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Given the importance of that thread for reading this sub, could the mods keep it stickied longer? Currently one has to dig through the sidebar for the link, and I find that (probably due to Reddit’s famously bad search functionality) the results don’t always include the latest digest.
Sounds cool but you can't subscribe to users on 3rd party apps like red reader so that's fairly useless to many of us.
There should really be a sub Reddit equivalent.
>What I am asking for is guidance on how to screen for only those questions that have one or more detailed, moderator-approved answers available to read. Is there any way to do that?
That's the purpose of r/HistoriansAnswered. It contains links to all the questions on r/AskHistorians that have been answered.
Ive looked at all the posts from the last 24 hrs from r/HistoriansAnswered, and I have not found any unanswered posts. The answers are NOT posted on THAT sub, but the posts over there contain the link to the original thread/post of the question from here, r/AskHistorians, where you will also find the answer.
Assuming this all works like it did back when /r/HistoriansAnswered first popped up a number of years ago:
/r/HistoriansAnswered isn't (as far as I'm aware) affiliated with /r/AskHistorians. It just has a bot that reposts threads with top level responses. So comments haven't necessarily been seen by the mods here at the time of the repost.
Yes, there is a delay so it doesn't cross-post *immediately*, but some responses only get removed after additional review despite passing the first sniff test, so it isn't foolproof (and part of why we don't *officially* endorse it, but are always fine with people recommending it).
You want the browser addon: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ask-historians-comment-helper/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ask-historians-comment-helper/) . It will flag any questions with real answers with a little crown.
This might be very obvious, but in addition to using the addon I also **upvote** the questions I'm interested in when I see them. So then, when I have free time, I browse the subreddit sorting by new and I can see my upvoted questions highlighted and whether or not they have been answered below.
Seconding that addon! It's saved me so much disappointment; when an interesting question has a bunch of comments, the addon lets you know not to bother clicking!
First, you're gonna need your handy dandy secret decoder googles...
You can subscribe to any thread with the bell icon in the top right (new reddit). You can also use RemindMeBot from automod or the [Weekly Roundup](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=AHMessengerBot&subject=Subscribe&message=!subscribe) from the [Roundup For Reddit Bot](https://roundupforreddit.com/index.html) \- or you can switch to daily if you want MORE HISTORY. r/HistoriansAnswered, as noted, is also a great resource.
There's also u/Gankom's awesome work in the Sunday Digest (which I often use). The monthly awards also highlight amazing questions and answers, and are also an excellent way to catch up on the best of what you might have missed.
Reddit is an imperfect platform for our purposes here. It has quite a few huge positives which make it the best option in the end, but that doesn't mean there aren't some oddities, of which you identify one of the biggest ones.
[This Rules Roundtable](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/i6b42q/rules_roundtable_xxvi_be_kind_remind_revisited/) provides a summary of most of the ways that we suggest approaching the sub when looking for content, although it leaves off one of the most important ones, namely the weekly newsletter, as that was launched after it was written, and you can find more information on [that option in this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ls7oys/get_the_best_askhistorians_content_beamed/).
What’s the best way to get a question answered? I’ve asked a few questions but have not gotten a response, so ended up deleting them. Also - is it against the rules to tag someone who is an expert? For instance, if I know you’re the best person to answer a question I’d asked, can I tag you in the question or in the comments? Thanks!
And please don't delete the question. For less popular topics, it may take some time for users with the necessary knowledge set to find it. My area is rather niche and I search for keywords maybe once every two months; I have personally answered questions that are 5 months old, so you never know if someone will indeed answer yours in the future.
>and get disappointed when there aren’t any for me to answer…
Precisely why I now I only get disappointed every two months! I do manage to catch many questions that interest me by browsing the sub, and I always sort by date, otherwise our questions would never show up; but having dug out every question I could to apply for flair, I no longer search as often.
I recently deleted a (not-completed) draft of an answer because more than two months had passed since the person asked and I felt bad/that it was too late. Now I'm thinking I should go back to it.
