AskHistorians
Shares rank 15 of 17 discussion forums by recommenders
Praised for sourced answers, strict moderation, and civil discussion with no junk that sparks curiosity about history. Critics say threads often get locked for breaking obscure rules.
Praised for sourced answers, strict moderation, and civil discussion with no junk that sparks curiosity about history. Critics say threads often get locked for breaking obscure rules.
6 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 5
- criticize it
- 1
- approval share
- 83%
Recommended in 4 of 13 months
- November 2025: recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: recommended
- March 2026: not recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 5 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 5 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 4 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Sourced answers with strict moderation
“AskHistorians is legitimately a great resource, with sources provided and very strict moderation”
Comment from 6 Nov 2025 in “Kimi K2 Thinking, a SOTA open-source trillion-parameter reasoning model” Fills gaps and sparks curiosity
“It's filled in both so many gaps and made me increasingly curious about many periods/places”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Those who can, teach history” Civil discussion, no flamewars
“It's oddly refreshing. No flamewars, no junk comments”
Comment from 6 Dec 2025 in “Schizophrenia sufferer mistakes smart fridge ad for psychotic episode” Described as a gem
“Unironically, the AskHistorians subreddit is a gem.”
Comment from 26 Feb 2026 in “Those who can, teach history”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Threads often locked over obscure rules
“9/10 times it gets locked for breaking some obscure rule.”
Comment from 29 Sep 2026 in “Does Reddit have an astroturfing problem? What the data suggests”
Other discussion forums people recommend
The four most recommended other discussion forums, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hacker News | 361 | 156 | 70% | 12 | 10 yrs17 owners | Approved |
| 261 | 988 | 21% | 13 | 14 yrs54 owners | — | |
| Lobsters | 105 | 31 | 77% | 12 | 10 yrs4 owners | Approved |
| Old Reddit | 60 | 47 | 56% | 12 | — | — |
| AskHistoriansThis page | 5 | 1 | 83% | 4 | — | — |
What people said
5 of the 6 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“9/10 times it gets locked for breaking some obscure rule.”
“It's filled in both so many gaps and made me increasingly curious about many periods/places”
“Unironically, the AskHistorians subreddit is a gem.”
“It's oddly refreshing. No flamewars, no junk comments”
“AskHistorians is legitimately a great resource, with sources provided and very strict moderation”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.