Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee

For the December 2014 Arbitration Election page, see Arbitration Committee Elections December 2014 (WP:ACE).

For current arbitration proceedings, see Requests or Open Tasks.

"WP:AC" redirects here. For the account creator policy, see Wikipedia:Account creator. For information on autoconfirmed users, see Wikipedia:Autoconfirmed.

All appeals by blocked or banned editors should be sent through the BASC contact page. Any private material intended for the Committee's attention should be sent through the main contact page. Please see the Communications and privacy statement below.

The Arbitration Committee is the panel of editors responsible for conducting the Wikipedia arbitration process. It has the authority to impose binding solutions to disputes between editors, primarily for serious conduct disputes the community has been unable to resolve. The arbitration policy describes the Committee's roles and responsibilities in greater detail.

In addition to its role in dispute resolution, the Committee determines which editors have access to CheckUser and Oversight permissions, and considers certain matters where exceptional factors such as privacy preclude a public hearing.

Arbitrators are volunteer users—usually experienced editors and administrators—whom the community of editors at large elects to resolve the most complex or intractable disputes that may arise within the community, and to oversee the few areas where access to non-public information is a prerequisite.

Members

See also: Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/History § Current and former members

These editors are the elected members of the Arbitration Committee (known as arbitrators). Votes of the committee are taken among the active members. Members are marked active or inactive so that the majority for new votes can be calculated. Members on wikibreak, not participating in arbitration within the past week, or indicating they will be absent are marked inactive.

Members moving back to active may remain inactive on some or all existing business. If you wish to know whether an arbitrator is active on a particular matter, please ask on their talk page (or check the proposed decision talk page, for cases). The list below is used to determine whether each arbitrator is active by default. Arbitrators who go on to participate in a vote will be counted as active for it even if they are listed as inactive below.

The following list is accurate as of 11 September 2024:

Active

1. Aoidh (talk · contribs)
2. Cabayi (talk · contribs)
3. CaptainEek (talk · contribs)
4. Guerillero (talk · contribs)
5. HJ Mitchell (talk · contribs)
6. Moneytrees (talk · contribs)
7. Primefac (talk · contribs)
8. ToBeFree (talk · contribs)
9. Z1720 (talk · contribs)

Inactive

1. Firefly (talk · contribs)
2. L235 (talk · contribs)
3. Maxim (talk · contribs)
4. Sdrqaz (talk · contribs)

The Arbitration Committee does not have a chair, but may designate one arbitrator to coordinate timely performance of tasks. The current coordinating arbitrator is Roger Davies.

Subcommittees

Audit Subcommittee

The Audit Subcommittee (AUSC) investigates complaints concerning the use of CheckUser and Oversight privileges. It consists of three arbitrators (currently LFaraone, NativeForeigner, and Newyorkbrad) and three non-arbitrator community members (currently Callanecc, Joe Decker, and MBisanz).

Ban Appeals Subcommittee

The Ban Appeals Subcommittee (BASC) considers appeals from users banned or blocked by community processes, usually when all other avenues of appeal have been exhausted. (In contrast, appeals of arbitration sanctions, including arbitration enforcement, are handled by the full committee.) It consists this year of five arbitrators (currently AGK, Beeblebrox, David Fuchs, Seraphimblade, and Worm That Turned).

To appeal a block or ban to the subcommittee, read and follow the instructions on its main page.

Clerks

The Committee's clerk team assists the Committee with procedural tasks, such as opening and closing cases, maintaining arbitration pages, and issuing notifications of decisions. Parties with questions about the arbitration process are encouraged to consult a clerk for assistance.

Contacting the Committee

To appeal a block or ban to the Arbitration Committee's Ban Appeals Subcommittee, e-mail arbcom-appeals-enlists.wikimedia.org.

For other matters, the arbcom-l mailing list is the primary venue for internal Arbitration Committee discussion on all matters under the Committee's remit. It can also be used by any user as a means of contacting the Committee privately (but see Email and privacy below). The mailing list address is arbcom-llists.wikimedia.org. It may also be reached through the "Email this user" feature at "User:Arbitration Committee". All current arbitrators are subscribed to this list, as is project founder Jimbo Wales.

