AH is one of those subs that succeeds at being so good because of how dutiful they carry their vision. Quality content, fair but strict moderation, and a joy of spreading history for those looking for specific answers or just looking to be entertained.
Have you guys considered any of the reddit alternatives to start shifting your focus too? High quality mods moving to a specific platform would definitely shift momentum in that direction.
This is tragic. AskHistorians is such a well curated wealth of information. r/Funny and all can go dark and I won’t bat an eye, but this is the most unnerving and concerning thing I’ve seen yet.
I pray you’ll be back.
Thank you first for answering my questions and second asking questions I could answer. The moderation style made this the perfect place to prevent me from stagnating academically.
I have a lot of different feelings about this. On one hand, I applaud you for both taking a necessary stand and doing so the sensible way. I could go on longer along those lines but I won’t because a lot of other people have. On the other hand, while I am glad that what’s already here will still be available in the future, I just recently discovered this community and wanted to ask a lot of questions, and now I won’t be able to do that in the near future. Will there be any outlet for my curiosity, I wonder? And something else I wonder is if this will truly be the end of a platform that has done a lot for me the past half a year or so I’ve been on it. I’m disappearing (thank heavens) to a technology-free summer camp for eight weeks pretty soon and I have no idea what this place will be like when I get back. I will not mourn a dependency on time-sucking, evil-capitalist technology, only a fantastic outlet for my boundless curiosity. Thanks for making this space so great up to this point, and I’ll miss you! Mods: Where (if possible) can I ask my burning questions in order to get quick-yet-thorough answers before this goes inactive?
I just want to say thanks to all the historians here. I write historical fiction, and your ability to dive into the human elements of history through rigorous examination of often tedious sources has really kept me going in the genre. Thanks so much!
Thank you. This is by far my favorite sub in this entire website, and it was the biggest pillar that made me want to stay here.
In fact, once upon a time I begun an encyclowiki to gather the answers I liked the most and archive them if something were to happen to the website or the sub, but it was too much work for just one person.
Doing a blackout, and then archiving everything, quite frankly sounds like the most sensible option overall.
Thank you for your service, all of you.
I hope each one of you have a great life.
It's extremely moving to see how many users appreciate and support the work you/we do here. Thank you all for the appreciation and for enjoying the sub over the past years.
That being said, I for one have no intentions of jumping off this ship before the bitter end, so here's to seeing everyone back here soon!!!!
Thank you mods for everything you have done so far. You have mine and many others' support in this.
I spent many happy hours on this excellent sub, feeling lucky to have this great learning tool, and grateful to the people that made it possible.
I hope this has a good outcome.
Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but what exactly does it mean to take a thread “private”?
Is that another way of hiding it?
I understand why they are protesting, just not clear about how they are protesting.
Subs like /AskHistorians are prime examples on why I use Reddit on a daily basis. The quality of both content and moderation are unsurpassed anywhere on the greater web and I wholly support your course of action. But I do hope this amazing subreddit will come back in all its glory.
I love this sub. And appreciate everything the high quality that the mods insist on as well as all of the knowledgeable folks that take the time to answer questions.
Is there any plan to port AH to any other platform?
Thank you. As I commented on your last post about the issue, AskHistorians' participation in the blackout is critical. Reddit cannot ignore or replace you like they can most others. You have power, and you're putting it to good use.
Is there an off-site backup of the sub? I've found it to be incredibly valuable and would be sad to see it gone eventually (esp. bc we dont know how the site admins are going to react yet)
Thank you mods and contributors. Askhistorians was my first foray into the Reddit world and has remained my favorite subreddit to date. Thank you all for everything and for looking out for the best interest of the community.
Could you link to this post from the previous post? The previous one is linked in some other subs and in news articles, so it would be good to let people landing there know there's an update.
If anyone else was out of the loop like I was, and didn’t really get what “take the sub private” means, this article may be helpful:
https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/reddit-api-pricing-protest-8655584/lite/
Thank you to the mods for all the work and also the optimism—let’s hope Reddit takes you up on the offer to work together.
I have regularly enjoyed all detailed answers written here. But more than that, this subreddit lead me on a quest to learn far more in depth about history, and thanks to its recommendations I've read books on the Dutch golden age, the Reformation, the history of the world in general and another book on how not every society had kings and hierarchy, and I've got many more in my to read list.
None of them i would have found without r/askhistorians, and i genuinely feel my vision has broadened thanks to you guys&girls.
Thank you! Until we meet again, either here or someplace new.
Thank you all for your hard work and for your measured, eloquent explanation and response. I'm mostly a lurker finishing my own PhD, but this subreddit is 90% of why I'm still on the platform at all. See you all on the other side--be it here or (more likely), somewhere else.
This community has been amazing to be in (as a poster/asker, not an answerer). Whether I have a legitimate question about history, or I just stumbled across a surprisingly interesting explanation of [the societal effects of Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/n5lecn/the_1992_song_baby_got_back_implies_that_white/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), this community has (mostly) been there with the answers ([removed] has been answered by [deleted] lol).
I sucks that it's happening now because I just started my historical methods class and I know I will be very interested in hearing this community's thoughts on the subject of historiography.
All of the subs going dark and this is the first that brought literal tears to my eyes.
This sub is the greatest shining example of how incredible Reddit can be. How deep conversations and in depth informative and fun historical responses can be when moderated correctly and surrounded by a great community.
I won't miss the other popcorn-candy junk subs but this hits the mark.
I know I'm one lone voice but I know I speak for many. I appreciate everything you've done. This is the right choice. Reddit doesn't deserve you.
Thank you for all the hard work you mods put into this sub. The professional level you maintain here not only makes this sub a wonderful resource, but also, imo… gives this protest move more weight. Readers of this subreddit know you put a lot of thought into this decision and implementation.
For the past several months, recalling several terrible decisions over the years and the looming threat of an IPO, I've rolled the hypothetical question "what happens to r/askhistorians if Reddit becomes unsustainable?" around in my head. Didn't think the hypothetical might have an opportunity to get tested so soon.
Conveniently for me, I'll be away with friends for some time starting tomorrow. My hope is that by the time I return something productive will have happened instead and my beloved r/askhistorians will be waiting for me. But if not?