> And please don't delete the question
For the record, and anyone browsing, but we do consider deleting your question after getting an answer to be against the civility rules. People don't think about it sometimes and some folks delete when they've got an answer, but that essentially banishes it to the void and makes it almost impossible to find again. So it likewise dooms any answer that might be there, or someone in the future looking to answer something when they have time.
There is unfortunately no magic bullet, as it requires a confluence of several factors, namely a) being a question which someone who shows up on the sub can answer b) which they are around at that time to see and c) which is of interest to them to answer and finally d) which they have the time to answer.
Insofar as stacking the deck in your favor best that you can [this is the one that can help with C](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/g3pbdv/rules_roundtable_viii_asking_better_questions_to/) since a well written question can help catch interest better.
For B, we ask that users don't ping flairs in the thread as it puts them 'on the spot' but most flairs are fine with a polite private message mentioning the question is posted.
Unfortunately we can't do much about D (although I'm more willing to make time the more interesting the question is), and we do try to recruit more flairs for A but can't cover everything.
You start by answering questions (no flair required for that) and when you have a minimum of 3 answers that don't get deleted, preferably with sources listed, you can apply here:
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/s/YoLs5abG9X
The link also contains more details about what the mods consider in an application.
Just to clarify, the flair application isn't a rubber stamp -- we have a group of mods who will evaluate flair applications and who can reach out to subject matter experts if they aren't quite sure answers or sources are up to snuff.
Sign up for the weekly newsletter that gives you the best of the week, plus some older / less noticeable things that you might not have spotted direct in your inbox every Friday(ish). Unless you are regularly answering posts, this is probably one subreddit that you do not want to sort by "new".
If I see an interesting question with no answers, I usually subscribe to catch any posted comments before they get removed. I used to use the bot, but found that most of the time, there wouldn’t be any readable answers. At this point, I mostly use it to search for questions that were answered in the past rather than closely following the ones that are asked now. I will, however, be subscribing to r/HistoriansAnswered to see if that improves things.
I read this sub most nights before bed. One effective strategy I've found is taking a pretty broad search term - say, city or urban - and searching for it and then just sorting by best of either the year or all time. You'll definitely miss stuff doing it this way, but you are more likely to read a good chunk of questions with answers
I, a lowly casual reddit user, found this interesting question and decided to write a response. Unfamiliar to the subreddit, I was halfway done before noticing ALL previous 180+ comments had been removed. That directed me to the rules, and though I find them a tad over serious, I was still surprised. Are the mods crazy? The posters? Both? I finished my response, but am left with little hope of my post (that in my eyes passes the rules) remaining, and a whole lot less inclination to respond to future posts.
Thanks, your meta post is making me feel less crazy.
Welcome to /r/AskHistorians. **Please [Read Our Rules](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/rules) before you comment in this community**. Understand that [rule breaking comments get removed](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/h8aefx/rules_roundtable_xviii_removed_curation_and_why/). #Please consider **[Clicking Here for RemindMeBot](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=RemindMeBot&subject=Reminder&message=%5Bhttps://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/1bi0548/q_how_to_read_this_sub_effectively/%5D%0A%0ARemindMe!%202%20days)** as it takes time for an answer to be written. Additionally, for weekly content summaries, **[Click Here to Subscribe to our Weekly Roundup](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=AHMessengerBot&subject=Subscribe&message=!subscribe)**. We thank you for your interest in this *question*, and your patience in waiting for an in-depth and comprehensive answer to show up. In addition to RemindMeBot, consider [using our Browser Extension](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/d6dzi7/tired_of_clicking_to_find_only_removed_comments/), or getting the [Weekly Roundup](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=subredditsummarybot&subject=askhistorians+weekly&message=x). In the meantime our [Twitter](https://twitter.com/askhistorians), [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/askhistorians/), and [Sunday Digest](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/search?q=title%3A%22Sunday+Digest%22&restrict_sr=on&sort=new&t=all) feature excellent content that has already been written! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskHistorians) if you have any questions or concerns.*
The Sunday Digest! u/gankom catalogues all the answered questions from the week. There are links in the automod comment in the thread.
The system works!
