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didn't wiki used to be publicly edited at one time? sure i tried to edit something for a laugh once!

Well, it still is, but keeping it up-to-date is going to get harder and harder. Lots of people have contributed only to see their content trashed by the Wikipedia elite. Those people won't bother again, or will find somewhere else to contribute to.

Speaking personally, I've considered correcting some of the erroneous content on the history of microcomputers from first-hand knowledge. But from what I've seen of how current contributors are being treated have decided that the time would be better spent elsewhere.

In the end the Web doesn't need Wikipedia. By the Web's very nature specalist sites will pop up that can provide focus to subjects that Wikipedia can only scratch the surface on.

So by trying to be all things to all people it will end up by being very mediocre. It's a catch 22 situation!

This doesn't surprise me - the endless strictures and rules are Byzantine in the extreme. In many cases, if an edit introducing new material cannot be supported by a web reference found within two minutes on Google, the information is removed, even if backed up by printed references.

On the other hand, there are thousands of errors throughout the site. I should know, I introduced a minor one years ago on a page that still remains - it was even included in an article in the Daily Mail