This whole thread is great so I figured I'd throw on my comparisons too.
A single-author blog isn't going to get as much readership as a big reddit like @askhistorians , but of course it also gives me more freedom in content and style - tradeoffs. 1/
A single-author blog isn't going to get as much readership as a big reddit like @askhistorians , but of course it also gives me more freedom in content and style - tradeoffs. 1/
To recap their numbers were top-tier recent article at 17,048 views and 1,230 downloads, and best-this-month r/askhistorians thread at c. 200,000 views and around 1.7k upvotes.
Which should get more historians interested in r/askhistorians!
So how does ACOUP compare? 3/
Which should get more historians interested in r/askhistorians!
So how does ACOUP compare? 3/
My top post in December was 'Why Roman Egypt Was Such a Strange Province' (acoup.blog) with 55,215 views in December (December was a pretty typical month for ACOUP).
Measuring deeper engagement is tougher, since there's no 'upvote' equivalent...4/
Measuring deeper engagement is tougher, since there's no 'upvote' equivalent...4/
...because while blogs have 'likes' the 'likes' don't serve the ranking/visibility purpose they do on a reddit and so most people ignore them. Comments are also hard to measure because most people don't comment and a few people comment a LOT. 5/
But the journal article we're benchmarking against has been out for a decade, so maybe picking something older in a series will be instructive.
My most popular post ever is Siege of Gondor, Part I: Professionals talk logistics (acoup.blog) 6/
My most popular post ever is Siege of Gondor, Part I: Professionals talk logistics (acoup.blog) 6/
It has 194,935 total views since it was posted. We can get a sense of deeper engagement by seeing how many folks then read Part II (71,816) and Part III (68,742) and IV (63,185). Some drop off but a lot of people are clearly reading through the whole series. 7/
In terms of continuing readership, despite being close to four years old now, it broke 4,000 views in both this month and last month.
So on balance, ACOUP has a big-but-smaller footprint than r/askhistorians (not a surprise - they're a multi-author platform)...8/
So on balance, ACOUP has a big-but-smaller footprint than r/askhistorians (not a surprise - they're a multi-author platform)...8/
...but still a lot of reach compared to even a very good, very successful journal article.
There are of course advantages to the format, even with the smaller reach - r/Askhistorians has a strong set of moderation policies (they have to) which limit what you can use it for. 9/
There are of course advantages to the format, even with the smaller reach - r/Askhistorians has a strong set of moderation policies (they have to) which limit what you can use it for. 9/
In particular, answers there need to answer a question someone has asked and they also want the answer to be in the reddit (not an outgoing link) which can in some cases limit (but not remove!) the value of the platform for promoting other public history projects. 10/
The rules against personal anecdotes also make sense but wall out certain kinds of public history communication too.
(To be clear I think these rules are good and make sense - they are there for a reason, but they also contain trade-offs). 11/
(To be clear I think these rules are good and make sense - they are there for a reason, but they also contain trade-offs). 11/
So think about your public history goals and project and how you plan to get the word out about it. r/Askhistorians is a great platform, but if your project (video, podcast, blog, interviews) lives off of the reddit, you might need evangelists to bring it to r/askhistorians. 12/
ACOUP also does guest posts! - I'm excited to lend a platform to historians/archaeologists/classicists who want to promote public history projects or their research to a broader audience; so far those guest-posts have averaged around 10k views. 13/
But I think as we start trying to revive our discipline, getting history to the public we do need to think more broadly about public-facing venues and what they can do.
And we need to train up and coming historians to think in terms of how to achieve public impact. 14/
And we need to train up and coming historians to think in terms of how to achieve public impact. 14/
There are a number of ways to get the word out - r/Askhistorians, other reddits (if you have an enthusiast community esp.), traditional publication (it helps if you know an editor), other public history projects, social media, etc. 15/
Because while we all have our different projects, we are all trying to row the same direction - towards a deeper public engagement with history and a healthier field - so we should be sharing readers to maximize impact and also sharing data to understand our readers. 16/
And just to close, thanks to @askhistorians for being so open and generous with some of their data. A lot of publishers and projects don't disclose or obscure data on reach and I think that can make it hard for us to strategize together about how to promote our field. /end
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