subs that followed the same rules.

I would love to be able to just ask a question about spark plugs/dentistry/cooking, and know that the answers were properly vetted/moderated/not written by a random internet nazi with an axe to grind.

Why, for the great adventure of it all of course!

Disclaimer: I am very much not a "top commenter" of AH, and the vast majority of my responses on here fit within the 10-20 Karma range, and I suspect some of it comes from how intimidatingly long and "prose-heavy' some of my responses can be. In true spirit to myself, this response will also be prose heavy (though hopefully not that long).

As an analogy, I think this painting by Caspar David Friedrich best paints (pun intended) what I get out of weighing in on questions here on the sub. The work, titled Wanderer above the Sea of Fog, is a great way to explain the process and benefits of my spending hours to answer a single question on AskHistorians.

Let us first consider a more literal interpretation of this artwork, that of an explorer staring out into the great unknown of a new world. Historians are in many ways, also able to take on other professions within the course of their work. Much the same way explorers such as Columbus, De Gama and Captain Cook “discovered” pre-existing landmasses or geographical features for the interests of their nations, historians have always been discovering untold stories of the past and bringing them to light in works for the general public. Admittedly the historian nowadays hardly receives the amount of recognition for including their discoveries as the explorers of bygone centuries have, but at least our discoveries did not precipitate the exploitation of newfound territories and their populaces

As someone who, like the legions of other flairs and AH contributors have no doubt already asserted at some point or another, loves history, there is a great sense of fulfillment when it comes to answering a question on here. In many ways, when I first read a question I enter the persona of Friedrich's wanderer. Looking out over the hills, valleys, and plains of the past, scanning the landscape for any particularly interesting ideas, concepts, or threads of historiography to explore further. I usually have ideas of where to look, which maps to consult, and perhaps a guide or two to follow. The end result however, is always a exciting discovery in and of itself.

When I research for a response to a question, I uncover wholly new strands of historical writing I would otherwise not have touched upon. I read the words of historians who have come before, in the hopes of inspiring historians who will come afterwards (myself included). Above all else, I take great joy in knowing that by spending those 1-3 hours researching and writing like I have no other commitments (schoolwork? That can wait), I am helping one individual on the internet learn a tad bit more about the curious, tragic, and interesting past of our human race.

To many of my peers this seems most odd. "What good is learning about history?" They ask me with a great deal of skepticism. What use is knowing of where we have come from in creating the world where we are going? A pertinent question, and one I do not think I shall be able to conclusively answer right now, but in the study of history I find the lessons, circumstances, and contexts which may very well help to explain the world in which we live today. I, like so many of us here, are devoted wanderers of an infinite realm, seeking the details which shall help shed some light on matters for all who wish to listen. I might argue (in a more philosophical sense), than I have never once "answered" something on AH, but I have merely helped illuminate one of a multitude of possible answers, approaches, or considerations in thinking about an aspect of history. It is also a side benefit that, by writing on AH and teaching others what I have been able to read and synthesise, that I learn myself the stuff which I writeup in comments on this sub.

It is also reassuring to me, that I am not alone in this quest for knowledge and understanding. Let us return for a final time to Friedrich's work, with its sole wanderer perched above the sea of fog. This is one of the few areas where some correction is required. I am never alone in my research and responding on AH. I (like every other flair and AH contributor) am accompanied not only by the long deceased voices of the past, but also by the works of other historians who have climbed the very same vantage point to view a very similar landscape. In each of my responses, I am echoing what I have seen from the vast landscape of historiography on the topic, perched on a viewpoint made of all the previous written historiographical works I chose to investigate even prior to typing my signature "Greetings". I am also, throughout my entire AH contributing journey, aspiring to reach the levels of expertise, engagement, and detail in comments which many of the far more experienced flairs writeup.

If Newton and his fellow scientists have seen further standing on the shoulders of giants, then here on AH, we have seen more standing on the shoulders of the past. Much the same way mathematical proofs or works can be in response to past conundrums or suggestions, historical writing (including AH as a subreddit and forum) builds upon the works of the past in conjunction with the past itself. Isaac Newton may have seen further forwards by standing on the shoulders of giants, but for us students of history it is constant conversation with those giants that can allow us to see further and clearer back into the past.

So, what does all this ridiculously poetic and flowery prose mean (hope you enjoyed it by the way!)? Quite simply: my motivation on writing the responses I do an AH stems from my sheer passion for learning, teaching, and communicating all that I can write of (in a given timeframe) about history. What I get in return, besides the insignificant 10-20 Karma (50+ if I'm lucky!), is the satisfaction that I have helped to provide a bit of information to another soul, and perhaps lay the seeds (or light the spark) for their own historical research and writing.

