As the title says, sorry if the question breaks the rules as this is more of a question about the sub than a question of history. But I joined the sub a few weeks ago with the hope of reading some interesting historical stuff. But every time I click on a post it will say there are 10-50 comments on the post. But then when I go in to look, I don't see anything but a post by a mod talking about how if the comment isn't good it will be deleted. Is this an issue on my end or has all those comments just been deleted?
Yes, that's our famed moderation working as intended. Yes, the comments have been deleted, some with a moderator warning beneath to inform the poster and other readers of how things go in this subreddit.
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.
Someone asked (then removed their post) if can answer without being a historian, had typed the answer before discovered that and in case anyone else is wondering
Yes, yes you are.
I should know, I'm a flair and I am not a historian. Neither Dan or myself have historical training. We know people can come into history via other routes and we don't ask for people's educational background at any point.
All we ask is accurate, in depth and comprehensive answers. We want people having read the answer to understand why the answer is what it is, to have gained a wider picture. We only ask willingness to provide sources within 24 hours if asked but please do provide sources in your original post.
For what it's worth, I do appreciate your efforts in the removal of, shall we say, inappropriate content. It means that the replies left up are likely to be considered, thoughtful, and often contain links for further reading. Thank you.
Hahaha, yup. You'll get used to it. Makes the questions that actually do get answered that much sweeter.