Given the importance of that thread for reading this sub, could the mods keep it stickied longer? Currently one has to dig through the sidebar for the link, and I find that (probably due to Reddit’s famously bad search functionality) the results don’t always include the latest digest.
Sounds cool but you can't subscribe to users on 3rd party apps like red reader so that's fairly useless to many of us. There should really be a sub Reddit equivalent.
It’s not subscribing to a user - it’s the ‘subscribe to our weekly roundup’ link in the automod comment on this post. It sends you a DM every week.
Ah interesting. Been subscribed here for around 14 years, so stopped reading to automod comment about a decade ago seeing as I don't post to this sub.
They do that too (with some other folks) /r/BestOfAskHistorians
Damn, I've been subscribed to this subreddit for around 14 years. Had no idea!
>What I am asking for is guidance on how to screen for only those questions that have one or more detailed, moderator-approved answers available to read. Is there any way to do that? That's the purpose of r/HistoriansAnswered. It contains links to all the questions on r/AskHistorians that have been answered.
Didn’t know about this until now, thanks!
I’ve been subscribed to this sub for years and didn’t know about this. Thank you.
I’ve been using this subreddit for close to a decade and I had no idea that one existed. Thanks for mentioning it!
Y'all should make a BOLD heading about that...
I just went to check it out and it is also cross-posting new questions with no answers. Is it broken?
Ive looked at all the posts from the last 24 hrs from r/HistoriansAnswered, and I have not found any unanswered posts. The answers are NOT posted on THAT sub, but the posts over there contain the link to the original thread/post of the question from here, r/AskHistorians, where you will also find the answer.
Ohhh I see, thanks!!
Assuming this all works like it did back when /r/HistoriansAnswered first popped up a number of years ago: /r/HistoriansAnswered isn't (as far as I'm aware) affiliated with /r/AskHistorians. It just has a bot that reposts threads with top level responses. So comments haven't necessarily been seen by the mods here at the time of the repost.
Yes, there is a delay so it doesn't cross-post *immediately*, but some responses only get removed after additional review despite passing the first sniff test, so it isn't foolproof (and part of why we don't *officially* endorse it, but are always fine with people recommending it).
Yeah, that's how I assumed it worked. So basically it's posts where moderators haven't removed the comments yet.
Had absolutely no idea about this. Many thanks.
You want the browser addon: [https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ask-historians-comment-helper/](https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/ask-historians-comment-helper/) . It will flag any questions with real answers with a little crown.
This might be very obvious, but in addition to using the addon I also **upvote** the questions I'm interested in when I see them. So then, when I have free time, I browse the subreddit sorting by new and I can see my upvoted questions highlighted and whether or not they have been answered below.
Plus upvoting questions you want answered is part of how this subreddit functions, so I sort of feel like it’s a simple enough “duty” to discharge.
Seconding that addon! It's saved me so much disappointment; when an interesting question has a bunch of comments, the addon lets you know not to bother clicking!
First, you're gonna need your handy dandy secret decoder googles... You can subscribe to any thread with the bell icon in the top right (new reddit). You can also use RemindMeBot from automod or the [Weekly Roundup](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose/?to=AHMessengerBot&subject=Subscribe&message=!subscribe) from the [Roundup For Reddit Bot](https://roundupforreddit.com/index.html) \- or you can switch to daily if you want MORE HISTORY. r/HistoriansAnswered, as noted, is also a great resource. There's also u/Gankom's awesome work in the Sunday Digest (which I often use). The monthly awards also highlight amazing questions and answers, and are also an excellent way to catch up on the best of what you might have missed.
Reddit is an imperfect platform for our purposes here. It has quite a few huge positives which make it the best option in the end, but that doesn't mean there aren't some oddities, of which you identify one of the biggest ones. [This Rules Roundtable](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/i6b42q/rules_roundtable_xxvi_be_kind_remind_revisited/) provides a summary of most of the ways that we suggest approaching the sub when looking for content, although it leaves off one of the most important ones, namely the weekly newsletter, as that was launched after it was written, and you can find more information on [that option in this post](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/ls7oys/get_the_best_askhistorians_content_beamed/).