What I also get, and the end result which is by far the most gratifying, is an enhancement of my own understanding of where various elements of our modern world have come from, and a glimpse at the countless historical narratives which are lying untold, hidden in that sea of fog, waiting for a wanderer to dispel the mists and bring it to light. That this sub provides an excellent place to do so, gives me hope for the future.

How frequently do people use sock puppet accounts to ask a question they feel like answering with their main account?

https://time.com/5043166/storytelling-evolution/

To share stories/knowledge is what we humans do.

I am not a historian, but I spend an unnatural amount of time on this sub.

All I can say is, if the "top commenters" on this sub get even half the satisfaction from writing their answers, that I do from reading them, then their time is well spent.

I know this just sounds like grovelling hero worship, but in a world where people seem to have decided that belief>reality, this place is one of the few oases of rationality left.

This whole thread is just the most wholesome shit ever. Blessed subreddit. Thanks historians!

You can get karma points?

Not a top commentator, I am an amateur who loves the era in my flair. Like others, I was worried about trying my hand here, I have an (as far as I know) good reputation among the amateur three kingdom communities I have come across but I have no history educational background or a background in education or academia and one sees the high standards here, it can be intimidating. It took me a few goes before I got my posts up to the standards required for here but I was proud when I did. Meeting AH standards required me to work at it, to do better and I have benefited from it.

So if you know the answer but feel intimidated, just give it a go. Worse that can happen? It gets deleted. Which is not pleasant but you can work out what you need to do better (and talk with the moderators), improve yourself (which never hurts) and soon spread your knowledge to make the world just that bit more knowledgeable about its past.

If a good question comes up, the time flies by I type up a response as I'm pulled along by my own interest and double-checking the texts means I can find something new (a recent question about the perception of the Nanman meant reading about Li Jing's comments about the Yunan people which I had either overlooked before or just completely forgot). I might not discover something new with each question, some may well be covering ground familiar to me but not to the questioner, but I enjoy the moment of writing and flicking through the pages/pdf files, throwing myself into it and typing like mad. If I don't learn something new at that time, it will at least sharpen my thinking and deepen my understanding of that part of the era.

In terms of method, I usually have an outline in my head soon after knowing the question and which books I will likely need to consult. I will then begin typing and typing and typing, checking with the texts as I go (with the odd "now to redo it"), after I'm done typing I'll double-check with the texts and redo. Often I'll rework partway through as more ideas come to mind or I discover something or make it a better, fuller answer.

I get a sense of pride from a work I consider well done (though the ones I might be proud of are not always the ones that will be the ones that catch with others) and that I feel that even if it only answers one person and is ignored, that I have done something of worth that day. I hope that the information will help provide a fresh perspective (like attitudes towards eunuchs) or at least some clarity and an era where there is a lot of falsehoods (the novel is far more popular than the history, add the backlash to the novel on top of that) and misunderstandings will just become a little more clearer in one corner of the internet. I also hope it will encourage people to learn more about, even if not that era, history and to ask more questions.

Plenty of my posts here won't get double figures in karma then another will really catch fire, partly perhaps the period I cover, partly it can take me a few days to craft a response and perhaps my communication is not the best. It certainly isn't great if one barely reaches five I'll admit but it will have hopefully meant something to somebody and another day, an answer will find an audience. A thank you means a lot and is always really appreciated while I am delighted any time I reach Sunday Digest.

I can only answer for myself, but I participate because I’m a teacher and it’s almost a compulsion to answer questions. I always take the assumption that whoever is asking deserves a truthful and accurate answer. To add on to this, I’m working on a Master’s degree in American History, and sometimes a question falls within the scope of what I’m currently learning or researching, and the research is quickly to hand, making it a relatively easy lift to answer. Sometimes it opens up an Avenue of research I had never thought of, and it improves my scholarship. I view it as a win-win! That being said, I work hard to ensure I only answer questions I feel that I can answer authoritatively.

I haven't done it in a while but every time I've contributed answers it's been because I miss teaching. Not sure how many other folks who've left academia feel this way but I frequently will just have an idea for a lesson plan pop into my head, or a coworker or friend might say something that basically lights a spark under a bunch of dry kindling if knowledge that hasn't had an outlet in a while and twenty minutes later I'm wrapping up talking about the battle of the Granicus River because my friend lives near a bridge.

I saw this when I woke up, thought to myself 'ooh I have thoughts', and then read /u/Georgy_K_Zhukov's post and am now terrified of the possibility that we're alternate aspects of the same person.

