If someone recommends me a subreddit, I would check it out. Reddit is not inherently bad. However, you have to understand a lot of us have a negative perception of subreddits, given how many jerks, trolls and bullies participate in them. Even in the good ones there's so much negativity and discourtesy. It's so sad, I personally am afraid to participate most of the time because I admittedly have very thin skin and those kinds of interactions can ruin my day.
AskHistorians is far more anal than HN with regard to maintaining serious discussion; maybe not quite so rule-bound as StackExchange ("delete this question with five answers and 100 upvotes it's off-topic") but strict about being a sourced, on topic, no memes or humour -type of place.