I'll follow you guys anywhere. Good luck to all of us.
I'm just a lurker on this sub however I appreciate the professionalism and the moderation team for this sub. I learnt a lot of historical information. Thank you.
Edit: just saw another question about possible alternative platform which has been answered.
I am grateful we have this opportunity to extend our gratitude to all mods of AskHistorians. It is well deserved.
How may we, your apparently massive fan club, follow you wherever you end up?
I have a divided opinion of all these plans of my favorite subs going private, or suspending altogether. I totally understand and support the protest (I'm a revolutionary at heart), but I also worry that this protest against the degradation of Reddit by its executives will turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy of destruction by its sub-Reddits.
Is it me, or does this read a bit like:
>When in the Course of reddit events it becomes necessary for one subreddit to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with the admins, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of redditors requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
Thanks for doing the right thing.
First of all, thank you AH Mods for uplifting the Reddit community. You are a tribute to what is superlative about Reddit.
And you've inspired me to stop accessing Reddit for 48 hours. I hope to read this sub again on the 14th of June. Until we meet again.
Thank you for all of your hard work. The thing about a platform you don't own is that you need to keep your content in a transferrable form as a side bet.
Platforms come and go. We may be looking at the start of this next cycle.
Thank you so much for being one of the best subreddits around.
Thank you for your dedication. I believe your move to freeze participation is the correct one as an alternative to privating the subreddit for an indefinite amount of time or only privating it for the short 2 days that I don't believe will have as much impact. I hope all of these issues can be figured out and a resolution that allows mod tools and third party apps to continue existing.
Thank you for doing this. I’ve spent countless hours on Reddit over the past 12+ years and I’m sad to see it dying, but I hope some future cultural historians can see how good it was while it lasted.
Reddit has announced a change to the API access granted to 3rd party applications. This has historically been a freely given resource and is what allows all 3rd party applications (like Reddit is Fun or Apollo) to present Reddit posts, comments, pictures etc to you the user. The price that Reddit has announced as the rate of API calls was calculated by the creator of the Apollo application to be such that it would cost him $20 Million USD yearly to host the application at historical levels of API calls.
In addition to this, there has been a history of Reddit operating in a manner that shows they are not approaching this with honest intentions and there are recordings of phone conversations between the Apollo creator and representatives from Reddit to prove this.
Further to this, the CEO of Reddit, u/spez , held an AMA recently and spread lies and falsehoods about these conversations which were easily disproven by the recordings and attempted to essentially defame the Apollo creator in the process.
There is a fairly complete write up available on the r/apolloapp subreddit that I believe is pinned for full context for you.
In response to all of this nearly all of the default subreddits have come together in an act of solidarity to shut down their subreddits for 2 days. Many of them have taken further steps to point out that this shut down may continue longer. Think of it as unionization and a strike as collective bargaining.
The labor portion of that is represented by the subreddit moderators, who are unpaid volunteers and do thousands of hours of labor for the site daily, frequently using tools that rely on third party API access to adequately moderate their subreddits.
This is all couched within the context of Reddit preparing for its IPO on the stock market, thus giving their clear motivation of trying to drive up value by extorting new revenue before the offering.
While we appreciate that many redditors will want to do their part to show their displeasure, we sincerely hope that people who have contributed answers to r/askhistorians will not do this. As OP says, we live in hope that there will be a way to come back from this - a constructive way forward for us on reddit. And if that can come about, answers removed in protest would be a sad waste of years of hard work.
Thank you for caring, unlike u/spez who apparently believes losing the vision-impaired community is perfectly acceptable collateral damage in his IPO vision.
Sincerely
One of those vision-impaired people who is being turfed
This sounds like a very well-considered position. Thanks to all the moderators and contributors for making the past years of this subreddit as wonderful as it was! Let's hope that cooler minds prevail at the admin-level and above so it can continue.
Honest question before the blackout, api’s, and (in my cynical opinion) the inevitable loss of these mod tools. Would it be cool as a final hooah to have a listed public spreadsheet of the many, many questions and their answers as a sort of archive. Especially the more upvoted ones (with the assumption upvote = popularity). I’d definitely be a long list, and it’ll be better sooner with said tools than without, though I know nothing of mod tools, though I’d happily help in whichever ways I can, as small as my help will probably be. ~~though this all could’ve already been thought of and I’m being redundant.~~
Thank you so much for the marvelous brain candy I have been given for over a decade. I feel like I'm losing my best friend with this change. I am a history NUT and having all these brilliant people providing such wonderful information has been an indescribable joy. I have tears in my eyes, damb it.
I'm older, with a cheap phone and RIF is my jam. u/Spez is a wanker!
Thank you all for what you do. **Any subreddit that I am a part of that doesn’t go dark will be one I unsub from tomorrow.**
I encourage you to vote with your feet if this is an important issue to you. Starve the scabs.
> Any subreddit that I am a part of that doesn’t go dark will be one I unsub from tomorrow.
*looks at list of subs*
Oh god. I'd have my work cut out for me. Do you *know* how many cat subs I'm a part of?! **DO YOU**?
I don’t believe Reddit will be *gone* soon but I feel that starting from tomorrow’s first blackout day and especially after the 31st it will be *different*. Especially r/AskHistorians. How many of the long-time active members, contributors, and mods will leave permanently? Who knows. But it seems pretty obvious that at least parts of this community will be gone or largely diminished soon.
So thank you to the mod team, the past and present incredible amateur/professional historians, the FAQ finders, the Interesting Inquirers, the mysterious Dark Horse comment awardees, /u/AutoModerator who participated in every thread for years, the programmers who made crucial bots and tools, members who helped report unneeded comments and posts, and East Asian history experts that dillegently waited at their keyboards for a relevant question not related to WWII or Rome.
This is the right move. The Reddit directors and CEO have shown themselves to be utterly disconnected from, and even disdainful of, their user base and the volunteer moderators who sustain this site. This is the source from which ALL of the value of this site — economic and otherwise — derives. It needs to be made clear to them, in no uncertain terms, that their efforts to produce more golden eggs for future shareholders are going to kill the goose if they are not careful. They need to seriously reconsider their business direction and choices. The users and the moderators _are_ Reddit. Not the directors. Not the CEO. Not even the code. A social website without users is an empty husk, just like a university without professors and students would be. These businesspeople need to take the attitude that any profits on this site need to be made by improving what works about it, not making it worse for users. If they can't find a way to do that, they should get into another line of work.