Believe it or not, not everyone is on Reddit for the karma.

Not a top commentator (I've only answered I think one question way back when) but I can say I did it for the love of sorting out the answer to the puzzle and sharing the answer.

It is just sharing history to people who wants to know, it is simple as that at least for me. Granted I still haven't contributed to this sub since I typically don't use reddit when I got enough time to write an elaborate and sourced answer..

I retain the knowledge I have much better if I occasionally use it. Also by giving an in-depth answer, I may have to do a bit of research to fill in blanks spots. Further learning something I may find interesting.

I simply enjoy learning new things and occasional using that knowledge helps me keep it fresh in my brain. Use it or lose it.

Upvotes are worthless, sharing information is priceless.

I've only contributed a few answers, so this is obviously less relevant, but my primary motivation is that I don't get a chance to talk about these things in real life. I'm a professional costume designer, which means I do a lot of on what people wore and why for every era/location/social class involved for each show I do. Unfortunately, very few people give a shit. Actors don't care about how lightweight single-layer corsets could have boning woven directly into the fabric using specialized looms; they care about being able to comfortably do their jobs. Directors don't care about Elizabethan sumptuary laws and prices that helped fuel a boom in redwork and blackwork embroidery. And no one, no one gives a shit about the fact that lining garments is a modern trend, or that late 17th century French mantuas were essentially two massive pieces of fabric that were non-permanently tacked together strategically to avoid cutting the expensive fabric but would still allow the wearer to keep changing the style of her mantua at a French court that used sartorial conspicuous consumption as a key political tool.

I happily study types of aprons and the industry of buttonmaking, just to put a few extra details in a show that make me extremely happy. Maybe one or two people in the audience will notice the thread buttons on a linen shirt. Maybe an actor will be so thrilled about her ability to move in a corset boned with zip ties (heavy-duty zip ties behave much more like baleen/whalebone than expensive metal boning, they're lighter, you can sew through them, you can create an incredibly curvaceous corset because they mold when heated, and they eat up much less of my limited budgets) that she'll mention it in a talkback. But for the most part, the only payoff for all this work is that I can feel proud of what I've done. Even costume design awards and reviews are pretty meaningless. Reviewers don't write much beyond "here's half an article summarizing the story, these actors were good, the show was pretty". Awards focus on overall impressiveness, and while in my area they show favoritism to designers who don't have a massive budget and the biggest costume shop of employees (which is nice), the judges are there to judge the whole show and don't have the time/inclination to notice that the absurd dandy in this Regency show has a stiffly interfaced stock designed to look like the possibly satirical Oriental tie, with shirt-points almost as high as his ears and (knit!) pantaloons so tight they look sprayed on, while more down-to-earth characters wear clothes that look easy to move in.

In real life, it's extremely rare to find people who want me to geek out about this. Here, people actually want to hear this, and sometimes, as in this situation, people offer me an excuse to spout all this stuff and it just comes pouring out, much like vomit from a cat who has just eaten much too fast.

On that note, if you made it this far, thank you for humoring me, and I'm going to go clean up cat throwups.

I think it's good practice for me in two ways: it tests what I know as a matter of committed, in-use expertise and it forces me to communicate it clearly and responsively to a questioner without some of the endless qualifying phrases we often use within scholarship.

I also just find the range of questions asked on here endlessly interesting, both the frequent repeats and the oddball exceptions.

I wouldn't call myself a top commentator, but I have discovered writing answers to be a lot of fun. For a few years, I was a silent spectator who was much too afraid to answer. It wasn't until after the AskHistorians conference last year that I realized how much fun it was to actually answer other people's questions. It has also allowed me to stay in touch and forge new connections with like-minded people in a time when meeting people is almost impossible due to a pandemic.

Is it any different to be a teacher?

A big aspect I think is that people can't really express these things at length in person during casual conversation. Especially in the Covid times.

I, too, am a writer. I don't write history stuff per se. But I free style write a lot. I agree with the other commentor about doing so for the sheer love of writing. And it is practice to write free style for others. Whatever that topic may be. For me, I write because if I didn't I would have to live with all these words in my head by myself haha. I need to get it out. I am a thinker. I need to clear space for more thoughts, so I write. Some of my best writing has been impromptu thoughts on the internet. I can't speak for historians but I can speak as a writer.

Not everyone is an attention/karmawhore. People have interests.

OP, you are under the completely wrong impression that people are motivated for karma.

I truly appreciate each and every answer I read on the sub, and in future I will make sure I upvote every one I read.

Why spend hours researching and answering the question when 99% of /r/AskHistorians posts end up being [removed]?