3 upvotes, 3 direct replies (showing 3)
View submission: Introducing the Rules Roundtables 2.0: The AskHistorians Mission
One thing, and this isn’t a rule that should be added, but a suggestion that should be put on the rules list.
The best way to get a question answered is to DM a flaired user.
Comment by Libertat at 23/02/2020 at 17:09 UTC*
23 upvotes, 0 direct replies
I don't think this is a good idea, frankly.
There are ways used by moderators or even flaired user to point to questions that could be answered by specific flaired users, if they have the time, motivation or desire to do so. I wouldn't be surprised that these reminders or propositions of cooperations would provide for a significant part of answered posts by flairs, altough it's more of a gut feeling. Questions aren't ignored by flaired users, either because we look at the subreddit directly, or because we're reminded that "hey, this question looks like something you could answer".
But, on private ~~and public~~ grounds, suggesting to actively and directly go for DMing flairs would be problematic.
Eventually, it would be more decent and polite to give a flaired user their own autonomy and agency when it comes to answer the question they want, how they want (as long it is along AH rules) without being directly "called" : and that's not even mentioning the risk of abuse. Unfortunately, several mods and flairs were insulted or threatened due to their answers or even general principles : I'm afraid I can see how much of a shitstorm it could be if a flaired user declined or didn't want to answer questions made by entitled, rude, sexist, racist, xenophobic, nationalist, etc. people (this *is* Reddit, after all). Granted it could happen, and *did* happen, all the same : but we don't need to be enabled by an "ask directly" suggestion.
~~Answering privately to a sole redditor not only touches...well, only one redditor (assuming they're still interested on the question which, giving the number of detailed and worked answers that are left without even an acknowledgement from OP, is far from systematical). And this redditor wouldn't even been guaranteed the same level of quality than a public answer would do : a flaired user is definitely able to botch their answer, to not represent all the aspects of the topic, and to simply miss something that another flaired user might complete or correct. Being "flaired" alone doesn't give a seal of quality : publicitty of his answers, regular demonstration of their academic familiarity and moderation of their posts does.~~
Comment by CoeurdeLionne at 23/02/2020 at 17:14 UTC
13 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The moderators do DM flaired users about rising answers. Zhukov even sent me DMs before I was officially flaired! Of course, we can’t always get to every answer that falls into our subject matter. Not all of us are historians employed in academia with access to University sources, so sometimes we can be limited to our personal collections - an issue I come across frequently.
Additionally, many flaired users have profiles, which you can access through the sidebar (or the ‘About’ section on mobile). Many people have a “contact” policy in their profile.
Comment by WelfOnTheShelf at 24/02/2020 at 01:24 UTC
4 upvotes, 1 direct replies
My thoughts are essentially the same as Libertat and CoeurdeLionne.
DMing might be a good way to get an answer, but I would say it's not really in the spirit of AH - if you have a question, why not ask it publicly, so more people will see both the question and the answer? From my perspective, if I'm giving an answer, it's much more fun if everyone can see it. (Although sometimes the question/answer is effectively a DM anyway, if nobody but the OP and I ever read it...)
Also, a DM is asking for a commitment that the flaired user might not be able to give. There are lots of questions that I could answer, but I just don't have time, or, I don't know, maybe I just don't feel like it that day, you know? So if the question is public, hopefully someone else can work on it, or maybe I can save it and come back to it someday.