Announcing the 2026 Ombuds Commission

Hello, everyone! I'm writing with information about the Ombuds Commission
(OC), the small group of volunteers who investigate complaints about
violations of the privacy policy, and in particular concerning the use of
CheckUser and Oversight tools, on any Wikimedia project for the Board of
Trustees. I apologize for the length of the announcement. :)

The application period for new commissioners for 2026-28 recently closed.
The Wikimedia Foundation is extremely grateful to the many experienced and
insightful volunteers who offered to assist with this work.

This year’s OC will consist of eleven full members, one advisory member,
and one Steward-Observer.

I am pleased to announce the composition of the 2026 OC:

Appointees for 2026-28

===Ameisenigel ===

Ameisenigel (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Ameisenigel>) -
Ameisenigel has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2015. He is primarily
active on German Wikipedia, where he served as an Arbitrator from 2020 to
2022 and from 2023 to 2025, and on Wikidata and is an administrator on both
projects. He is an Oversighter on Wikidata and also serves as a Global
Sysop. Ameisenigel speaks German and English. He has been on the Ombuds
Commission since 2021 and his current term expires in 2028.

===Arcticocean===

Arcticocean (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Arcticocean>) -
Arcticocean has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2008. He is primarily
active on Meta and English Wikipedia, where he is an administrator and
previously a Checkuser, Oversighter and Arbitrator. Arcticocean served on
the Ombuds Commission in 2020 and 2021 and again in 2023-24 and was the
Commission's first chairperson. His current term on the Ombuds Commission
expires in 2028.

===Chinmayee Mishra===

Chinmayee is an Indian engineer and Wikimedian active since 2016,
supporting open knowledge, regional language content, inclusive community
development, initiatives focused on gender equity and community engagement
within the Wikimedia movement. Her term on the Ombuds Commission expires in
2028.

===Faendalimas===

Faendalimas (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Faendalimas>) - Scott
Thomson, user:Faendalimas, has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2006.
Originally Australian though based in Brazil, he is a taxonomist and
evolutionary biologist with a background in International Wildlife Policy
with current international memberships to the IUCN Climate Crisis
Commission and the Catalogue of Life Global Team specializing in
Governance. His main editing interest is reptiles and amphibians,
particularly their nomenclature and classification. He is most active on
WikiSpecies, where he is a bureaucrat, Checkuser, and administrator.
Faendalimas speaks Portuguese and English. He has served on the Ombuds
Commission since 2021 and as Chair from 2022 to 2023 and again from
2025-2026, and his current term expires in 2028.

===Jnanaranjan Sahu===

Jnanaranjan Sahu (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth?target=Jnanaranjan+sahu>)
- Gyana has been involved with Wikimedia since 2011, serving as an admin
and interface admin on Odia Wikipedia. He is a member and contact person of
the [[Odia Wikimedians User Group]], a member of the [[Indic MediaWiki
Developers User Group]], and part of the [[Grants:Regions/South Asia|South
Asia Regional Committee]] (RFC). He builds tools on Toolforge, runs a bot
(Jnanabot), mentors at Indic hackathons, and regularly uploads and
categorizes event photos to Wikimedia Commons. His current term on Ombuds
Commission expires in 2028.

===Mehman===

Mehman (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth?target=Mehman>) -
Mehman Ibragimov (user:Mehman) – joined Wikimedia projects in 2016, and his
home wiki is Georgian Wikipedia, where he is most active. Since 2022, he
has been the administrator of the Georgian Wikipedia. Since 2020, Mehman
has been a member of AffCom, where he participates in the recognition
subcommittee. From 2019 to 2023, he was the head and a member of the BoT of
the Wikimedia Community User Group Georgia. Since 2023, he has been the
executive director of the newly recognized chapter – Wikimedia Georgia. His
current term on the Ombuds Commission expires in 2028.

===MrJaroslavik===

MrJaroslavik (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth?target=MrJaroslavik>)
has been a member of the Wikimedia community since 2017, primarily active
on the Czech Wikipedia. He focuses on countering vandalism and serves as a
Global Rollbacker. In 2021, he served as a member of the Ombuds Commission.
His new term on the Ombuds Commission expires in 2028.

===Nehaoua===

Nehaoua (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Nehaoua>) - Nehaoua
holds a master's degree in Highway and Bridge Engineering and currently
works as a Civil Engineer. However, his true passion lies with knowledge
and its free access for all. Since 2009, Nehaoua has been an active
Wikimedian, contributing significantly across various projects like French
and Arabic Wikipedia, Wikidata, Wikisource, and Wiktionary. Nehaoua is
fluent in Arabic and French, and is actively improving his English language
skills. He is renewing his term on the Ombuds Commission and his term will
now expire in 2028.

===RoySmith===

RoySmith (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/RoySmith>) - Roy Smith
has been editing Wikipedia since 2004. He has been an admin on English
Wikipedia since 2005 and a checkuser since 2021. Previously an active
sockpuppet hunter, as of late 2023, he has dialed that back to concentrate
more on content creation. He has recently passed the 100,000 edit mark on
English Wikipedia. He is renewing his term on the Ombuds Commission and his
term will now expire in 2028.


