Basically, we have higher standards than many other subreddits when it comes to providing answers, and so we end up removing a lot of subpar, incorrect, and low effort content that fails to meet these standards.
Unfortunately, Reddit (the website) does not update the comment count that appears for threads, even when items are removed by us or deleted by the authors of comments (which we have most certainly protested and the admins have clearly neglected to address). This means that when a thread gets really popular, we end up removing a lot of rule-breaking comments that, despite being removed, remain as part of the overall count. This is explained further in this Rules Roundtable, and to help mitigate this, try the browser extension developed by a user that helps to provide a more accurate comment count.
Furthermore, if content is what you're looking for, there is actually plenty of content that passes muster, but that many fail to see for a variety of reasons (for example: they only visit popular threads, they don't give enough time for an answer to be provided, they only look at threads they're interested in, etc.). To help with this, we compile the week's material into a post called the Sunday Digest! We also repost much of our content on our Twitter and Facebook, and run a weekly mailer which highlights the absolute best content of the week, which you can subscribe to here*We suggest you check out those features to get the content you're looking for.
Because people don't take time to read the sub rules and rule breaking comments get removed.
These two seem to be the ones most consistently violated-
#4- Write Original, In-Depth and Comprehensive Answers, Using Good Historical Practices. #6- Serious On-Topic Comments Only: No Jokes, Anecdotes, Clutter, or other Digressions.
We get questions about this every now and again
As well as the methods u/mimicofmodes mentioned for ensuring you see answered threads, I know some members use the r/HistoriansAnswered subreddit.
Our SundayDigest each week by u/Gankom shows hundreds of proper answers given each week and we have other things like Friday Free For All. We do get more threads than can be answered sadly but the "what reddit says vs the actual answers" also shows how busy our poor mods are in removing the off-topic, the vile, the inaccurate and the bad answers that fail the simple rules that u/makinghomemadejam highlighted.
Just read the community rules at the top of every thread. People aren’t following expectations and they get deleted. Sometimes no one replies with an adequate response and that’s just the way it goes. The prevailing theory here is that it’s better to have no content than misleading conjecture.
It’s because this sub, unlike most of Reddit, tries to do good history, instead of myth-laden, poorly referenced pop history straight out of Dan Carlin’s podcasts.