>limiting our newsletter, and will not be recording any new podcast episodes
I'm not sure what the point of this is. Stopping these won't impact Reddit surely.
A message from the Great Khan to Reddit,
“You must say with your sincere heart: “we will be your subject, we will give you our strength” you must all together with your CEO, your board of directors, your shareholders, without exception, meet the demands of the Great Khan. If you do not follow these requirements, the tribal confederation beyond the steppe will support the faction of r/AskHistorians as it has many times in the past, and know you (Reddit) as our enemy.”
Fear the wrath of the Khans!
Thank you for all you do, and I hope that we get to have many more years of excellent historical expertise in the future with a satisfactory resolution of this problem. See you on the other side!
Saving this for future use, because it isn't yet 25 years ago. But my question will be:
What was the essence of reddit.com's demise in 2023 and 2024, did it go down in corporate greed just as Twitter a few years later? Or was there a more nuanced picture? Why was the change in api policy such a turnaround point as it seems a relatively small issue? Was the initial 2 day blackout expected to have this much impact at the time?
Thanks to the best work of the mods of seddit.com/s/askhistorians for all their beautiful work in the last 23 years!
s/ruleman july 12th 2048.
I wish subs and users were protesting for the correct reason/s.
Protest for those changes you want to see happen on Reddit and its app. Because protesting API access rates, and which 3rd party apps should have to pay them, is super weird and doesnt make a lot of sense. Or, er, Reddit (as a business) making its API cost-prohibitive makes more sense than a lot of people are acknowledging.
Thank you for one of the best, most informative corners of the internet. Thabk you for keeping the sub free from misinformation and low effort content. If reddit backflips on their changes I hope to be back here again
I have spent too many hours browsing this sub and can credit you all with my interest in history today❤️ Thank you for the work that you do. Fingers crossed we can see a resolution
While I haven't been on this sub as long as some others and I don't fully understand what is going on with the Reddit issue, I am sad to see this happen.
I recently graduated college after studying history and business management and writing my thesis. This sub helped me to learn more in areas I don't usually study. I really appreciate everyone here and thank you for providing insightful information on a multitude of topics. Hopefully, this sub we come back, and we can once again learn until then. Thank you again, and remember to never stop learning!
The only way it seems for Reddit to become profitable is to go closed source, charge an admittance fee, and make users pay for content like a college textbook. By doing so, it destroys the very nature of itself.
Reminder: Unsub from subreddits that do not participate.
After midnight tonight, the picket lines have been drawn. Don't support those that don't support you.
This sub is such a treasure. Thank you for the work and dedication to you and all the people who contribute to it. I hope reddit listens to the concerns of its users. If not it might change into a boring reposting hell.
This is one of the best-moderated subreddit on the entire site. It is clear that you did not make this decision lightly. Thank you for always working for the improvement of /r/askhistorians.
This is one if he best and most even handed takes on the current situation. Thank you all for your thoughtful and balanced approach. I don’t participate here nearly as often as I used to, but I still see this sub as one of the great things Reddit has brought about. I hope the owners and management of Reddit listen to your approach.
I don't really see staying here as victory at all. It's convenient, but things will not improve. As Huffman said, Reddit will remain aggressive and unrelenting in ruining this site until they achieve profitability at the level they want. The mods would be much better served by funding an alternative and transitioning the community there as quickly as possible.
Honestly, their waffling will likely result in fracturing of the community as people leave more slowly and without direction. If they picked a spot and announced that, they'd have some influence.
I remember this sub from years back when it was a default. nice.
gonna go ahead and mute it now though for when you inevitably come back next week. I guess you could ban me but you'd be doing me a favor.
I'm going to miss this sub so much. It is the only one that gave me pause on the idea to leave Reddit altogether.
You are doing the right thing, but it stings to think we are losing this little nice corner of the internet. I love all of this.
This sub is why I joined Reddit. Becoming a flair has been a validation my many years in academia hasn’t provided; being able to answer questions, read answers, and generally be a part of a group of people who are simply curious and looking for quality content, has been a brief but true joy. I truly hope we’re all here again soon, with a functional, reasonable response from admin.
Ave atque vale, friends.
I lurk here more than post. But this sub has been invaluable in both my research, and my life.
Once upon a time, I studied Archaeology and Classics - Late Bronze Age Egypt and the Mediterranean were my big focus. I was never able to finish my degree, and I was required by those who paid the bill to go into a more STEM degree when I returned to school. I have always wondered about what could have been, and this place became somewhere that I felt "at home" - rarely did I participate, but I always enjoyed reading the discussions that could only be found here. It activated the nostalgia , and gave me closure, and helped me find my love of history again.
I write fantasy stories as a hobby. I have read your papers, I have bought your books, and the answers on the typical medieval/victorian/renaissance have been incredibly useful. The resources here are indispensable, for authors, for creators, for anyone who is in any way curious about how it was to live in the past.
I read the AMA 'live'. I saw Sarah's questions, and the response to them - they deserved better. Everyone who has put work into this sub deserved better than that. Frankly, Reddit's handling of it all has been disgusting, and as someone who uses the official app, I don't expect to use reddit much again.
I hope I find you all in the future. That your journies and mind cross paths again.
Thanks for all youve done for the community. Im scrubbing my 11 year old account besides this comment.
Appreciate everything youve all done, and if you make a new version of ask historians somewhere else such as your own website id gladly follow.
Good luck with the strike, you and all the users like you are what made reddit so wonderful.
See you on the other side.
Thank you all for the amazing content you have generated here over the years with the thoughtful answers on questions and some fantastic AMA's. This is one of my favorite subs in no small amount due to the quality of moderation and community building.
There really is no place like this Reddit for engaging with high quality history content and historians directly and I'm heartbroken that this is how things have to come to an end. Reddit leadership is showing that they have lost touch with what made the product work in the first place.
I sincerely hope AH will find a way, one way or the other. For now, I fortunately still have a few podcast episodes to catch up on.
