On Wednesday, March 24th, 2010, Wikipedia.org went offline for several hours in much of the world because of an overheating problem at the web site's European data center, per a post on the Wikimedia tech blog. The story was covered by a number of media outlets. [1][2][3]
Being that we are in the age of Twitter (or tweeting, or something) reaction was fairly swift among denizens of Web 2.0 culture. For about half an hour I monitored a couple of live feeds (mostly Twitter posts) that popped up as I was looking into the problem with Wikipedia. I pulled nearly 90 comments from those feeds and have pasted them below. These were taken completely at random, and I basically grabbed anything that offered any sort of reaction or commentary on the fact that Wikipedia had "gone dark." I figured it might be worthwhile to save these somewhere before they disappear down the Twitter memory hole—taken collectively I think they are fairly interesting.
These are in no particular order, excepting the last comment which I think rather sums up the general reaction. I've retained the # and @ symbols which Twitter users often employ in their posts, so these are all basically verbatim.
Reactions to Wikipedia going offline
edit- Wikipedia is down! Oh no, I can feel my attention being less distracted by the minute.
- Wikipedia down! #wikipedia apparently due to server cooling issues, funny the only time I need it for something...it's down
- Whoa. Wikipedia is down. I feel dumber already.
- Ahhhhh!!! Wikipedia is down!! Repent, the end is nigh!!
- OK, Wikipedia has been down for 15 seconds and my whole life is already thrown off.
- You don't realize how much you rely on #Wikipedia until it goes down!
- Wikipedia seems to be down? I notice once more again how much I use it daily. Hope it's back soon.
- wikipedia down? its officially the end of the world =/
- Wikipedia is down. Bummer.
- Wikipedia is still down! Honestly when I actually need it for something is when its down.
- Wikipedia is never down! I thought Wikipedia was infallible.
- wikipedia is down.. my life is in shambles
- Wikipedia goes down - homework across the world remains incomplete.
- Wikipedia is down, or is this a ploy to show us just how useful you are?
- Wikipedia was down and I felt so... lost...
- oh god wikipedia is no more, how will i find out what things are
- Wikipedia's vanished. I'm calling it: the first sign of the apocalypse. RUN FOR YOUR LIVES (or a real encyclopedia. Up to you.)
- It's quite shocking how often I would go on wikipedia, now that it's down, I just keep visiting the 'couldn't connect to server' page :P
- So I just tried to get on Wikipedia, and it isn't loading. I assume the world has ended in some way.
- Wikipedia is down. For the time being, everything on the Internet is either true or false.
- disappeared from the web. 'Oops! Google Chrome could not find en.wiki.x.io' it says. I'm bereft.
- I want #wikipedia. #boohoo
- Omg, what? Wikipedia is down. How the hell am I supposed to pass my 'A' Levels now? :/
- rocking back&forth in a ball in corner of cubicle RT @newscientist The global brain just partially shut down - wikipedia is inaccessible
- Wikipedia: Epic fail
- Wikipedia is down...I feel nervous...which is probably weird.
- Wikipedia is down! I already feel the knowledge tumbling out of my head!
- Wikipedia is down. What in the hell am I going to do now? Pay attention in class?
- Better go and run amok in the streets
- Health care passed AND wikipedia is down. Buy your ammo and water now before walmart gets busy, general mass.
- Wikipedia is DOWN! Neitzsche warned us about this day--the day all truth would die.
- One wonders if the wikipedia outage is due to their recent pleas for funding.
- Courage now. Wikipedia will be back up soon...
- 2 users have told me they can't get to http://www.wiki.x.io/ and I can't either. One user just said, "is life worth living now?"
- Wikipedia does down. The Library of Alexandria burns again.
- Wikipedia is down!!! How will I pretend I know everything?
- wikipedia is down for me. google search is now useless
- Why is my Wikipedia completely F*CKED UP?!
- oh yeah, wikipedia would totally go down when I need it for a politics essay. argh!
