Wikipedia has gone down as of 12.03am GMT. Actually, having a quick look around on the Net it seems to have gone down about 35 minutes ago.
Instead of the online dictionary, you get an error page saying: “Fout Fel Fallo 错误 錯誤 Erreur Error Fehler エラー BÅ‚Ä…d Errore Erro. The Wikimedia Foundation servers are currently experiencing technical difficulties. The problem is most likely temporary and will hopefully be fixed soon. Please check back in a few minutes. For further information, you can visit the #wikipedia channel on the Freenode IRC network. In the meantime, you may be able to view Google's cached version of this page. Wikipedia is now one of the most visited sites on the Internet by traffic and continues to grow, and as a result the Wikimedia Foundation has a constant need to purchase new hardware. If you would like to help, please donate.”
If it can't even be bothered to pretend it is “routine maintenance” it can't be good. I wonder what the point of targeting Wikipedia would be.
I know Wikipedia has got a bit of a bad press of late, what with people fudging entries and inevitably people suing people, but it still remain a great resource and one that really harnesses the power of the Net – and of people.
At least when it's up. When it's down, it is less than useless.
