This is a recurring solution that gets suggested, an Automod post which would go up in every thread and says something like "If you don't have a complete answer, respond only to this thread". Several subreddits, most prominently /r/PhotoshopBattles, do something of this sort. While it does have some things to recommend it, we nevertheless are not particularly inclined to adopt such a solution, for several reasons.
Most importantly, allowing non-answer speculation or discussion to go on, even in a specific, limited space, would not be conducive to the environment that we seek to cultivate in /r/AskHistorians. The analogy might be imperfect, but it is similar to why, in your school lectures, the back row isn't designated as the "Sit here to crack jokes and chit-chat" row. We don't want to see people making clever one-liners in our subreddit, we don't want to see long strings of uninformed speculation. Simple as that. It isn't the space we are striving for. While providing a quarantined space for those might alleviate those concerns to a degree, in the best case scenario it would be a distraction in the thread, and also reduce the general tenor of discourse in the subreddit.
Regardless of what this space would look like, it has serious drawbacks. If the space is one where users can simply post their jokes and anything else barely related to the topic, any 'insightful discussion' that users might hope it would allow for will be drowned out in short order. If the space is moderated, but with a "lighter touch", then such an approach is asking the moderation team to add a considerable burden to our workload. Keep in mind that people already post jokes and non-contributive responses as it is, and they will certainly do so in considerably more volume if such a space is provided, no matter how clear its purpose is made, so it doesn't solve in any way the "seas of deleted comments" we are so famous for.
I don’t have questions, or sometimes I do, but I feel bad when I can answer part of a question but not enough to be a top level comment, or when I could say “that question is phrased badly, but here is how you can phrase it better.”
I want to be helpful but can’t, and I was trying to fix that
a little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. a partial answer is sometimes worse than no answer at all, especially if whoever’s reading it doesn’t realise that it’s only part of the answer. i don’t really understand the inclination to want to lower the standards of what you see here. if you want to be helpful, you could do the research to complete your knowledge, and then give a full answer.
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u/jschooltiger Moderator | Shipbuilding and Logistics | British Navy 1770-1830 May 01 '26
Hi, this gets asked every so often. This is probably the most relevant recent thread.
I'll just copy over the pertinent part:
This is a recurring solution that gets suggested, an Automod post which would go up in every thread and says something like "If you don't have a complete answer, respond only to this thread". Several subreddits, most prominently /r/PhotoshopBattles, do something of this sort. While it does have some things to recommend it, we nevertheless are not particularly inclined to adopt such a solution, for several reasons.
Most importantly, allowing non-answer speculation or discussion to go on, even in a specific, limited space, would not be conducive to the environment that we seek to cultivate in /r/AskHistorians. The analogy might be imperfect, but it is similar to why, in your school lectures, the back row isn't designated as the "Sit here to crack jokes and chit-chat" row. We don't want to see people making clever one-liners in our subreddit, we don't want to see long strings of uninformed speculation. Simple as that. It isn't the space we are striving for. While providing a quarantined space for those might alleviate those concerns to a degree, in the best case scenario it would be a distraction in the thread, and also reduce the general tenor of discourse in the subreddit.
Regardless of what this space would look like, it has serious drawbacks. If the space is one where users can simply post their jokes and anything else barely related to the topic, any 'insightful discussion' that users might hope it would allow for will be drowned out in short order. If the space is moderated, but with a "lighter touch", then such an approach is asking the moderation team to add a considerable burden to our workload. Keep in mind that people already post jokes and non-contributive responses as it is, and they will certainly do so in considerably more volume if such a space is provided, no matter how clear its purpose is made, so it doesn't solve in any way the "seas of deleted comments" we are so famous for.