Commons:Oversighters/Howto

How do I become an oversighter?

Meta policy requires that all oversighters must be at least 18 years of age, of legal age in their place of residence, and willing to provide identification to the Wikimedia Foundation.

Oversighter permission is only granted to users after very careful consideration by the community. This is a highly sensitive role and approval is not given lightly. If you are considering applying, you should first liaise with existing Commons oversighters and ask for their opinion.

For a request to succeed a minimum of 25 support votes and an 80% positive vote are required (subject to the normal bureaucrat discretion). Requests for oversighter run for two weeks.

According to meta policy, any user account with oversighter status that is inactive for more than a year will have their oversighter access removed.

Commons must always have no fewer than two oversighters, for mutual accountability. If due to retirement of an existing oversighter only one is left, either another must be appointed immediately or the sole oversighter will also lose the permission; in such a case, oversighter tasks would then have to be handled by a steward.

The request for oversightership

When you are ready you can apply, or ask your nominator to apply, at Commons:Oversighters.