Wikipedia:Mediation Committee

The Mediation Committee was a panel of editors who resolve content disputes on Wikipedia articles by providing formal mediation. The Mediation Committee was established with the Arbitration Committee in 2003 by Jimmy Wales and was the last stage of content dispute resolution on the English Wikipedia. Mediation is entered into voluntarily by the parties to the dispute and does not result in binding resolutions.

Formal mediation and the Mediation Committee are governed by the mediation policy.

To contact the Committee privately, use this utility while logged into your account. To request formal mediation for a content dispute, see Wikipedia:Requests for mediation.

Members

 For details on each member and for mediators emeriti, see here.

1. Mdann52 (talk · contribs · email)
2. Sunray (talk · contribs · email)
3. The Wordsmith (talk · contribs · email)
4. TransporterMan (talk · contribs · email)

   ↳ Chairperson: Sept 2014 – current.

5. WGFinley (talk · contribs · email)

   ↳ Not actively mediating.

6. Guanaco (talk · contribs · email)

Active but temporarily away

1. Keilana (talk · contribs · email)

Appointment process

Editors wishing to join the committee are invited to submit a nomination, which will be assessed by mediators who are already appointed. Nominations should outline the editor's experience in dispute resolution and demonstrate that they hold the trust of the community. While there is no list of requirements for candidates, the role of a formal mediator is complicated and intensive, so candidates must be:

• Trusted members of the English Wikipedia community
• Seasoned editors, because many disputes that reach formal mediation are prolonged and complicated
• Reasonable and calm, because a mediator who is temperamental could not maintain a positive environment for mediation
• Experienced in Wikipedia dispute resolution, with a proven record of resolving editorial disputes. Real-life experience in resolving disputes is beneficial but not sufficient of itself.

Prospective mediators usually self-nominate (and are always welcome to do so), but current members of the committee also prospectively scout for new members and have nominated non-members in the past. Editors who have not been approached by a current member should never presume that this indicates their nomination would be unsuccessful.

To submit a nomination, see here. Open nominations are automatically listed by the Bot at Wikipedia talk:Mediation Committee. Once opened, the nomination will be advertised on the committee's internal mailing list, and any current or emeritus member of the committee has the ability to vote on the nomination. Nominations which attract the opposition of two or more mediators will be unsuccessful. Candidates may re-apply to join the committee no earlier than three months after a previous, unsuccessful nomination.

Contact

To contact the Committee privately see this page.

The Committee maintains a private mailing list, called mediation-en-l (abbreviated to medcom-l), for internal discussion between its members. Editors who wish to contact the committee in private should direct their messages to the mailing list through the form at User:Mediation Committee.

Policy

The Mediation Committee policy documents how the Mediation Committee, its mediators, and the formal mediation process operates. This policy is maintained by the Committee and is considered an authoritative codification of how Committee matters should be conducted.

See also

• Wikipedia:Mediation Committee/Policy, the Mediation policy by which the Committee operates.
• Wikipedia:Requests for mediation, the page on which requests for the Committee to mediate a dispute are presented.
• Wikipedia:Dispute resolution, Wikipedia's page describing the process by which disputes are to be resolved on-wiki.
• Wikipedia:Arbitration Committee, the MedCom's sister Committee. The ArbCom handles user conduct issues, as opposed to content disputes.