Commons:Administrators
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This page explains the role of administrators (sometimes called admins or sysops) on Wikimedia Commons. Note that details of the role, and the way in which administrators are appointed, may differ from other sites.
If you want to request administrator help, please post at Administrators' noticeboard.
There are currently 172 administrators on Commons.
What is an administrator?
| Administrators as of August 2026 Listing by: Language • Date • Activity [+/−] |
Number of Admins: 172
If 172 is not the last number on this list, there may be an error or there are some users assigned temporarily. |
Technical
Administrators are users with the technical ability on Wikimedia Commons to:
- delete and undelete images and other uploaded files, and to view and restore deleted versions
- delete and undelete pages, and to view and restore deleted revisions
- protect and unprotect pages, and to edit admin-protected pages
- block and unblock users, individual IP addresses and IP address ranges
- edit less-restricted interface messages (see also Commons:Interface administrators)
- rename files
- add and remove user groups
- configure Upload Wizard campaigns
- delete and undelete specific log entries and revisions of pages
- import pages from other wikis
- merge the history of pages
- modify abuse filters
- not create redirects from source pages when moving pages
- override the spoofing checks and title or username blacklist
- send a message to multiple users at once (massmessage)
- use higher limits in API queries
These are collectively known as the admin tools.
Community role
Administrators are experienced and trusted members of the Commons community who have taken on additional maintenance work and have been entrusted with the admin tools by public consensus/vote. Different admins have different areas of interest and expertise, but typical admin tasks include determining and closing deletion requests, deleting copyright violations, undeleting files where necessary, protecting Commons against vandalism, and working on templates and other protected pages. Of course, some of these tasks can be done by non-admins as well.
Administrators are expected to understand the goals of this project, and be prepared to work constructively with others towards those ends. Administrators should also understand and follow Commons' policies, and where appropriate, respect community consensus.
Apart from roles which require use of the admin tools, administrators have no special editorial authority by virtue of their position, and in discussions and public votes their contributions are treated in the same way as any ordinary editor. Some admins may become more influential, not due to their position as such, but from the personal trust they may have gained from the community.
Suggestions for administrators
Please read Commons:Guide to adminship.
Removal of administrator rights
Under the de-admin policy, administrator rights may be revoked due to inactivity or misuse of sysop tools. In a de-admin request, normal standards for determining consensus in an RfA do not apply. Instead, "majority consensus" should be used, whereby any consensus to demote of higher than 50% is sufficient to remove the admin.
Apply to become an administrator
All intending administrators must go through this process and submit themselves to RFA, including all ex-administrators who are seeking to return to their previous role.
First, go to Commons:Administrators/Howto and read the information there. Then come back here and make your request in the section below.
- After clicking the appropriate button and creating the subpage, copy the link to the subpage, e.g. "Commons:Administrators/Requests/Username", edit Commons:Administrators/Requests and paste it in at the top of the section, then put it in double curly brackets (e.g. {{Commons:Administrators/Requests/Username}}) to transclude it. Request a watchlist notice at MediaWiki talk:WatchlistNotice, or edit MediaWiki:WatchlistNotice to put up one if you are an administrator.
- If someone else nominated you, please accept the nomination by stating "I accept" or something similar, and signing below the nomination itself. The subpage will still need to be transcluded by you or your nominator.
| Use the box below, replacing Username with your username: |
Voting
Any registered user may vote here although those who have few or no previous edits may not be fully counted. It is preferable you give reasons for both Support and Oppose votes as this will help the closing bureaucrat in their decision. Greater weight is given to an argument, with supporting evidence if needed, than to a simple vote.
Promotion normally requires at least 75% in favour, with a minimum of 8 support votes. Votes from unregistered users are not counted. However, the closing bureaucrat has discretion in judging community consensus, and the decision will not necessarily be based on the raw numbers. Bureaucrats may, at their discretion, extend the period of an RfA if they feel that it will be helpful in better determining community consensus.
Neutral comments are not counted in the vote totals for the purposes of calculating pass/fail percentages. However, such comments are part of the discussion, may persuade others, and contribute to the closing bureaucrat's understanding of community consensus.
Purge the cache Use the edit link below to edit the transcluded page.
Requests for adminship
When complete, pages listed here should be archived to Commons:Administrators/Archive.
- Please read Commons:Administrators before voting here. Any logged in user may vote although those who have few or no previous edits may not be fully counted.
