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STEW
STEWARD
Stewards
About stewards
Elections
History
Requests
CheckUser information
Global blocks & locks
Global rights
Local bot rights
Local rights
Account renaming
Miscellaneous requests
URL blacklisting
Title/username blacklisting
For stewards
Help
Policies
Bugs
Mailing list
#wikimedia-stewards
connect
Noticeboards
Access policy noticeboard
Stewards' noticeboard
Stewards
are a
global group
of users who have complete access to the wiki interface on all public
Wikimedia wikis
. They have the technical ability to modify all local and global user rights, change the status and name of global accounts, and access any of the permissions available to
administrators
and
bureaucrats
. The use of steward rights is restricted by policy; stewards will not use their technical access when there are local users who can use that access, except in emergencies. This enables them to act as administrators and bureaucrats on projects without any local administrators or bureaucrats.
Stewards are elected or confirmed by the global Wikimedia community through yearly steward elections held between January and March. Stewards are volunteers, meaning that they do not work for the
Wikimedia Foundation
in this responsibility. Stewards are also not arbitrators or mediators; to resolve a conflict on a small project, please attempt local resolution, and file a
request for comment
on Meta-Wiki if local resolution cannot be achieved. For systemic failure, reach out to the
Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee
There are currently 40 stewards in the Wikimedia movement.
History
Main article:
Stewards/History
The steward group was created in 2004 in order to separate user rights management from software development and systems administration. Stewards were initially only given the ability to modify all user rights through Meta-Wiki. Before the creation of the steward group, developers were needed to modify user rights on wikis without local bureaucrats.
Stewards were given the responsibility of managing global accounts when the
CentralAuth extension
was implemented in 2008. When the single-user login finalization was completed in 2015, they also became responsible for renaming global accounts – a responsibility shared with
global renamers
The first elections were held in 2004, with annual or semi-annual elections happening in subsequent years. The last year with two elections was 2011.
Membership
Main article:
Stewards/Elections
Steward elections are held between January and February every year, with voting lasting for three weeks in February. Candidates must meet account and activity requirements, including holding administrator rights on one Wikimedia wiki for at least three months, and have made 600 edits, with 50 made within the last six months. Voting is also restricted to users with 600 edits and 50 in the last six months. Candidates are elected by a vote, requiring 80% support and at least 30 supporting votes to be elected. There is no limit to the number of users that can hold steward rights, or the number of stewards that can be elected during each election cycle. Because stewards can access personal information and suppressed data, stewards also need to sign a
confidentiality agreement
Confirmations
Existing stewards are confirmed every year at the same time as the elections. The first stage of the confirmations is a community comment period, where any user is free to comment for or against any of the current stewards. These comments should be directed specifically at the use of the steward permissions, or at other relevant factors for whether a steward should retain or lose their permissions. After the community comment period is closed, all new and existing stewards deliberate on the results. A steward is removed if a majority of other stewards vote for removal in the deliberations.
Removal of access
Stewards are automatically removed for inactivity if they have performed no actions within the past six months, and less than ten actions within the last year.
Access
Stewards are primarily responsible for performing the following technical actions:
Global account management
Lock and unlock global accounts
Hide and suppress global accounts
Rename global accounts and local unattached accounts
Globally block and unblock IP addresses and accounts
Use the CheckUser tool on login.wikimedia.org (
statistics
User rights management
Assign and remove all local user rights on any account on any Wikimedia wiki
Bot, administrator, interface administrator and bureaucrat rights are assigned on wikis without local bureaucrats
CheckUser, oversight, and import rights are only assigned by stewards
Assign and remove all global user rights
Manage global group permissions and wikisets
Miscellaneous
Approve, disable, and suppress OAuth application requests
Use any administrator, CheckUser, or oversighter access on wikis without local users in those permissions groups
Respond to VRT tickets in the stewards' queue, or any of the information queues
Delete pages with greater than 5,000 revisions
Create and edit global abusefilters
Stewards are also responsible for the following non-technical actions:
Closing and implementing requests for global community bans
Acting as scrutineers for Arbitration Committee elections on some wikis
Working with Wikimedia Foundation staff as the first point of contact with the community
Policies
Main article:
Stewards policy
Stewards are required to follow established community policies when using their permissions, and where policies do not exist, established practices are followed instead.
On wikis with local administrators or bureaucrats, stewards typically will not use their access unless there is an emergency. There is some leeway in policy for cross-wiki actions, but this is rarely applied.
User rights are not changed by stewards on wikis where they are an active member of the local community. This maintains the steward role as global in scope, and prevents them from becoming super-users of their home projects. Some permissions that are not held by local users and are uncontroversial to use, such as deleting pages with over 5,000 revisions using the bigdelete permission, are still used by stewards on their home projects.
Stewards are never compelled to take an action; as volunteers, they can always personally recuse from handling a request. They are also free to maintain and express their own opinions, so long as their use of the steward rights conforms with policy.
