eli5: Why Weren’t European Colonizers As Impacted By New World Diseases as The Natives were by European Diseases?
In: Biology
We’re going to leave this thread locked for a combination of Rule 3 and Rule 7, and the fact that, like I say later… the mods really don’t like to ban people. So… if this is a topic that interests you, I recommend /r/askhistorians, /r/history, /r/answers, etc. Make sure you search first, but there’s some *really great* information there, too.
~~This thread has been (temporarily) locked while we clean up the comments.~~
~~This thread *may* remain locked indefinitely, this sticky will be updated when I have more information for you.~~
The determining factors for whether this thread will be unlocked are:
* will there be further, *quality* explanations
* will there be further rule breaking responses
We will weigh those two factors against one and other, with the specific intent of minimizing the number of rule breaking comments… because believe it or not mods *do not* like to ban people. We’d prefer the read the rules and participate according to them.
Here’s [rule 3](https://www.reddit.com/r/explainlikeimfive/wiki/detailed_rules#wiki_rule_3.3A_top-level_comments_must_be_written_explanations), the one that’s causing issues:
# Rule 3: Top-level Comments Must Be Written Explanations
*Applies to Top-Level Comments*
Top-Level comments are comments that reply directly to the post, as opposed to replies to other comments.
* “Answers” are not the same thing as “explanations”. An explanation contains more detail. Generally an explanation has 3 components; a context, mechanism, and an impact, while an answer will leave 1 or more of those to be inferred by the reader. This is why very short comments are automatically removed; a user can absolutely ask for an automatic removal to be reviewed.
* Comments must be written. They can’t be links to other posts, images or videos. Comments can include those, but they can’t be the primary content. This is because links can and do die. This, too, will be automatically removed.
* Jokes, anecdotes and off-topic replies are not allowed in top-level comments.
* Plagiarism is not allowed! Note that this is the academic definition of plagiarism. It is fine to quote other sources, but you must cite your sources.
Exceptions: links to relevant previous ELI5 posts or highly relevant other subreddits may be permitted.
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