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.