Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2025/Candidates

2025 Arbitration Committee Elections

Status as of 22:53 (UTC), Tuesday, 4 November 2025 (Purge)

Self-nominations for the Arbitration Committee are open until 23:59, 11 November 2025 (UTC).

Shortcut

WP:ACE2025/CWP:ACE2025/C

The nomination statements of editors running in the 2025 Arbitration Committee elections appear below.

Eligibility criteria

An editor is eligible to stand as a candidate if they:

have a registered account which has made at least 500 mainspace edits before 1 November 2025,
are not prevented from submitting their candidacy by a block or ban,
meet the Wikimedia Foundation's criteria for access to non-public personal data,
are willing to sign the Foundation's non-public information confidentiality agreement,^[a] and
have disclosed any previous or alternate accounts in their election statement (legitimate accounts which have been declared to the Arbitration Committee before the close of nominations do not need to be publicly disclosed).

Caution about scrutiny

Candidates should be aware that they are likely to receive considerable internal and external scrutiny. External scrutiny may include attempts to investigate on- and off-wiki activities; previous candidates have had personal details revealed and unwanted contact made with employers and family. We are unable to prevent this and such risks will continue if you are successful.

Simultaneous membership on other committees

To avoid any potential conflicts of interest, current arbitrators may not serve as members of either the Ombuds Commission or the WMF Case Review Committee.

Candidate statements

Statements must:

be submitted after 00:00 UTC on 02 November 2025 and until 23:59 UTC on 11 November 2025,
not exceed a limit of 400 words^[b] (although candidates are free to link to a longer statement if they wish),
confirm that the candidate will fully comply with the criteria for access to non-public data,
include a disclosure of all prior and alternate accounts or confirmation that all such accounts have been declared to the Arbitration Committee, and
be created using the inputbox below, by appending your username to the existing text, clicking the button, and following the instructions.

Applications are considered complete only when properly filled out and transcluded by the deadline. Deadlines will be strictly enforced regardless of technical problems that may occur. Candidates are advised to have their application ready early.

Once you have saved your statement, you will need to transclude it below using the following code:

|{{Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee Elections December 2025/Candidates/{{subst:REVISIONUSER}}/Statement}}

Congratulations! You are now an election candidate.

Footnotes

^
From the Wikimedia Foundation's Access to nonpublic personal data policy:
Because we believe that safeguarding the privacy of the Wikimedia community is an important Wikimedia value, those who have access to nonpublic personal data need to:
- Be at least 18 years old (except email response team members, who must be at least 16 years old);
- Provide contact information; and
- Sign a confidentiality agreement.
^ The mandatory disclosure of alternate accounts and declaration of intent to comply with the WMF identification policy are exempt from the 400-word limit, although candidates are encouraged to be concise.

Standing candidates

Click to shuffle candidates

Aoidh

Hello, my name is Aoidh (pronounced /aɪ/) and I became an active editor in 2011, having created my Wikipedia account in 2009. I had an RfA and became an administrator in March 2023, and after WP:ACE2023 became an arbitrator in 2024. While my career and time on the Arbitration Committee doesn't leave as much time as I'd like for article creation, I have created and improved articles to GA status, and have created some templates for Wikipedia:WikiProject User warnings, some of which (uw-ewsoft, uw-notvand, uw-fringe1, uw-fringe2, uw-fringe3) are included with Twinkle.

I am running for a second term because I want to continue the work that we've done to improve ArbCom and its processes while also evaluating ArbCom matters with empathy for people involved, but still acting decisively when a tough decision must be made. During my two years on ArbCom, I have been an active arbitrator for my entire term, and was a drafter on six of the nine ArbCom cases in 2024 and 2025, one of which I did not draft due to my recusal from the case.

I have never edited for pay, I meet the criteria of and will abide by the Wikimedia Foundation Access to Nonpublic Personal Data Policy, and I have signed the confidentiality agreement. I have an alternate account User:Aoidh (Away) that I have for devices that leave my home (phone/laptop) and I originally edited under the name User:SudoGhost until being renamed to Aoidh in 2013.

HJ Mitchell

For those who don't know me, I'm Harry. I've been on ArbCom for the last two years and I'm standing for re-election. I've learnt a lot in those two years. Being an arbitrator is a thankless task and frankly not much fun. I'd rather be writing articles and doing other, more enjoyable, things so if you can find nine candidates you think would do a better job, please vote for them instead; I won't be offended. But ArbCom is also essential—a website and community as complex as ours needs a backstop to prevent disputes about the Arab-Israeli conflict or article naming (to pick two examples) from overwhelming our processes, and to handle things that can't be done in public (usually for privacy or legal reasons). I have been humbled by the dedication of my fellow committee members, and though we may not agree on everything, and life on a committee means that sometimes you get outvoted, I have never doubted that we're all trying to do the right thing. And for that reason, I'm willing to continue serving if you'll have me. ArbCom isn't perfect; we've made some improvements over the last two years but there's more to do. I'm not perfect either; I've made my share of mistakes but I try to work on myself and recognise that I'm fallible. What I offer is not radical reform but a steady pair of hands—someone with staying power, experience, and compassion. I have tried to explain my decisions, for example by giving a rationale for my case votes (I try to make it a rule to give an explanation when opposing or when voting on sanctions for an editor) or by answering questions at ACN.

I bring nearly 17 years' experience as an editor and admin; I have 40 featured articles to my name (though only one since being elected to ArbCom!), including some tricky subjects, and nearly 80,000 admin actions, predominantly anti-abuse and anti-spam. In real life, I have a family and a full-time job as a retail manager so I'm not always around but I feel those other areas of my life bring complimentary skills, and I think it's important that arbs are well-rounded human beings.

Disclosures: accounts (only User:Whisky drinker has non-trivial edits); I have never edited for pay, I comply with the requirements for access to non-public information, and have signed the relevant agreements. That's all folks!

[1] From the Wikimedia Foundation's Access to nonpublic personal data policy:
Because we believe that safeguarding the privacy of the Wikimedia community is an important Wikimedia value, those who have access to nonpublic personal data need to:
Be at least 18 years old (except email response team members, who must be at least 16 years old);

Provide contact information; and

Sign a confidentiality agreement.

[2] Be at least 18 years old (except email response team members, who must be at least 16 years old);

[3] Provide contact information; and

[4] Sign a confidentiality agreement.

[2] The mandatory disclosure of alternate accounts and declaration of intent to comply with the WMF identification policy are exempt from the 400-word limit, although candidates are encouraged to be concise.

[a]

[b]