Until very recently, this subreddit has had a pretty small community, with an immediately recognizable group of people contributing. We have gained over 4,000 subscribers in the since the weekend. Although the sidebar provides a quick overview, I now find it necessary to provide this brief history of this subreddit, as well as the way we expect you to conduct yourself.

This subreddit was started by me, Artrw. I am not a professional historian. In fact, I am currently a high school student, taking an AP U.S. History class (that I probably ought to be studying for). Though I do not plan to pursue a career in history, it is pretty intriguing to me.

Another thing you should probably know about me is I’m pretty libertarian. I think that freedom of speech is a genuinely good idea. Sadly, it seems some of you are pretty intent on proving me on. Regardless, this subreddit’s moderation is very, very minimal. As you can see by our sidebar, the only two things that warrant a full-on post deletion are advertisements, or posts that are not a historical question (unless it’s a [meta] thread discussing the nature of the subreddit). Keep in mind, if you are browsing the subreddit and see a comment that you think is in bad taste, please just downvote and move on. The mods are not interested in hearing about it, just downvote the post to hell. You can even comment a little reminder to maintain decorum if you so please, but unless it is advertent spam, don’t bother reporting it. I’m just going to accept it.

Not making racist, sexist, etc. remarks seems like common sense. However, we here at r/askhistorians like to hold ourselves to a higher standard than lots of other subreddits. I’m not going to lie and say I don’t enjoy memes or pun chains, but this subreddit is not the place (again: don’t report, just downvote). If you must be a smartass, r/shittyaskhistorians does exist.

However, please keep in mind that the above only applies to normal comments. Comments made by people with a tag (or, as it’s otherwise known, flair) are hold to a higher standard. Please message the mods (not the report button, but send a private message), if you see a tagged member making a post that contains undeniably false information or antagonistic remarks. We won’t ban the member or delete the comment, but we will revoke their flair. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it again.

This is certainly not a final list of guidelines. Just use common sense.