User:HJ Mitchell

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Userboxen This user is a sysop (verify) and has logged 82055 admin actions. Action Count Total edits 141765 Live edits 137092 Pages deleted 17504 Pages restored 425 Users blocked 47475 Users reblocked 1401 Users unblocked 317 Pages protected 7969 Protections modified 1796 Pages unprotected 478 Revisions deleted 2407 Logs/Events deleted 519 User rights modified 1764 Users created 32 This user is (unfortunately!) a member of the Arbitration Committee. This user holds checkuser and oversight privileges on the English Wikipedia. (verify) This user has been on Wikipedia for 16 years, 10 months, and 27 days. This user has been an admin for 15 years, 9 months and 24 days. This user helped promote forty featured articles on Wikipedia. This user likes to use the thank button. This user is married. This user is a Commonist and has a user page at Commons. This user has uploaded >8,300 images (at last check) to Wikimedia Commons. This user is a member of WikiProject UK Railways. 190ish This user has created 190ish of Wikipedia's 7,142,450 articles. This user reverts vandalism while listening to Taylor Swift. This user absolutely loves Taylor Swift!! This user drinks Single malt whisky. Ahh...malt. This user drinks beer. xkcd This user cannot go to bed when someone is wrong on the Internet. This user lives in England. @ This user can be reached by email. This user is male. This user has a long watchlist which they use to track all edits to a great many articles. than then This user understands the difference between using "than" and "then." whom This user insists upon using whom wherever it is called for, and fixes the errors of whomever he sees. vn-∞ This user page has been vandalized many, many times.

subpages:

• Musings, a collection of opinions on various aspects of Wikipedia
• /Library, books and sources I own that might be useful for articles
• /Sandbox, article ideas and to-do list
• /Useful things, useful links and other things
• /monobook.js

Welcome!

Hi, I'm Harry Mitchell! Most people call me Harry or HJ for brevity (I really hate being addressed by my surname!).

I've been around for a while and I've done various things. I'm terrible at updating this page, so it'll probably be out of date by the time you read it. I like writing and improving encyclopaedia articles, and I help to keep the wheels turning as an administrator. I flit between different things, but my article interests often include architecture, sculpture, civil engineering, and military history.

I tend to write articles about monuments (especially war memorials), bridges (I particularly like ancient stone bridges and 19th-century railway bridges), other bits of transport history, and sometimes other things like policing. I'm a bit of a perfectionist—I like to research articles as thoroughly as possible before moving onto the next one. I've written several featured articles, (list here) considered to be comprehensive and well researched, and among the best articles on Wikipedia). As an admin, I deal mainly with vandalism, spam, and abuse, and hence I'm probably better known for swinging the banhammer. I'm also a Checkuser (which means I can access certain confidential information to prevent abuse) and oversighter (which means I can hide problematic content, like libel and personal information, even from administrators). I was elected as one of 15 members of the Arbitration Committee at the end of 2023 and re-elected at the end of 2025. Despite all those extra roles, most of the time I'm just a regular editor; I don't get any more control over our policies or articles than anyone else. I'm mostly active here, on the English Wikipedia, but I can also be found on Commons and sometimes Wikidata and the Simple English Wikipedia.

I love to travel (almost anywhere, it doesn't have to be exotic—I can find something interesting in most places) and I enjoy exploring new places and taking photos. None of my photos are outstanding, but some have been useful to illustrate Wikipedia articles and some have found surprising uses. I love meeting other Wikipedians (and Wikimedians!). I've probably met at least a couple of thousand and there's always an interesting conversation to be had, sometimes over a beer or three or even a whisky, or perhaps just a nice cup of tea. Sometimes I go places and speak to people who want to know more about Wikipedia, sometimes under the auspices of Wikimedia UK. I was part of the organising team for the Wikimania conference in London in 2014. I'm originally from the English Midlands, but these days I live with my wife and stepdaughter on the south coast.

Contacting me

• If it's about Wikipedia, your best bet is my talk page; that's also monitored by friendly people who might be able to help you better or quicker!
• You can email me through this form or at hjmwiki at gmail.com, but if you're blocked and you don't know why, I need to know your username (if you have one) and your IP address (if that's blocked); without that information, I can't help you. Please bear in mind that I've made tens of thousands of blocks, so I don't know which one is affecting you.
• If you need something suppressed ("oversighted") you might be better off using this form or oversight-en-wp at wikipedia.org.
• I'm on Discord as hj_mitchell and I'm in the Wikimedia Community server.
• I'm an admin for the UK and Ireland Telegram chat (ask me for an invite) and the Wikimediauk-l mailing list

Admin statistics

Action	Count
Edits	137092
Edits+Deleted	141765
Pages deleted	17504
Revisions deleted	2407
Logs/Events deleted	519
Pages restored	425
Pages protected	7969
Pages unprotected	478
Protections modified	1796
Users blocked	47475
Users reblocked	1401
Users unblocked	317
User rights modified	1764
Users created	32
Abuse filters modified	3
Mass messages sent	2