Mailing lists

In addition to the arbcom-l list, the Committee operates several other official mailing lists:

Mailing list	Description
functionaries-en	The functionaries-en mailing list is used for general discussion among current Arbitration Committee members, former members in good standing, advanced permission (CheckUser and/or Oversight) operators, and other editors with official Wikimedia Foundation status. Please see the functionary page for more details and a list of subscribers.
arbcom-audit-en	The arbcom-audit-en mailing list is used for internal discussion by the Audit Subcommittee. Please see the subcommittee page for more details and a list of subscribers.
arbcom-appeals-en	The arbcom-appeals-en mailing list is used for internal discussion by the Ban Appeals Subcommittee. Please see the subcommittee page for more information about the subcommittee.
clerks-l	The clerks-l mailing list is used for coordination by the Committee's clerk team. Please see the clerk page for more details and a list of subscribers.
arbcom-en-b and arbcom-en-c	The arbcom-en-b and arbcom-en-c mailing lists are secondary mailing lists used instead of arbcom-l "solely for discussions involving (i) the conduct of an arbcom-l subscriber or (ii) cases, broadly defined, to which an arbcom-l subscriber is a party" per Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee/Noticeboard/Archive 5#Motion to establish secondary ArbCom mailing list. It is also used for CheckUser and Oversight applications, and may be used when one or more arbitrators recuse on a case. All arbitrators potentially have access to the archives of this mailing list upon conclusion of the incident that the list was used for.

What happens to incoming ArbCom email?

• Spam: About 99% of incoming email is spam, and is deleted at moderation. Please include an informative subject line to avoid deletion. Messages are normally acknowledged within about 48 hours.
• Content change requests: Referred to the Volunteer Response Team (OTRS), either directly, or by a return email recommending that the correspondent write to OTRS.
• Suppression requests: Normally referred directly to the Oversight mailing list/OTRS queue, unless immediately actioned by an arbitrator. If actioned immediately, a courtesy copy of the response will be sent to the Oversight mailing list.
• Requests for checkuser/sockpuppetry investigations: Normally referred either to the Functionaries mailing list or to one or more individual checkusers.
• Legal matters outside ArbCom's scope: Referred to the WMF Legal and Community Liaison.
• Threats of harm to self or to others: Referred to the emergency email address – emergencywikimedia.org.
• Appeals of blocks or bans directly related to Arbitration Committee decisions or arbitration enforcement: Remain on the main mailing list and are handled by the full committee.
• Appeals of community bans or indefinite blocks by administrators: Usually referred to the BASC mailing list and sometimes to the Functionaries mailing list.
• Requests about "checkuser" or "oversighter" blocks or bans: Usually remain on the main mailing list but are sometimes referred to the Functionaries mailing list.
• Requests to review actions of checkusers or oversighters: Normally referred to the Audit Subcommittee (AUSC).
• Emails about currently open arbitration cases: Handled in accord with Arbitration committee policy.
• Emails relating to closed cases: Normally referred to Arbitration enforcement, unless private or non-public personal information is involved.
• Other: Handled on a case-by-case basis in accordance with applicable policies.

Individual arbitrators

Some individual arbitrators have published their personal email addresses. These should be used sparingly as material intended for the Committee as a whole should instead be sent to arbcom-l at arbcom-llists.wikimedia.org.

• AGK (Anthony): wikiagkgmail.com
• Newyorkbrad: newyorkbradgmail.com

• Roger Davies: roger.davies.wikigmail.com
• Worm That Turned: worm.that.turnedgmail.com

Communications and privacy

Arbitrators usually seek to treat your communications, including emails, as private when possible. That said, however, we cannot guarantee against public disclosure for a number of reasons, including potential security limitations. Accordingly, you should not disclose sensitive personal information in your communications with us.

Once received, your communications may be shared with committee members and – in some limited cases – with third parties to assist in resolving issues or for other purposes. Your communications may be kept for an undetermined period of time for archival or other reasons.

Your return email address may lead to revealing your real-life identity. Many people create anonymised email accounts – for example <your username>@gmail.com, <username>@hotmail.com – specifically for Wikipedia use. Further information about safeguarding your privacy may be found at Wikipedia:On privacy, confidentiality and discretion and Wikipedia:How to not get outed on Wikipedia.