You're right, Interesting Inquirer flair isn't in the rules anywhere. Oops. ;)

Subject flair in AskHistorians, including Quality Contributor flair, is awarded based on two criteria: (1) quality answers and (2) commitment to AskHistorians.

Our application threads are littered with requests from people for flair based on their claimed credentials alone, or listing in-depth, comprehensive, well-sourced posts in other subreddits as evidence of their historical knowledge. These applications get denied. Herodotus himself could apply for AskHistorians flair, and we would say, "Sorry, first we need to see 3-5 posts in AskHistorians itself."

But the AskHistorians community is more than the people who answer questions. The coolest thing about AH--our defining feature--is that we exist on user-driven content: we are AskHistorians, not HistoriansAssume.

Just as some people devote enough time and energy to AskHistorians writing quality answers to earn subject master flair, some people who don't feel confident writing answers of their own nevertheless work to make the AskHistorians community a better place.

For the most part, that tends to mean reliably asking thought-provoking questions that can on occasion lead to some really great historical inquiry in the answers. Just like subject flairs occasionally write a less than award-winning answer, not ever question has to get 5000 upvotes and an answers that requires 3 posts to fit it all in. But in general, questions from an Interesting Inquirer flair should be just that: interesting!

Asking questions is the bulk of II flair, hence the name. But just like we have higher standards for answers submitted as part of a subject flair application, Interesting Inquirers make the AskHistorians community a better place in other ways. They read other people's question-threads and post cogent follow-up questions. They join in weekly threads like Tuesday Trivia or Saturday Reading & Research, show up in Floating Features, post links to their favorite answers in the Sunday Digest, maybe post their favorite answer each month to DepthHub.

As with Quality Contributor flair, which is awarded for people who write amazing answers across multiple fields, Interesting Inquirer is a recognition and an award. It's not something that can be applied for. Flairs and moderators have a pretty good finger on what goes on in this subreddit. Prospective QC and II flairs are nominated by another user and vetted much like we vet subject flair applicants. (Of course, sometimes we move like a rusty Rube Goldberg machine and it takes much longer to process these and other flair apps than we'd like).

The vast, vast majority of the AskHistorians community does not have and will never earn flair. That's the nature of this subreddit. We are always looking for ways to allow as many people as possible to participate, and we want to reward awesome participation when it happens.

In short, AskHistorians exists at the pleasure of the people doing the asking. Doesn't it make sense to recognize some of those askers?