Communication
There are a number of ways to contact stewards, either individually or as a group:
Email (normal)
: stewards
wikimedia.org or by using
Special:Contact/Stewards
Email (oversight requests)
: stewards-oversight
wikimedia.org or by using
Special:EmailUser/Wikimedia Stewards (Oversight)
Email (lock appeals)
: stewards-appeals
wikimedia.org.
IRC
#wikimedia-stewards
– Add
@steward
before your request to ping all stewards currently in the channel
Meta
Stewards' noticeboard
or
Steward requests
Steward requests/Permissions
for requests for local user rights
Steward requests/Bot status
for bot permissions requests
Steward requests/Global permissions
for requests for global user rights
Steward requests/Global
for global locking and blocking requests
Steward requests/Username changes
for account rename and username usurpation requests
Steward requests/Miscellaneous
for other requests, including bigdelete and OAuth app approval
Individually, using the contact information provided in the list below
There is a private steward mailing list (
Stewards-l
) and wiki (
steward.wikimedia.org
) used for internal communication and organization.
List of current stewards
Stewards at Steward Conference 2025 in Amsterdam
Last update: 2026-04-15; total number of stewards: 40
Name
+/-
IRC nick
Languages spoken
Active from
1234qwer1234qwer4
ru, de-4, en-3, la-1
2025-02-27
A09
sl-N, en-3, de-1, it-1, la-1, sh-1
2026-02-27
Alaa
(علاء)
Alaa
ar, en-4, he-1, es-1
2018-02-28
Ajraddatz
Ajraddatz (discord)
en, fr-3
2024-02-27
Albertoleoncio
pt, en-3
2024-02-27
AmandaNP
en-N, fr-3
2026-02-27
AntiCompositeNumber
AntiComposite
en, fr-2
2022-02-26
AramilFeraxa
AramilFeraxa
pl, en-3, de-1
2025-02-27
Barras
Barras
de-N, en-4, fr-1
2026-02-27
Base
Base
uk, ru-4, en-2
2019-02-28
Bsadowski1
Bsadowski1
en
2011-02-28
Count Count
CountCount
de-N, en-3
2026-02-27
DerHexer
DerHexer
de, en-3, grc-3, la-3, es-1
2007-12-21
Daniuu
nl, en-4, fr-2, de-2, la-2
2025-02-27
Elton
Elton
pt, en-2, es-1
2017-02-28
EPIC
EP1C
sv, en-4, no-2, de-1, ja-0.5
2024-02-27
HakanIST
HakanIST
tr, en-4, az-3, es-2, de-1
2017-02-28
Hoo man
hoo
de, en-3, it-1, fr-1
2014-02-28
Johannnes89
de, en-4
2024-02-27
Jon Kolbert
kolbert
en, fr-4, de-2
2019-02-28
KonstantinaG07
el-N, en-4, fr-2
2025-02-27
M7
it-N, en-3,
can read: fr, es, de-
2026-02-27
MarcGarver
en, fr-2, it-2, es-1
2013-02-28
Martin Urbanec
Urbanecm
cs, en-3
2020-02-28
Masti
masti
pl, en-4, de-3, ru-2, several -1
2016-02-28
MdsShakil
MdsShakil
bn-N, en-3, as-1, bpy-1
2025-02-27
Melos
it, en-3, scn-4, es-1, la-1
2024-02-27
Mykola7
Mykola7
uk, ru-4, en-2, pl-1, de-1
2023-02-26
RadiX
RadiX
pt, en-3, es-2, fr-2, it-2, gl-1, (sk, sq, ms, hi)-0.5
2015-02-28
Sakretsu
Sakretsu
it, en-3, ja-2
2020-02-28
Schniggendiller
Schniggendiller
de, en-3
2019-02-28
SHB2000
SHB2000
en, fr-1
2026-02-27
Sotiale
Sotiale
ko, en-2, ja-2 (reading), ja-1 (writing), bi-1, tpi-0.5, eo-1
2020-02-28
Tegel
Tegel
sv, en-3, da-1 (read), no-1 (read)
2012-02-28
Teles
Teles
pt-N, en-3, es-2
2026-02-27
Vermont
Vermont
en, ru-2, es-1
2022-02-26
VIGNERON
fr-N, en-3, br-2, de-2, etc.
2026-02-27
xaosflux
xaosflux
en-N, es-1, de-1
2023-02-26
XXBlackburnXx
xxb
nl, en-4, de-1, fr-1
2025-02-27
Yahya
Yahya
bn-N, en-3, as-2, bpy-2
2024-02-27
Chart
See also
Wikimedia Commons
has more media related to:
Wikimedia stewards
Stewards:
global permission
global groups (toolforge)
member list
group changelog
Global groups
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Staff
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System administrators
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wmf-email-block-override
WMF researchers
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