Remaining on the committee through 2027

===Revi C.===

Revi C. (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Revi_C.>) - revi
started editing Korean Wikipedia in 2013, and became an admin on that wiki
a year later. revi also serves as an oversighter there since 2018, and has
been a Commons admin since early 2014. revi also served as an admin on
Wikidata for 10 years (2013~2023), steward for 5 years (2018~2023), and
admin on Meta for 9 years (2014~2023). On-wiki, revi is mostly interested
in janitorial, anti-spam work and copyright stuff. His current term on OC
ends in 2027.

===Zafer===

Zafer (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Zafer>) - Zafer has
been contributing to Wikimedia projects as a volunteer since 2008 and he is
one of the founding members of the Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey
since 2016. He is primarily active on Turkish Wikipedia, Wikidata and
Commons, and he holds admin on Wikidata. He checks recent changes and new
articles at Turkish Wikipedia and is specifically interested in sports
related articles. He contributes wiki projects also by taking photos and
uploading with free licences. This is Zafer's first year on OC and his term
expires in 2027.

Transitioning to an advisory (non-voting) role

===Teles===

Teles (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Teles>) - Lucas is a
Brazilian doctor that became a Wikipedian in 2007 and started to engage
with CheckUser rights in 2009, when he became a local CU on the Portuguese
Wikipedia. He held both Oversight and Checkuser rights on Ptwiki for many
years, in different terms. He is currently an administrator on Meta,
Commons and Ptwiki. In 2012, the global community elected him as a steward,
a position he held for more than ten years, until asking removal in 2024.
He has previously served the Ombuds Commission for three consecutive years.
Today, he focuses on his work at AffCom advisoring, global renaming,
occasional anti-vandalism work, translating medical content from English to
Portuguese Wikipedia. His current term on OC ends in 2027.

Steward-Observer

The Steward-Observer serves as a liaison between the Ombuds Commission and
the Stewards. The Steward-Observer is a non-voting, advisory role. The
Steward-Observer was nominated by the Stewards and is appointed by the
Wikimedia Foundation to a one-year term. This year's Steward-Observer is…

===Mykola7===

Mykola (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth?target=Mykola7>) has
been contributing to Wikimedia projects since 2018. He has been a steward
since February 2023, and was previously a global sysop, rollbacker, and
renamer. Mykola is an administrator, bureaucrat, and checkuser on the
Ukrainian Wikipedia, and an administrator on Meta-Wiki. He also served as
an Ombud for the Ombuds Commission from 2022 to 2023. His term as an
observer on the Ombuds Commission runs until 2027.

Departing members

Please join me in thanking the following volunteers who are leaving OC, who
have given substantially of their time to serve the commission:

===だ＊ぜ===

だ＊ぜ (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/%E3%81%A0%EF%BC%8A%E3%81%9C>)
- だ＊ぜ, who also may be referred to as Dasze, has been contributing to
Wikimedia since 2015. He's primarily active on Chinese Wikimedia projects,
where he later served as a director of Wikimedia Community User Group Hong
Kong from 2019 to 2023 while users in Hong Kong were suffering various
affection in and out of Wikimedia projects. His expertise is international
law, human rights law, and statistical and quantitative analysis thereon.
He speaks Mandarin, Cantonese, Shanghainese, English and some Japanese.
Dasze resigned from the Ombuds Commission in 2026.

===Emufarmers===

Emufarmers (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Emufarmers>) -
Emufarmers has been editing Wikimedia projects since 2005. He is a
Metapedian who primarily edits the English Wikipedia; he is also a
bureaucrat and sysop on MediaWiki.org, and has provided software support to
many third-party, non-Wikimedia wikis over the years. He has served as a
VRTS administrator since 2015 and has been on the Elections Committee since
2023. He served on the Ombuds Commission from 2019-2021 and again in
2023-24. His term on OC expired in 2026.

===Renvoy===

Renvoy (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Renvoy>) - Renvoy has
been editing Wikimedia projects since 2014. He is primarily active on
Ukrainian Wikipedia, where he serves as administrator. Also he holds roles
of global sysop and global rollbacker. Renvoy speaks Ukrainian, Russian,
English, Polish and Lithuanian. His term on OC expired in 2026.

===Vermont===

Vermont (global account information
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralAuth/Vermont>) - Vermont
(they/them) has been contributing to Wikimedia projects since 2016. They
have been a steward since February 2022, and previously a global sysop and
rollbacker. Vermont is an administrator and checkuser on Meta-Wiki and the
Simple English Wikipedia, and formerly volunteered on the UCoC Phase 2 and
Revisions drafting committees. They served as Steward-Observer for the
Ombuds Commission from 2023-25 as well. Vermont's term as Steward-Observer
expired in 2026.

-- 
Karen Brown
Trust & Safety Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation
[email protected]

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