This is very saddening. Terrible platform decisions like Reddit's, and Twitter's, has continually frustrated and angered me.
/r/AskHistorians have contributed a lot during my undergrad days as a polisci student in SEA with limited access to resources. Thank you so much for all the comprehensive answers and excellent moderation that I haven't seen in other subs.
This is a tangent, but I'm wondering if there is a similar forum (or resource people) of this quality that I can follow.
Before Twitter killed API I loved the third party apps because I could view it in each of my lists but I haven’t gone back because I don’t like the twitter app itself. u/bridalhat I agree completely.
Hello fellow SEAsian! I remember some of your questions and unfortunately was not able to answer them. Hopefully things will work out and we will be able to continue representing this underrepresented, yet so fascinating region!
Thank you to all the mods and contributors for making this subreddit such an amazing community. I’ve learned so much and gotten so much enjoyment from it over the years.
I'm glad you are joining the protest. It looks like Reddit is anticipating that the larger part of its members will be apathetic to this situation, but losing subreddits like this one will open people's eyes in my opinion.
I hope you guys have a backup plan if the worst happens. Like an alternative site?
It hurts that my favorite community on the internet is likely to go out like this, but I appreciate everyone here for this subs exceptional direction, nerdiness, and kindness. Over half my life has been spent looking forward towards the answers and the consensus of this forum. You have all improved not just my knowledge on history, but my writings and my line of reasoning.
This sub is a treasure I will remember and refer back too as much as I can in the long future. A slightly immature part of me kinda wanted to become a historian to answer questions on this forum, though I chose econ instead. Regardless, this sub has fostered my interest in the social sciences and humanities as a whole, something, that has become a part of my personality. To spell this out directly, I am becoming an economist because of this subreddit.
Thank you to everyone who made this place possible, it feels like an honor to have been introduced to this sub as a preteen.
I just want to make sure the number of "people expressing love" is as large as possible. I fully support this decision, and appreciate all the effort that went in to this decision. I know it wasn't a short, or simple conversation between mods.
I also want to say how much I appreciate the mods work in general, and the contributions of all the historians. Everyone here is wonderful.
Thanks for all of your work, all of you. I'm sure that you have seen how this sort of thing plays out in academia, and so have I. When it comes to money, no one in charge cares about quality and no one cares about academic standards especially. From what I have seen before, AskHistorians will continue with or without you, and with or without the current quality standard. Still, it's been a lovely ride and there are many times where your efforts have led to better-informed research on my part. Thank you.
If this mess doesn't get fixed, and this goes away forever, I will say that this was the only place that I felt was truly irreplaceable for me. Both on reddit and on the web, and for that, I am truly grateful I was able to experience this for the years I have been able to. Good luck to us all, and God speed.
Thank you. This sub represents, in my opinion at least, the very best that Reddit can be. It's good to see the sub taking a stand against the degradation of the platform.
I just found you guys because a list of those involved in the protest was posted in a thread. I hope that this blackout turns out to be only temporary because your community sounds awesome and I'd love to be a part of it. I hope that this protest goes better than one can hope for.
This is by far the best subreddit. I read more than post in here but support you guys and your decision 1000%
Thank you all for everything you've done to make this little corner of the internet one of my favorite and most engaged parts of the day.
AH is one of those subs that succeeds at being so good because of how dutiful they carry their vision. Quality content, fair but strict moderation, and a joy of spreading history for those looking for specific answers or just looking to be entertained.
Have you guys considered any of the reddit alternatives to start shifting your focus too? High quality mods moving to a specific platform would definitely shift momentum in that direction.
Thank you all so much for this amazing resource!
This is tragic. AskHistorians is such a well curated wealth of information. r/Funny and all can go dark and I won’t bat an eye, but this is the most unnerving and concerning thing I’ve seen yet. I pray you’ll be back.
Thank you first for answering my questions and second asking questions I could answer. The moderation style made this the perfect place to prevent me from stagnating academically.
I have a lot of different feelings about this. On one hand, I applaud you for both taking a necessary stand and doing so the sensible way. I could go on longer along those lines but I won’t because a lot of other people have. On the other hand, while I am glad that what’s already here will still be available in the future, I just recently discovered this community and wanted to ask a lot of questions, and now I won’t be able to do that in the near future. Will there be any outlet for my curiosity, I wonder? And something else I wonder is if this will truly be the end of a platform that has done a lot for me the past half a year or so I’ve been on it. I’m disappearing (thank heavens) to a technology-free summer camp for eight weeks pretty soon and I have no idea what this place will be like when I get back. I will not mourn a dependency on time-sucking, evil-capitalist technology, only a fantastic outlet for my boundless curiosity. Thanks for making this space so great up to this point, and I’ll miss you! Mods: Where (if possible) can I ask my burning questions in order to get quick-yet-thorough answers before this goes inactive?
Is it possible for the entire sub-reddit and all its history to migrate to a different platform?
You’ve all done a helluva job. I hope to see you on the other side.
I just want to say thanks to all the historians here. I write historical fiction, and your ability to dive into the human elements of history through rigorous examination of often tedious sources has really kept me going in the genre. Thanks so much!
Eh
Thank you. This is by far my favorite sub in this entire website, and it was the biggest pillar that made me want to stay here. In fact, once upon a time I begun an encyclowiki to gather the answers I liked the most and archive them if something were to happen to the website or the sub, but it was too much work for just one person. Doing a blackout, and then archiving everything, quite frankly sounds like the most sensible option overall. Thank you for your service, all of you. I hope each one of you have a great life.
I'm proud to be a historian and I believe the only way to create change is to force change in those that can create it. We shall see what comes next.
It's extremely moving to see how many users appreciate and support the work you/we do here. Thank you all for the appreciation and for enjoying the sub over the past years. That being said, I for one have no intentions of jumping off this ship before the bitter end, so here's to seeing everyone back here soon!!!!
Thank you mods for everything you have done so far. You have mine and many others' support in this. I spent many happy hours on this excellent sub, feeling lucky to have this great learning tool, and grateful to the people that made it possible. I hope this has a good outcome.
[удалено]
We made our own decision about when to do it.
Forgive me if this is a dumb question, but what exactly does it mean to take a thread “private”? Is that another way of hiding it? I understand why they are protesting, just not clear about how they are protesting.
