Wikipedia leaking editors as 49,000 desert

[DF Bot]

Wikipedia, the web based font of all knowledge (citation needed), is haemorrhaging editors like a publisher’s Christmas party when the free booze has run out.

So suggests research conducted by Filipe Ortega at the Madrid-based Universidad Rey Juan Carlos.

In the past three months, apparently 49,000 of the volunteers who edit the online resource have left the site.

That’s a substantial number, and worryingly for Wikipedia it’s ten times the amount who left the project in the same period last year.

The fear is the desertion is due to the new more stringent rules that have been introduced recently, which go against the free, open nature of the site.

Of course, Wikipedia isn’t in dire straits just yet, but if the downward trend continues it’s going to make things very difficult.

[petey85]

Surely more stringent rules on what can be edited and how mean they need fewer editors?
Looks like market forces are doing pretty well even in something like Wikipedia.

I still prefer my google searches though - but Wiki is great for a laugh if you look through the bitter arguments over editing some really boring stuff - or the Thierry Henry page.