r/history vs r/AskHistorians

Side-by-side using public descriptions, members, growth and rule titles from SubMouse. Missing fields show as n/a. Adult communities are excluded.

Swap sides New comparison Related to r/history Related to r/AskHistorians

Open history discussion vs sourced historical answers

r/history invites articles, books and discussion about the past, with rules that keep politics current and ban negationism/alternate history. r/AskHistorians calls itself a portal for public history: questions must seek in-depth answers, and shallow replies are removed.

Both have SubMouse community pages (history about 18.8M, rank #45; AskHistorians about 2.9M, rank #380). Activity samples diverge: AskHistorians is busier in our window (roughly 82 text posts per day) than history (roughly 12 with a mix of text, video and links), fitting a Q&A format against a slower discussion/link room. Each lists the other as related.

Collected short rule titles are the chooser’s signal. history limits discussion to events over 20 years ago and bans soapboxing. AskHistorians requires comprehensive answers, sources on request, and rejects speculative or anecdotal top-level replies. Browse and chat in history; ask for a careful, sourced answer in AskHistorians.

r/history: articles and discussion; events >20 years ago; no negationism (collected titles).
r/AskHistorians: in-depth answers only; sources on request; no speculative top-level replies (collected titles).
They list each other as related. Both have full SubMouse community pages.

Written comparison based on public descriptions and rule titles · updated 2026-11-06.

r/history

History

r/history is a place for discussions about history. Feel free to submit interesting articles, tell us about this cool book you just read, or start a discussion about who everyone's favorite figure of minor French nobili…

Members: 18.8M
7-day growth: +1.6K
Posts/day: 11.8
Directory rank: #45
Created: Jan 25, 2008
Submissions: Text or links

Sample mix: text posts 38%, videos 33%, links 30%

Topics: History

Rule titles (short names we collected)

Rule 1: Keep it civil!
Rule 2: No current politics or soapboxing
Rule 3: No historical negationism, denialism or alternate history.
Rule 4: Comments should be on-topic and contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way
Rule 5: Discussions limited to events over 20 years ago
Rule 6: Post in the right subreddit
Rule 7: Follow the rules and guidelines of reddit
Rule 8: Post from the original site.
Rule 9: Text posts require actual research and must be sourced
Rule 10: Titles of links should accurately describe the content not be sensationalized or misleading
Rule 11: No using AI's to write your answers for you
No Atrocity Olympics

Open r/history on SubMouse

r/AskHistorians

AskHistorians

The Portal for Public History. Please read the rules before participating, as we remove all comments which break the rules. Answers must be in-depth and comprehensive, or they will be removed.

Members: 2.9M
7-day growth: +5.3K
Posts/day: 82
Directory rank: #380
Created: Aug 28, 2011
Submissions: Text posts

Sample mix: text posts 100%, links 0%

Rule titles (short names we collected)

Users shall behave with courtesy and politeness
Questions should be clear and specific, be asked in good faith, and seek an in-depth answer
Questions should be historical in nature, and ask for more than basic facts
Users should be able to provide sources on request
Answers must be in-depth and comprehensive
Answers should reflect knowledge and familiarity with the topic at hand
Answers should not be speculative or anecdotal
No questions that are soapboxing, or about events and politics <20 years
No political agendas or moralising in answers
Answers should not be only links or quotations
Answers must be original work, and cite all quotes
Comments should not consist solely of jokes

Open r/AskHistorians on SubMouse

Supported differences

Aspect	r/history	r/AskHistorians
Public focus (from each community’s public description)	r/history is a place for discussions about history. Feel free to submit interesting articles, tell us about this cool book you just read, or start a discussion about who everyone's favorite figure of minor French nobili…	The Portal for Public History. Please read the rules before participating, as we remove all comments which break the rules. Answers must be in-depth and comprehensive, or they will be removed.
Size r/history is larger in our directory (about 6.4×).	18.8M members	2.9M members
Posting activity (our sample)	11.8/day	82/day
Common post types in our sample	text posts 38%, videos 33%, links 30%	text posts 100%, links 0%
Allowed submission type (meta)	Text or links	Text posts
Topic tags on SubMouse	History	n/a
Selected rule titles (short names we collected)	Rule 1: Keep it civil!; Rule 2: No current politics or soapboxing; Rule 3: No historical negationism, denialism or alternate history.; Rule 4: Comments should be on-topic and contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way; Rule 5: Discussions limited to events over 20 years ago	Users shall behave with courtesy and politeness; Questions should be clear and specific, be asked in good faith, and seek an in-depth answer; Questions should be historical in nature, and ask for more than basic facts; Users should be able to provide sources on request; Answers must be in-depth and comprehensive

What they share

Our directory lists each of these communities on the other’s related list.

Rule titles that matter for choosers

history: Keep it civil; No current politics or soapboxing; No historical negationism/denialism/alternate history; on-topic comments; events over 20 years ago; post from the original site. AskHistorians: courtesy; clear good-faith questions; answers must be in-depth and comprehensive; sources on request; no speculative or anecdotal answers; no soapboxing or politics under 20 years.

Where this comparison comes from

Public descriptions, member counts and related links from SubMouse’s safe-for-work directory. Short rule titles and activity samples collected for both. Short titles only.

Members and public descriptions come from SubMouse's safe-for-work directory (as of 2026-11-02 UTC); 7-day growth measured from 2026-10-26. Posts/day and post-type mixes appear when we have an activity sample. Rule lines are short titles, not the full sidebar. Directory rank is listing order — communities outside the current Top 100 open in the info tool instead of a full community page.