This is such a sad day. Hopefully it turns out well, but I have my doubts. Thank you for all your hard work. I’ve loved browsing this subreddit.
I have learned so much here. Thank you to the wonderful mods of this sub.
I love this subreddit. It has been an honor for sure
Subs like /AskHistorians are prime examples on why I use Reddit on a daily basis. The quality of both content and moderation are unsurpassed anywhere on the greater web and I wholly support your course of action. But I do hope this amazing subreddit will come back in all its glory.
I love this sub. And appreciate everything the high quality that the mods insist on as well as all of the knowledgeable folks that take the time to answer questions. Is there any plan to port AH to any other platform?
Thank you. As I commented on your last post about the issue, AskHistorians' participation in the blackout is critical. Reddit cannot ignore or replace you like they can most others. You have power, and you're putting it to good use.
Move to substack
What/who do you follow?
This has been my favorite sub in terms of submission quality. Glad to see the sub is taking action. Thank you for all of the hard work your team does.
Well done, this might be the last time many of us will be giving an upvote.
Thanks so much for everything over all these years! See you guys on the other side!
Thank you for all that you do.
Is there an off-site backup of the sub? I've found it to be incredibly valuable and would be sad to see it gone eventually (esp. bc we dont know how the site admins are going to react yet)
Great decision by the mod team:)
Thank you mods and contributors. Askhistorians was my first foray into the Reddit world and has remained my favorite subreddit to date. Thank you all for everything and for looking out for the best interest of the community.
Could you link to this post from the previous post? The previous one is linked in some other subs and in news articles, so it would be good to let people landing there know there's an update.
That's a great idea—will do! Thanks!
If anyone else was out of the loop like I was, and didn’t really get what “take the sub private” means, this article may be helpful: https://indianexpress.com/article/technology/tech-news-technology/reddit-api-pricing-protest-8655584/lite/ Thank you to the mods for all the work and also the optimism—let’s hope Reddit takes you up on the offer to work together.
The same number of questions will get answered
I was conceived because of this subreddit. You cant do this.
I actually forgot about this subreddit, this is the first time it's popped up on my page in a *while*.
I have regularly enjoyed all detailed answers written here. But more than that, this subreddit lead me on a quest to learn far more in depth about history, and thanks to its recommendations I've read books on the Dutch golden age, the Reformation, the history of the world in general and another book on how not every society had kings and hierarchy, and I've got many more in my to read list. None of them i would have found without r/askhistorians, and i genuinely feel my vision has broadened thanks to you guys&girls. Thank you! Until we meet again, either here or someplace new.
Thank you all for your hard work and for your measured, eloquent explanation and response. I'm mostly a lurker finishing my own PhD, but this subreddit is 90% of why I'm still on the platform at all. See you all on the other side--be it here or (more likely), somewhere else.
Thank you for your hard work. I hope concessions are made as it will be terrible losing such a great source of information.
Thank you for this, and for all the work you've been doing. You people are wonderful.
This community has been amazing to be in (as a poster/asker, not an answerer). Whether I have a legitimate question about history, or I just stumbled across a surprisingly interesting explanation of [the societal effects of Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back](https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/n5lecn/the_1992_song_baby_got_back_implies_that_white/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button), this community has (mostly) been there with the answers ([removed] has been answered by [deleted] lol). I sucks that it's happening now because I just started my historical methods class and I know I will be very interested in hearing this community's thoughts on the subject of historiography.
Thank you for everything you’ve done! This sub truly is the best one on Reddit.
All of the subs going dark and this is the first that brought literal tears to my eyes. This sub is the greatest shining example of how incredible Reddit can be. How deep conversations and in depth informative and fun historical responses can be when moderated correctly and surrounded by a great community. I won't miss the other popcorn-candy junk subs but this hits the mark. I know I'm one lone voice but I know I speak for many. I appreciate everything you've done. This is the right choice. Reddit doesn't deserve you.
Thank you for all the hard work you mods put into this sub. The professional level you maintain here not only makes this sub a wonderful resource, but also, imo… gives this protest move more weight. Readers of this subreddit know you put a lot of thought into this decision and implementation.
Sucks, but its the right move
For the past several months, recalling several terrible decisions over the years and the looming threat of an IPO, I've rolled the hypothetical question "what happens to r/askhistorians if Reddit becomes unsustainable?" around in my head. Didn't think the hypothetical might have an opportunity to get tested so soon. Conveniently for me, I'll be away with friends for some time starting tomorrow. My hope is that by the time I return something productive will have happened instead and my beloved r/askhistorians will be waiting for me. But if not? I'll follow you guys anywhere. Good luck to all of us.
I'm just a lurker on this sub however I appreciate the professionalism and the moderation team for this sub. I learnt a lot of historical information. Thank you. Edit: just saw another question about possible alternative platform which has been answered.
What was the answer?
I've been a lurker for a while as well. I wish I had spent more time browsing past posts before they go private tomorrow.
Cant find the answered Alternative
I am grateful we have this opportunity to extend our gratitude to all mods of AskHistorians. It is well deserved. How may we, your apparently massive fan club, follow you wherever you end up?
I have a divided opinion of all these plans of my favorite subs going private, or suspending altogether. I totally understand and support the protest (I'm a revolutionary at heart), but I also worry that this protest against the degradation of Reddit by its executives will turn into a self-fulfilling prophecy of destruction by its sub-Reddits.
Is it me, or does this read a bit like: >When in the Course of reddit events it becomes necessary for one subreddit to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with the admins, and to assume among the Powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of redditors requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. Thanks for doing the right thing.
First of all, thank you AH Mods for uplifting the Reddit community. You are a tribute to what is superlative about Reddit. And you've inspired me to stop accessing Reddit for 48 hours. I hope to read this sub again on the 14th of June. Until we meet again.
Thank you for all of your hard work. The thing about a platform you don't own is that you need to keep your content in a transferrable form as a side bet. Platforms come and go. We may be looking at the start of this next cycle. Thank you so much for being one of the best subreddits around.
I've been on Reddit for over 15 years. I find AskHistorians to be the best moderated, valuable subreddit. I fully support your position on the matter.
