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Ladies and gentlemen and everyone in between,
I'm hereby giving Wikipedia the wipe. I've just experienced the straw that broke the camel's back and have decided once and for all that Wikipedia, as it stands right now, is no longer a project that I want to be involved in.
The thing that has astounded and angered me over the last few years has been the explosion of the bureaucracy of the site. The sysop structure, the hierarchies, and the politics have burgeoned to a degree that I find quite unfathomable and ultimately unsupportable for what is supposed to be a "free encyclopedia [sic] that anyone can edit". What it is now is staggering under the weight of its bureaucrats, choking on infighting and politicking, and swarming with what seems to be a massive roaming crowd of editors whose primary purpose is to do no actual editing of any substance, but merely to revert edits they deem to be of no or little consequence. Rather than go out and do some research and build constructively upon pages that already exist - and who knows, maybe even expanding their own horizons a little in the process - they're content to sit in their own little Wiki world and do things that don't involve them having ever to leave the bounds of the Wikipedia servers.
Okay, maybe this is a little snippy. Frankly, I don't care, because I'd hoped Wikipedia would become more than this. In some areas, yes, it's quite fantastic - I've always been impressed with the quality of its mathematics and physics sections, for instance. But in a lot of other areas it's woefully inadequate and has not lived up to its promise, and the hordes of career reverters are maintaining an inertia about much of the site that means that developed pages don't need developing and undeveloped pages aren't getting the developing they need.
So goodbye, Wikipedia. I've known you for many years. Hell, I'll probably still be making some edits here and there when I see that they're needed. But my substantive association with Wikipedia terminates here.
Those who find themselves still interested in my work with Ubykh can always get into contact with me at http://ubykhlives.livejournal.com/ - leave a comment there and I'll get back to you as soon as I can. I'm still a proud Grammarian of the Klingon Language Institute and am happy to answer queries about or in that language as well.