Welcome to r/askhistorians! The idea here is for normal people to ask professional historians questions about the past! Anybody can help to answer a questions, but the panel is a way to make it more obvious that you are a worthy source of information!

Read the entire list of official rules in the sidebar before you even consider applying for a tag.

Here are the requirements for flair:

1. You must have extensive knowledge. This could come with a degree, or with extremely intensive self-study.

2. You must be able to reference sources on command. While your comments don't necessarily have to have sources initially (though it's really recommended), you absolutely have to be able to provide a source if requested later.

3. You must be able to convey your answer in laymen's terms.

(these rules only apply when posting within your defined area)

You must define a topic area for your flair. Please be specific as possible.

Bad topic area: European Wars (there's no way you know about all of them)

Good topic area: WWII

Great topic area: Battle of the Bulge

In order to receive a flair, in addition to the above rules, you must provide a link to three comments you have made on this subreddit in the past, which display your capacity to provide a helpful and well-sourced answer. At least one of these comments should be made within your requested topic area. If you have an obscure topic that does not come up often enough for you to be able to link to a comment, message the mods.