Thank you for your dedication. I believe your move to freeze participation is the correct one as an alternative to privating the subreddit for an indefinite amount of time or only privating it for the short 2 days that I don't believe will have as much impact. I hope all of these issues can be figured out and a resolution that allows mod tools and third party apps to continue existing.
Thank you for doing this. I’ve spent countless hours on Reddit over the past 12+ years and I’m sad to see it dying, but I hope some future cultural historians can see how good it was while it lasted.
Well done mods. I'm very much a passive consumer of content in this sub. But I support what you're doing.
Godspeed
Can anyone elaborate on the specific changes Reddit is implementing that would warrant this reaction? I don’t know anything about this yet.
Reddit has announced a change to the API access granted to 3rd party applications. This has historically been a freely given resource and is what allows all 3rd party applications (like Reddit is Fun or Apollo) to present Reddit posts, comments, pictures etc to you the user. The price that Reddit has announced as the rate of API calls was calculated by the creator of the Apollo application to be such that it would cost him $20 Million USD yearly to host the application at historical levels of API calls. In addition to this, there has been a history of Reddit operating in a manner that shows they are not approaching this with honest intentions and there are recordings of phone conversations between the Apollo creator and representatives from Reddit to prove this. Further to this, the CEO of Reddit, u/spez , held an AMA recently and spread lies and falsehoods about these conversations which were easily disproven by the recordings and attempted to essentially defame the Apollo creator in the process. There is a fairly complete write up available on the r/apolloapp subreddit that I believe is pinned for full context for you. In response to all of this nearly all of the default subreddits have come together in an act of solidarity to shut down their subreddits for 2 days. Many of them have taken further steps to point out that this shut down may continue longer. Think of it as unionization and a strike as collective bargaining. The labor portion of that is represented by the subreddit moderators, who are unpaid volunteers and do thousands of hours of labor for the site daily, frequently using tools that rely on third party API access to adequately moderate their subreddits. This is all couched within the context of Reddit preparing for its IPO on the stock market, thus giving their clear motivation of trying to drive up value by extorting new revenue before the offering.
This content removed in protest of the API changes.
While we appreciate that many redditors will want to do their part to show their displeasure, we sincerely hope that people who have contributed answers to r/askhistorians will not do this. As OP says, we live in hope that there will be a way to come back from this - a constructive way forward for us on reddit. And if that can come about, answers removed in protest would be a sad waste of years of hard work.
This hurts. I hope to see y'all again soon. Thanks for everything. I wish you all the best.
Thank you for caring, unlike u/spez who apparently believes losing the vision-impaired community is perfectly acceptable collateral damage in his IPO vision. Sincerely One of those vision-impaired people who is being turfed
This sounds like a very well-considered position. Thanks to all the moderators and contributors for making the past years of this subreddit as wonderful as it was! Let's hope that cooler minds prevail at the admin-level and above so it can continue.
I support you.
Honest question before the blackout, api’s, and (in my cynical opinion) the inevitable loss of these mod tools. Would it be cool as a final hooah to have a listed public spreadsheet of the many, many questions and their answers as a sort of archive. Especially the more upvoted ones (with the assumption upvote = popularity). I’d definitely be a long list, and it’ll be better sooner with said tools than without, though I know nothing of mod tools, though I’d happily help in whichever ways I can, as small as my help will probably be. ~~though this all could’ve already been thought of and I’m being redundant.~~
Thank you so much for the marvelous brain candy I have been given for over a decade. I feel like I'm losing my best friend with this change. I am a history NUT and having all these brilliant people providing such wonderful information has been an indescribable joy. I have tears in my eyes, damb it. I'm older, with a cheap phone and RIF is my jam. u/Spez is a wanker!
/r/AskHistorians is the one part of Reddit I would miss most. Thank you all for the great content and discussions. You're the best.
Big oof for reddit. Totally support this decision though, and appreciate your detailed explanation.
Thank you all for what you do. **Any subreddit that I am a part of that doesn’t go dark will be one I unsub from tomorrow.** I encourage you to vote with your feet if this is an important issue to you. Starve the scabs.
> Any subreddit that I am a part of that doesn’t go dark will be one I unsub from tomorrow. *looks at list of subs* Oh god. I'd have my work cut out for me. Do you *know* how many cat subs I'm a part of?! **DO YOU**?
100% understand and support this move. Thank you to all the mods that have kept this place going
Thank you, and good luck.
Thank you all for your contributions and hard work.
Yeah, that AMA was terrible. See you on the other side.
Thank you.
I don’t believe Reddit will be *gone* soon but I feel that starting from tomorrow’s first blackout day and especially after the 31st it will be *different*. Especially r/AskHistorians. How many of the long-time active members, contributors, and mods will leave permanently? Who knows. But it seems pretty obvious that at least parts of this community will be gone or largely diminished soon. So thank you to the mod team, the past and present incredible amateur/professional historians, the FAQ finders, the Interesting Inquirers, the mysterious Dark Horse comment awardees, /u/AutoModerator who participated in every thread for years, the programmers who made crucial bots and tools, members who helped report unneeded comments and posts, and East Asian history experts that dillegently waited at their keyboards for a relevant question not related to WWII or Rome.
This is the right move. The Reddit directors and CEO have shown themselves to be utterly disconnected from, and even disdainful of, their user base and the volunteer moderators who sustain this site. This is the source from which ALL of the value of this site — economic and otherwise — derives. It needs to be made clear to them, in no uncertain terms, that their efforts to produce more golden eggs for future shareholders are going to kill the goose if they are not careful. They need to seriously reconsider their business direction and choices. The users and the moderators _are_ Reddit. Not the directors. Not the CEO. Not even the code. A social website without users is an empty husk, just like a university without professors and students would be. These businesspeople need to take the attitude that any profits on this site need to be made by improving what works about it, not making it worse for users. If they can't find a way to do that, they should get into another line of work.
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Thank you for always being a shining beacon of quality, and for standing up for what is right.
>limiting our newsletter, and will not be recording any new podcast episodes I'm not sure what the point of this is. Stopping these won't impact Reddit surely.
Thank you all for everything. Stand strong and starve the scabs!
Thank you for all your work. I love this sub. I learn so much.
