User:HJ Mitchell - Wikipedia (original) (raw)

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All knowledge is precious, whether or not it serves the slightest human use! —A. E. Housman
He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster. And when you gaze long into an abyss the abyss also gazes into you. —Friedrich Nietzsche

This is me at Wikimania in Nairobi in 2025.
Photo by Pedro J Pacheco

Here I am (second from right) with some of the regulars at a Wikipedia meetup in Brighton in another amusing t-shirt and, as usual, shorts!
Photo by Mike Peel

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 I'm terrible at updating this page, so it'll probably be out of date by the time you read it.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	139283
Edits+Deleted	143979
Pages deleted	17703
Revisions deleted	2424
Logs/Events deleted	519
Pages restored	426
Pages protected	7979
Pages unprotected	481
Protections modified	1798
Users blocked	49747
Users reblocked	1422
Users unblocked	323
User rights modified	1805
Users created	34
Abuse filters modified	3
Mass messages sent	2

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