Community guides · Education
What r/history actually upvotes (and what gets removed)
Drop a comment in r/history and you're entering a space where declarations don't carry weight — explanations do. Walk through your thinking.
What's hot in r/history now
What people are actually discussing
Top threads from the last month — what's getting engagement right now.
What this sub rewards
How replies earn upvotes here
- Back specific claims with evidence — research, data, or named sources. Primary sources beat secondary. Wikipedia is a starting point, not a citation.
- Acknowledge limitations, trade-offs, or uncertainty when relevant. Mark what's contested vs settled. Historical interpretation evolves; physics doesn't.
- Offer multiple options or perspectives, not a single prescription. Name 2–3 frameworks for the same question. Single-framework answers get pushback.
What good looks like
Real comments that landed in r/history
Two recent highly-upvoted replies. Notice what they have in common — concrete, no preamble, no self-promotion.
"Stefen Zweig in his book the world of yesterday ( a great book describing the pre fascist Europe ) said about Paris : ‘To love Paris properly, you ought really to have known Berlin first, experiencing the natural servility of Germany with its rigit class differences, painfully clearly delineated, in which the officer's wife did not talk to the teacher's…"
"Some of those writings occurred during the transition period between a cold period and a warmer period so it was just them trying to find reasons for the change when in reality said change had nothing at all to do with humans. The Crete section at the top, for example, would align with the Iron Age Cold Epoch.. It can't…"
Your pre-reply checklist
Before you hit Reply — four quick checks
Does my comment add something specific, not just an opinion?
A useful reply names a number, a method, a personal experience, or a concrete example. If you could replace your draft with "I agree" and lose nothing, rewrite.
Have I read the top 3 comments already on this thread?
If the highest-upvoted reply already says what you were about to say, your comment will sink. Add what's missing — counterexamples, edge cases, the next step — not what's there.
Would my reply still work if my username was removed?
If it only makes sense because it promotes you, your product, or your platform, this sub will spot it. Frame the value as "this solved it for me," not "check out my…"
Did I skim the sidebar rules one more time?
Every sub has at least one rule that surprises outsiders — peer-review only, no images, no specific tags, no off-topic. Five seconds in the sidebar can save you a removal.
Want to draft this reply with the rules already baked in?
Try Redimates — free, 10 replies / week