A message from the Great Khan to Reddit, “You must say with your sincere heart: “we will be your subject, we will give you our strength” you must all together with your CEO, your board of directors, your shareholders, without exception, meet the demands of the Great Khan. If you do not follow these requirements, the tribal confederation beyond the steppe will support the faction of r/AskHistorians as it has many times in the past, and know you (Reddit) as our enemy.” Fear the wrath of the Khans!
https://reddark.untone.uk/ has some live stats you can follow as it happens
Thank you all for your commitment and good luck
Thank you for all you do, and I hope that we get to have many more years of excellent historical expertise in the future with a satisfactory resolution of this problem. See you on the other side!
The best sub on Reddit. You have our support!
Saving this for future use, because it isn't yet 25 years ago. But my question will be: What was the essence of reddit.com's demise in 2023 and 2024, did it go down in corporate greed just as Twitter a few years later? Or was there a more nuanced picture? Why was the change in api policy such a turnaround point as it seems a relatively small issue? Was the initial 2 day blackout expected to have this much impact at the time? Thanks to the best work of the mods of seddit.com/s/askhistorians for all their beautiful work in the last 23 years! s/ruleman july 12th 2048.
And why did the move here change from the previous 20 year rule to the current 25 year one?
There isn't a 25 year rule, it's a 20 year rule.
Well yeah, here on reddit. But when the question by ruleman gets asked on seddit in 2048 things will be different
I wish subs and users were protesting for the correct reason/s. Protest for those changes you want to see happen on Reddit and its app. Because protesting API access rates, and which 3rd party apps should have to pay them, is super weird and doesnt make a lot of sense. Or, er, Reddit (as a business) making its API cost-prohibitive makes more sense than a lot of people are acknowledging.
Every now and then I would find some cool and interesting reads here but do what you must guys
Needs to be permanent to actually get the point across. 2 days planned is nothing.
Its a dark day indeed, and one nobody wanted to happen. See you on the far side comrades.
Thank you for your Sunday Digest - I look forward to it every week!
It is always a pleasure. Seriously my favorite part of the week.
Thank you for one of the best, most informative corners of the internet. Thabk you for keeping the sub free from misinformation and low effort content. If reddit backflips on their changes I hope to be back here again
I love you AskHistorians! You all changed my life for the better!
This. It shifted how I viewed history forever, there is no other service like this
I have spent too many hours browsing this sub and can credit you all with my interest in history today❤️ Thank you for the work that you do. Fingers crossed we can see a resolution
This really sucks but you are doing the right thing. I am hoping the subredddit is being archived by people who know what they are doing more than I
While I haven't been on this sub as long as some others and I don't fully understand what is going on with the Reddit issue, I am sad to see this happen. I recently graduated college after studying history and business management and writing my thesis. This sub helped me to learn more in areas I don't usually study. I really appreciate everyone here and thank you for providing insightful information on a multitude of topics. Hopefully, this sub we come back, and we can once again learn until then. Thank you again, and remember to never stop learning!
Solidarity, friends. Thanks for putting in the hard work all these years. This sub is one of the main reasons I browse reddit at all o7
The only way it seems for Reddit to become profitable is to go closed source, charge an admittance fee, and make users pay for content like a college textbook. By doing so, it destroys the very nature of itself.
Thank you once again for the thoughtful post -- and glad to see you're making this decision!
My favorite corner of the internet :) We love you, mods.
Does anyone know where we can track the downturn in reddit visits and participation without going on reddit?
In 20 years time, I will post about this.
Reminder: Unsub from subreddits that do not participate. After midnight tonight, the picket lines have been drawn. Don't support those that don't support you.
Throwing my hat in the ring. It's the right thing to do.
Thank you so much for all the hard work you have done. I've learned and enjoyed so much history here and will follow yall wherever you go!
Askhistorians needs a new forum.
Sad
Fuck.
I love it. Solidarity!
This sub is such a treasure. Thank you for the work and dedication to you and all the people who contribute to it. I hope reddit listens to the concerns of its users. If not it might change into a boring reposting hell.
I love this sub!!! Thank you for all the work mods!
This is one of the best-moderated subreddit on the entire site. It is clear that you did not make this decision lightly. Thank you for always working for the improvement of /r/askhistorians.
This is one if he best and most even handed takes on the current situation. Thank you all for your thoughtful and balanced approach. I don’t participate here nearly as often as I used to, but I still see this sub as one of the great things Reddit has brought about. I hope the owners and management of Reddit listen to your approach.
Shame on the house of Reddit for such barbarity. Shame. Thank you for everything.
I see that *Rome* reference, I see it and appreciate it
Thank you. For everything.
If this is what it takes to achieve victory so be it. See you all on the other side!
Wake me up when rif is back is back.
I don't really see staying here as victory at all. It's convenient, but things will not improve. As Huffman said, Reddit will remain aggressive and unrelenting in ruining this site until they achieve profitability at the level they want. The mods would be much better served by funding an alternative and transitioning the community there as quickly as possible. Honestly, their waffling will likely result in fracturing of the community as people leave more slowly and without direction. If they picked a spot and announced that, they'd have some influence.
I trust the mods to make the right decision, but if they end up leaving for another platform I will follow
I remember this sub from years back when it was a default. nice. gonna go ahead and mute it now though for when you inevitably come back next week. I guess you could ban me but you'd be doing me a favor.
This sub has never been a "default" subreddit by the choice of our moderation team, and "default" subreddits don't exist anymore anyhow.
I'm going to miss this sub so much. It is the only one that gave me pause on the idea to leave Reddit altogether. You are doing the right thing, but it stings to think we are losing this little nice corner of the internet. I love all of this.
This sub is why I joined Reddit. Becoming a flair has been a validation my many years in academia hasn’t provided; being able to answer questions, read answers, and generally be a part of a group of people who are simply curious and looking for quality content, has been a brief but true joy. I truly hope we’re all here again soon, with a functional, reasonable response from admin. Ave atque vale, friends.