- Wikipedia went down last night. Imagine all those Uni students staring blankly at a 404 screen!
- Oh no. Wikipedia is broken. What happens now?
- Theres a story on slashdot. WIKIPEDIA BROKE! teh internets is over
- WIKIPEDIA IS DOWN!!! Wanna bet it was China?
- Arg, Wikipedia, why are you not working?? How am I meant to do my homework now, i could look at an actual encyclopaedia but...
- Looks like Wikipedia is out for a while... thank god Google caches everything. :-P
- No no no, Wikipedia is not allowed to be offline. No! What about all the stuff I don't know yet?
- when wikipedia's down, you realise how much you actually use it...
- Wikipedia being down makes me sad... :(
- OH NO! Wikipedia has actually gone down! How am I supposed to copy and paste into my dissertation now??
- wow, wikipedia IS down ... tears
- English Wikipedia is down. It's as if millions of college papers suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
- Wikipedia's down! THE END IS NIGH!
- Among the most amusing tweets was one which read: "Oh no! Wikipedia is down! [citation needed]"
- Wikipedia has been down for hours! OH NO! Are encyclopedias still out there?
- Wikipedia is down. The world might end.
- How can we be expected to fact check our stories? Wikipedia is down!
- On no wikipedia is down... It's the end of civilisation as we know it p-)
- ZOMG WIKIPEDIA IS DOWN! HOW WILL I ANSWER IRKING QUESTIONS? HOW I WILL I GET INFO ABOUT RANDOM ASS THINGS?
- wikipedia is down! how will my brain function?
- Wikipedia down! Now where will I get my slightly suspect information about everything?
- Oh no! Wikipedia is.. *gulp* Down! What WILL the world DO???
- Is Wikipedia down for everyone right now?! Because I can't search for anything & I am FREAKING. OUT.
- Speaking of Wikipedia going down, does that mean that we have to use ..................Books to find things out?
- sweet mother of god, wikipedia is down!
- Wikipedia is down! Emergency Management Plans activate everywhere! Panic in the streets! Oh, the humanity! :P
- Wikipedia is down. Should. Have. Donated. More.
- Wikipedia has been down for quite some time now. This is frustrating.
- Wikipedia goes down – a stark reminder of the things we take for granted
- ... is down. All accumulated knowledge has been lost. I'm off to invent fire now.
- First the Library of Alexandria and now Wikipedia. Not sure how much more of this I can take!
- Anxious looking student leaving my building bellowing into her phone, "Wikipedia's down!Wikipedia's down!"
- Where will NBC get their news sources???
- Why is Wikipedia down?! It's like the universe has abandoned me.
- Is Wikipedia down? "Oops! Google Chrome could not find en.wiki.x.io" Whiskey. Tango. Foxtrot.
- Wikipedia is officially down. How am I supposed to live???? You have no idea how much this has crippled me. Well, at least it wasn't Google.
- If Wikipedia wasn't down right now, I'd be so much more productive.
- The wikipocolypse begins...
- Brilliant, wikipedia is down when I really need it D:
- Can anybody estimate the financial loss due to this stoppage of wikipedia ...it wud be interesting ...
- Is wikipedia down? This is making me realize how much I rely on wikipedia.
- Is Wikipedia down? I may be going insane.
- Hamlet? Without my ability to look that up on Wikipedia, I'm merely going to assume it's something sold by Dennys.
- How can wiki not be working? This is much scarier than Twitter being down :-| wikipedia has never not worked D:
- Yeah, Wikipedia still seems to be down. Wanted to find out how old Pascal Zuberbuhler is. Had to work far too hard for the answer
- Wikipedia is down right now. As a result, my role of providing basic background information in class discussions is shot.
- wikipedia is down, facebook is acting screwy...must be China getting back at the west for google
- lJWHEGFKJHEWF WE'RE ALL GUNNA DIE. wikipedia is DOWWWN.
- so @wikipedia is down and everybody is freaking out