Can someone point me to a sub where historians' and "history buff's" answers actually stick around long enough for me to read them?

Compare a typical post here versus one on r/history or r/askhistory sometime and then consider the results. Yeah, sure, you get more to read from either of them. But would you trust any of those responses? Would you learn anything from them? Would they provide you with reading material on request?

The whole reason we have all the rules and why we [delete] a large amount of stuff is because we don't want to be like r/AskReddit where the post outright asks "Doctors of Reddit" and then the replies are all "Not a doctor but" sort of thing. We want to cultivate an environment where experts actively want to contribute and not feel like they're wasting their time. We don't want to be yet another place where the hot meme of the day gets all the upvotes, which it inevitably does in other subreddits with loose moderation.

Moreover, history is one of those fields with a lot of Popular Myth floating around - ask me about my flair topic sometime. In our topic, this creates the massive risk where something popular gets upvoted because it got in early and because it agrees with what people think is true, without reference to whether it really is true. Where does this leave the scholar who spent hours upon hours, if not days, to properly research their contribution, only to receive a paltry six upvotes because some arse making the latest joke about "lol asians amirite" got a thousand?

The vast majority of things we remove are nowhere near even 'answering the question'. They're one-sentence attempts that don't even touch on the topic, they're anecdotal stuff from the University of This Bloke In The Pub Said, they're the top hits of a Google search on the topic, they're low-effort crap that you would not learn a single solitary thing from. Which is not yet getting into the racist, bigoted, hateful crap that we have to remove every day, because this is Reddit, hellpit of hellpits, whose proper treatment is sterilisation via orbital bombardment. Do tell me, exactly what is the purpose of leaving up the latest bile spewed by Racist Redditor #459585? Do you think people want to stick around in a place that allows that?

We know our moderation is a radical change from Reddit's usual browsing experience, which is why the AutoMod autopost at the top of every thread (may AutoMod's datalinks be forever swift) incorporates all the ways we've come up with to bring you already-written content.

Can someone point me to a sub where historians' and "history buff's" answers actually stick around long enough for me to read them?

This one. The mods will probably be along in a moment with the official formatted response, but removed comments are generally nothing worth reading (mostly just people asking this question). There are websites that let you view removed comments if you're really curious.

I check them every now and then when I answer a question to see if OP might have already heard something. When you're not well versed in a topic, a lot of those answers seem fine. In my experience with topics I can answer, it's usually good they were removed.

I agree that explanation doesn't really get the core complaint though.

If you want to just see answered questions r/HistoriansAnswered is a bot that aggregates responses that stay up.

I'd you want a sub where people discuss and chat about historical questions without moderation for accuracy: r/history and r/AskHistory are both out there

Glad you love the concept.

You have been linked to perhaps livelier ones but we do have quite a bit going on. Hundreds of questions answered each week, a short questions thread, Friday free for all for relaxing, Thursday reading commendations. Regular AMA's, regular podcasts, a yearly conference. Book list and FAQ for bonus points.

The concept means we will never have the same numbers of answers as other more let anything go history reddits but the frustration of "where are the comments/look at the deletions" isn't uncommon. We do have Browser extensions that show which ones have actual answers, we have the newsletters and we have the wonderful Sunday digest which contains all the answers that week.

Standards

Are the standards so high? I'm flaired so surely that is a sign of how low they will go

In all seriousness, our standards are high for reddit but aren't meant to be intimidatingly so and it concerns me when people seem to think it so. We want people contributing and to feel welcome, our requirements for answering don't require a college education (again me) or a 50 page answer. Our rules in brief cover it in 3 basic rules as a starting point (though clearly read the full rules, the basic concept is there in those three)

We want an answer yes. Which means mods deleting the jokes, the hate, the "where are the comments". Once that lot is trimmed down, it is the proper and actually accurate answer.. is not guaranteed to be there. Helpful google links forget google doesn't have an automatic block on what is wrong for example, there is plenty of information and concepts out there online that may sound right but aren't true. The water myth u/DanKensington often deals with. For my era I can usually think of an answer or two to any question asked that I have seen elsewhere or might even be common place but would be wrong.

Leaving up the well meant but wrong is going to skew perceptions of history so those go out. Accuracy matters.

We also want answers that, as it were, explains. "Yes, so and so did write this/fought a bear/turned into a serpent/invent such and such" might be accurate, it isn't helpful. Digging deeper, explaining the whys and the hows so you come out with a better understanding of the era, their question and the answer is what we seek.

We want the questioner feeling they got a proper answer that explained, that they and the reader have learnt something today. It also ensures that if your working on an answer, it won't get drowned out by the inaccurate, the jokes and worse but will get heard (then picked up on Sunday Digest and possibly more), that the hours put in will be met by the space for your answer to get it's hearing.

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The problem getting answers

Had a quick glance at the new questions in last 24 hours, just over 100 (not counting podcast and this post). We get a lot of questions, which hopefully reflects the regard this subreddit is held in. Some might get deleted, others will get "if you check the F&Q" or "here is a link to previous answer" but yes that still leaves a lot of questions.

Some may simply not be answerable for being too broad or too narrow. Some may simply be beyond the expertise of the mods, flairs, quality contributors and those wishing to contribute and who do. It would be great if we had an expert in every era of history and every aspect, we want people to contribute properly as the more that do means more can be covered. Or multiple experts

However as has mentioned, even when someone can answer a question, time. A proper answer takes time, to research through the books and to write it up, hours need to set aside. I am currently on an answer for a question now four days old, it won't be a multi page epic but life has been busy so progress has been slow. Families, jobs, friends, life events, sleep, needing to eat, all limits the amount of questions that any one individual can answer