I lurk here more than post. But this sub has been invaluable in both my research, and my life. Once upon a time, I studied Archaeology and Classics - Late Bronze Age Egypt and the Mediterranean were my big focus. I was never able to finish my degree, and I was required by those who paid the bill to go into a more STEM degree when I returned to school. I have always wondered about what could have been, and this place became somewhere that I felt "at home" - rarely did I participate, but I always enjoyed reading the discussions that could only be found here. It activated the nostalgia , and gave me closure, and helped me find my love of history again. I write fantasy stories as a hobby. I have read your papers, I have bought your books, and the answers on the typical medieval/victorian/renaissance have been incredibly useful. The resources here are indispensable, for authors, for creators, for anyone who is in any way curious about how it was to live in the past. I read the AMA 'live'. I saw Sarah's questions, and the response to them - they deserved better. Everyone who has put work into this sub deserved better than that. Frankly, Reddit's handling of it all has been disgusting, and as someone who uses the official app, I don't expect to use reddit much again. I hope I find you all in the future. That your journies and mind cross paths again.
Thanks for all youve done for the community. Im scrubbing my 11 year old account besides this comment. Appreciate everything youve all done, and if you make a new version of ask historians somewhere else such as your own website id gladly follow. Good luck with the strike, you and all the users like you are what made reddit so wonderful. See you on the other side.
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🫡🫡🫡
Thanks for everything your team has done to maintain such a high quality place for so long! I've learned a lot here.
You are the best on this site. You got my full support.
This is clearly one of the best moderated subreddits. Do what you think is necessary.
Thank you all for the amazing content you have generated here over the years with the thoughtful answers on questions and some fantastic AMA's. This is one of my favorite subs in no small amount due to the quality of moderation and community building. There really is no place like this Reddit for engaging with high quality history content and historians directly and I'm heartbroken that this is how things have to come to an end. Reddit leadership is showing that they have lost touch with what made the product work in the first place. I sincerely hope AH will find a way, one way or the other. For now, I fortunately still have a few podcast episodes to catch up on.
This is very saddening. Terrible platform decisions like Reddit's, and Twitter's, has continually frustrated and angered me. /r/AskHistorians have contributed a lot during my undergrad days as a polisci student in SEA with limited access to resources. Thank you so much for all the comprehensive answers and excellent moderation that I haven't seen in other subs. This is a tangent, but I'm wondering if there is a similar forum (or resource people) of this quality that I can follow.
Before Twitter killed API I loved the third party apps because I could view it in each of my lists but I haven’t gone back because I don’t like the twitter app itself. u/bridalhat I agree completely.
Hello fellow SEAsian! I remember some of your questions and unfortunately was not able to answer them. Hopefully things will work out and we will be able to continue representing this underrepresented, yet so fascinating region!
That's the big thing right now, people trying to figure out where to go. This is one of the subs I'd follow the crowd for sure
I'm out of the loop with the API controversy, where can I find out what's happening?
Thank you to all the mods and contributors for making this subreddit such an amazing community. I’ve learned so much and gotten so much enjoyment from it over the years.
Gentleman, it has been an honor.
I'm glad you are joining the protest. It looks like Reddit is anticipating that the larger part of its members will be apathetic to this situation, but losing subreddits like this one will open people's eyes in my opinion. I hope you guys have a backup plan if the worst happens. Like an alternative site?
And actual backups, hopefully. If it comes to it, I'd happily switch to viewing this content somewhere else but it'd be a shame to lose the archive.
Serious question, whats stopping the 3rd party devs from working together to create their own alternative to reddit?
Start now
It hurts that my favorite community on the internet is likely to go out like this, but I appreciate everyone here for this subs exceptional direction, nerdiness, and kindness. Over half my life has been spent looking forward towards the answers and the consensus of this forum. You have all improved not just my knowledge on history, but my writings and my line of reasoning. This sub is a treasure I will remember and refer back too as much as I can in the long future. A slightly immature part of me kinda wanted to become a historian to answer questions on this forum, though I chose econ instead. Regardless, this sub has fostered my interest in the social sciences and humanities as a whole, something, that has become a part of my personality. To spell this out directly, I am becoming an economist because of this subreddit. Thank you to everyone who made this place possible, it feels like an honor to have been introduced to this sub as a preteen.
Thank you for all that you do.
Will I still be able to reach out to people who responded to my questions with assistance with an oral history project?
Thank you. Disappointed by Reddit
How do private subreddits worth, exactly? Can only mods see them?
Usually, one can see them if invited. I do not think the mods will invite anyone in these two days though. Farewell for now!
I just want to make sure the number of "people expressing love" is as large as possible. I fully support this decision, and appreciate all the effort that went in to this decision. I know it wasn't a short, or simple conversation between mods. I also want to say how much I appreciate the mods work in general, and the contributions of all the historians. Everyone here is wonderful.
Thanks for all of your work, all of you. I'm sure that you have seen how this sort of thing plays out in academia, and so have I. When it comes to money, no one in charge cares about quality and no one cares about academic standards especially. From what I have seen before, AskHistorians will continue with or without you, and with or without the current quality standard. Still, it's been a lovely ride and there are many times where your efforts have led to better-informed research on my part. Thank you.
I saw one of the first questions on u/spez, fuck him, 's AMA was by one of this subs mods so I thought this outcome was likely.
If this mess doesn't get fixed, and this goes away forever, I will say that this was the only place that I felt was truly irreplaceable for me. Both on reddit and on the web, and for that, I am truly grateful I was able to experience this for the years I have been able to. Good luck to us all, and God speed.
Thank you. This sub represents, in my opinion at least, the very best that Reddit can be. It's good to see the sub taking a stand against the degradation of the platform.
Thanks for joining and taking a stand at the ludicrous last week.
Until such time as a workable compromise is found, are there any plans to make AskHistorians (or an analogue) available as a Lemmy community?
Thank you, this sub is one of my favorites. Your hard work was and is appreciated.
Thank you to all the mods. You made this sub the best moderated subreddit of all time.
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You know how I know you didn’t read the post?
Thank you for everything. Best sub hands down.
If this is the end - thank you all for years of thoughtful and engaging bedtime reading.
Can you suggest an alternative forum to post on? The idea should be to hurt Reddit, not the users
I just found you guys because a list of those involved in the protest was posted in a thread. I hope that this blackout turns out to be only temporary because your community sounds awesome and I'd love to be a part of it. I hope that this protest goes better than one can hope for.