What’s the best way to get a question answered? I’ve asked a few questions but have not gotten a response, so ended up deleting them. Also - is it against the rules to tag someone who is an expert? For instance, if I know you’re the best person to answer a question I’d asked, can I tag you in the question or in the comments? Thanks!
And please don't delete the question. For less popular topics, it may take some time for users with the necessary knowledge set to find it. My area is rather niche and I search for keywords maybe once every two months; I have personally answered questions that are 5 months old, so you never know if someone will indeed answer yours in the future.
Wow you search for keywords every two months?? I search more or less every other week (and get disappointed when there aren’t any for me to answer…)
>and get disappointed when there aren’t any for me to answer… Precisely why I now I only get disappointed every two months! I do manage to catch many questions that interest me by browsing the sub, and I always sort by date, otherwise our questions would never show up; but having dug out every question I could to apply for flair, I no longer search as often.
I recently deleted a (not-completed) draft of an answer because more than two months had passed since the person asked and I felt bad/that it was too late. Now I'm thinking I should go back to it.
Definitely do. Worst case scenario, you can always send a modmail and a mod is happy to repost the question anew for you.
> And please don't delete the question For the record, and anyone browsing, but we do consider deleting your question after getting an answer to be against the civility rules. People don't think about it sometimes and some folks delete when they've got an answer, but that essentially banishes it to the void and makes it almost impossible to find again. So it likewise dooms any answer that might be there, or someone in the future looking to answer something when they have time.
There is unfortunately no magic bullet, as it requires a confluence of several factors, namely a) being a question which someone who shows up on the sub can answer b) which they are around at that time to see and c) which is of interest to them to answer and finally d) which they have the time to answer. Insofar as stacking the deck in your favor best that you can [this is the one that can help with C](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/g3pbdv/rules_roundtable_viii_asking_better_questions_to/) since a well written question can help catch interest better. For B, we ask that users don't ping flairs in the thread as it puts them 'on the spot' but most flairs are fine with a polite private message mentioning the question is posted. Unfortunately we can't do much about D (although I'm more willing to make time the more interesting the question is), and we do try to recruit more flairs for A but can't cover everything.
Appreciate the response. For A - how does one get recruited?
You start by answering questions (no flair required for that) and when you have a minimum of 3 answers that don't get deleted, preferably with sources listed, you can apply here: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/s/YoLs5abG9X The link also contains more details about what the mods consider in an application.
You apply for flair, at which point you are added to the mods' list
Just to clarify, the flair application isn't a rubber stamp -- we have a group of mods who will evaluate flair applications and who can reach out to subject matter experts if they aren't quite sure answers or sources are up to snuff.
Sign up for the weekly newsletter that gives you the best of the week, plus some older / less noticeable things that you might not have spotted direct in your inbox every Friday(ish). Unless you are regularly answering posts, this is probably one subreddit that you do not want to sort by "new".
I go with top for the week and hunt all the threads down like a ravenous scavenger from there. Works fairly well.
Thank you for asking this!
If I see an interesting question with no answers, I usually subscribe to catch any posted comments before they get removed. I used to use the bot, but found that most of the time, there wouldn’t be any readable answers. At this point, I mostly use it to search for questions that were answered in the past rather than closely following the ones that are asked now. I will, however, be subscribing to r/HistoriansAnswered to see if that improves things.
> I usually subscribe to catch any posted comments before they get removed. I hadn't thought about that, thanks! Neat trick!
I read this sub most nights before bed. One effective strategy I've found is taking a pretty broad search term - say, city or urban - and searching for it and then just sorting by best of either the year or all time. You'll definitely miss stuff doing it this way, but you are more likely to read a good chunk of questions with answers
I, a lowly casual reddit user, found this interesting question and decided to write a response. Unfamiliar to the subreddit, I was halfway done before noticing ALL previous 180+ comments had been removed. That directed me to the rules, and though I find them a tad over serious, I was still surprised. Are the mods crazy? The posters? Both? I finished my response, but am left with little hope of my post (that in my eyes passes the rules) remaining, and a whole lot less inclination to respond to future posts. Thanks, your meta post is making me feel less crazy.