https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/8p0s9b/roundtable_21_be_kindremind_the_mod_approved/
created by Georgy_K_Zhukov on 06/06/2018 at 13:53 UTC*
98 upvotes, 2 top-level comments (showing 2)
EDIT: The AskHistorians Browser Extension is a thing now[1]!
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As any long time reader of this subreddit knows, writing an answer takes time, and often (but not always!) considerably more time than it takes for those first thousand or so upvotes to propel the question to the top of the subreddit, or even into /r/all. While both experience and analytics[2] show that for these popular threads, a suitable answer almost always comes along eventually, we of course can appreciate the frustration of arriving in a thread before it does, and the tedium of waiting for one to do so. Additionally of course, for those of you who *don't* visit /r/AskHistorians 20+ times per day though, this means that you might see an interesting and unanswered question in the afternoon, and when you log in the next day, completely forget to check back, meaning you never actually get around to reading the answer!
Now, while the most obvious solution to this problem is to, in fact, visit /r/AskHistorians 20+ times per day, we do realize that isn't realistic for *everyone*. There are a ton of ways, however, to stay on top of the content created on the subreddit every day, and while there are likely some we aren't remembering here, we hope that this will provide a fairly comprehensive guide on the various ways to be reminded of things to check back on, as well as more generally 'skip right to the answers'.
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The RemindMeBot is a third-party service more fully documented at its dedicated subreddit /r/RemindMeBot. While we *don't* allow 'RemindMeBot' comments to be posted directly to the subreddit, we do highly recommend using the service, via Private Message, as one way to make sure that you don't forget about an interesting question you want to check back on later. The entire process is detailed in this post[3], and for those who want to streamliine the process, there is even a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox, found here[4], which will give you fuller control of the process.
3: /r/RemindMeBot/comments/24duzp/remindmebot_info/
4: /r/RemindMeBot/comments/4kldad/remindmebot_extensions/
For those of you who have the 'Reddit Enhancement Suite' installed (which you really should!), found at /r/Enhancement, one of the many features it offers is a "Subscribe" feature. Clicking on "Subscribe[5]" will ensure that you receive notification of new comments[6] to that specific thread for the next two days, after which the subscription expires.
5: https://i.imgur.com/JVnFcVT.jpg
6: https://i.imgur.com/PyFOItE.jpg
Although perhaps not as robust as those third-party options, there are several 'native' options with reddit. The most obvious, perhaps, is Reddit's "Save" feature. Saving a Post or Comment places it in "www.reddit.com/user/[username]/saved" so you can go back and check[7] whether there is an answer later.
7: https://i.imgur.com/PyOGInN.jpg
This feature can be considerably enhanced, as well, by combining it with IFTTT[8]. One Reddit based 'Applet' option uses the Trigger "New post saved by you", which I have set up to send me an email digest every Sunday morning of everything I saved that week.
Even more simple than the save option is "www.reddit.com/user/[username]/upvoted", which keeps track of all the threads that you have upvoted on the site[9]! As with the "Save" feature, this allowed you to go back and review the threads you found interesting before. This, too, can be set up with IFTTT triggers, "New upvoted post by you", but that might be a bit more unwieldy as an email digest. Each to their own though!
9: https://i.imgur.com/xcVXO1v.jpg
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Of course, the above is all intended to help you remember to check back on specific threads. And while to be sure, we think its quite useful to have reminders to do just that, take it from someone who probably *does* visit /r/AskHistorians 20+ times per day, there is almost always great content that you are missing! There are a number of ways that the Mod team highlights this content however, each of which offers a different, but complementary way to read the great content created here daily.
Our fantastic Twitter team keeps a well-stocked feed of new content daily[10], as well as the occasional '#tbt' for a walk down memory-lane. If you've always wished there was an "Answered[11]" flair, this is probably what you're looking for! We don't promise these to be the final word, but we do guarantee that you'll be getting a wide variety of interesting content.
10: https://i.imgur.com/GhObqLP.jpg
Our Facebook feed is a little slower paced than Twitter, generally focused on one update per day[12], highlighting something we absolutely loved in the past few days, or reviving an absolute classic from the archives. While Twitter might keep you up-to-date on the day-to-day, Facebook is where to go to see what is making the mods go "Wow!"
12: https://i.imgur.com/YqeHSlu.jpg
Every Sunday, the intrepid /u/AutoModerator posts the Sunday Digest, where Mods, Flairs, and Users post links to their favorite content from the past week. Be sure to check in during the day and see what the other members of the community have been enjoying! Contributing isn't just a way to help others find interesting things to read, but also a way to let the writers know that you appreciated their work!
At the conclusion of each month, we crawl through the Sunday Digest and the Tweets from the past ~30 days looking for the content that really stood out as the best the subreddit has to offer. The winners are collected together on our subreddit Wiki (and also will compete against each other for the "Best of the Year", eventually), and *all* the nominated posts can be found in the voting threads which are linked there as well, providing a large backlog of incredible content to take up more than a few lazy afternoons.
Although not every member of the Flair community maintains one, many of our experts have a Profile page on our subreddit Wiki where they highlight their own content. Some keep them meticulously updated[13], while others might not be quite so punctilious[14], but if you are interested in taking a peek into the subreddit archives, the profiles provide an excellent window to what the contributors *themselves* are most proud of!
13: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/profiles/georgy_k_zhukov
14: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/profiles/gingerkid1234
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In conclusion, the above, we hope, will help provide both new and old users some useful tips for getting more out of the subreddit, both in terms of staying on top of the newest content, as well as discovering the older stuff that you may have missed. There are likely other methods not included here, and we'd of course welcome you to share your own tips and tricks, which we can maybe include in V. 2.0 of this thread!
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This is the newest installment of our Roundtable series exploring the rules and conventions of the sub. For earlier threads, please check here[15].
15: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/wiki/faq/meta#wiki_rules_discussion
Comment by Jetamors at 07/06/2018 at 00:05 UTC
11 upvotes, 0 direct replies
It's more of a firehose approach, but another way to find new answers quickly is to go to https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/[1] , which shows all comments in the sub. I don't browse it that often, but when I do I often see answers I might not have noticed otherwise.
1: https://www.reddit.com/r/AskHistorians/comments/
Comment by [deleted] at 06/06/2018 at 19:31 UTC
1 upvotes, 1 direct replies
[deleted]