Ranjithsiji (talk · contributions (views) · deleted user contributions · deleted uploads · recent activity (talk · project · deletion requests) · logs · block log · global contribs · CentralAuth)
- Scheduled to end: 04:08, 29 August 2026 (UTC)
I am contributing to Commons from 2010. I engaged in various kinds of activities here. patrolling new uploads, create deletion requests [1], categorizing images [2],[3], convert raster images to vector images, doing licence reviews & generally working on some of the backlogs. I am organizing Wiki Loves Earth in India in 2025, 2026. Wiki Loves Onam 2024, 2025, 2026. Wiki Loves Village 2025, 2026, Wiki Loves Schools 2025, Wiki Loves Birds 2024, 2025, Wiki Loves Theyyam 2026, Wiki Loves Museums 2025. Built tools for getting statistics of category [4], create subtitle tool [5] for video.
I would like to work at the backlogs in COM:DR and COM:CFD, Ranjithsiji (talk) 04:08, 22 August 2026 (UTC)
Votes
Support Christian Ferrer (talk) 15:05, 22 August 2026 (UTC)
Oppose - You purport to want work on COM:DR backlogs, but, prior to April of this year, have only contributed to only one DR in the past five years--a nomination of your own image where a) your !vote was objectively wrong (unused, low quality images are absolutely "enough reason to delete"); b) relatedly, unsupported by reference to policy; c) and a veiled appeal to OTHERSTUFF ("AI image can have a place"). Users who entertain fallacies and do not tether opinions to guidelines or policies should be nowhere near adminship. Эlcobbola talk 16:47, 22 August 2026 (UTC)
- I see a couple of other recent contributions to DRs, like on Commons:Deletion requests/File:Turkish light.jpg - but that one is objectively wrong as well ("the owner of the artifact can clam [sic] the copyright because he exclusively paid for the work"). Omphalographer (talk) 07:22, 24 August 2026 (UTC)
Oppose per Эlcobbola. — 🇺🇦Jeff G. ツ please ping or talk to me🇺🇦 16:50, 22 August 2026 (UTC)
Support. — ArtSmir (talk) 11:16, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
Oppose per Эlcobbola. --Krd 12:30, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
Support per Эlcobbola. We need admins who err on side of keeping the media. ℺ Gone Postal (〠 ✉ • ✍ ⏿) 19:25, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
Oppose: You're certainly a productive and skilled contributor, but I don't think adminship is right for you at this time. You don't seem to have relevant contributions in areas like DR, CfD, or tagging files for speedy deletion where the admin toolset would be useful. You need to demonstrate an ability to competently contribute in these areas before you can be trusted to take admin actions affecting them. I am also concerned that you often upload multiple functionally-identical images taken from the same location just seconds apart (for example A/B, C/D, E/F). Pi.1415926535 (talk) 23:54, 23 August 2026 (UTC)
Oppose per Э and π. Your project-space edits are largely limited to Wiki Loves project management and POTY votes; while your service is appreciated, I don't think you have the level of project experience required for a Commons administrator. Omphalographer (talk) 07:24, 24 August 2026 (UTC)
Oppose Great contributors aren't always great admins. I don't think there's enough on the administrative side that serves as a good enough evidence. Perhaps be consistent in relevant areas for a year, and re-apply if there's a need then. signed, Aafi (guesthouse) 10:15, 24 August 2026 (UTC)
Oppose for now per above. Please don't take these comments lightly and in some time please reapply once you've become more familiar and involved with admin tasks. Bedivere (talk) 14:35, 24 August 2026 (UTC)
Comments
- @Elcobbola: I absolutely accept your reasons. Thank you for pointing out the reasons. I uploaded an image generated by google gemini ai with prompt. And saying that it is an AI generated image. And I generated that image about a ghost. I uploaded that image by seeing this Category Images generated by Gemini. I am not entertaining fallacies and will be careful in future. I also following policies and guidelines in the whole Wikimedia ecosystem. I am a sysop, bureaucrat in Malayalam Wikipedia, temporary sysop in Malayalam Wikiquote, temporary test-sysop in Incubator so I value Policies and Guidelines by the community. --Ranjithsiji (talk) 17:42, 22 August 2026 (UTC)
Requests for bureaucratship
When complete, pages listed here should be archived to Commons:Bureaucrats/Archive.
- Please read Commons:Bureaucrats before posting or voting here. Any logged in user may vote although those who have few or no previous edits may not be fully counted.
No current requests.
Requests for CheckUser rights
When complete, pages listed here should be archived to Commons:Checkusers/Archive.
- Please read Commons:Checkusers before posting or voting here. Any logged in user may vote although those who have few or no previous edits may not be fully counted.
No current requests.
Requests for Oversight rights
When complete, pages listed here should be archived to Commons:Oversighters/Archive.
- Please read Commons:Oversighters before voting here. Any logged in user may vote, although those who have few or no previous edits may not be fully counted.
No current requests.