The number of volunteers who help write, edit and manage online encyclopedia Wikipedia is dwindling rapidly, according to this article in the Wall Street Journal:

Volunteers have been departing the project that bills itself as “the free encyclopedia that anyone can edit” faster than new ones have been joining, and the net losses have accelerated over the past year. In the first three months of 2009, the English-language Wikipedia suffered a net loss of more than 49,000 editors, compared to a net loss of 4,900 during the same period a year earlier, according to Spanish researcher Felipe Ortega, who analyzed Wikipedia’s data on the editing histories of its more than three million active contributors in 10 languages.

Eight years after Wikipedia began with a goal to provide everyone in the world free access to “the sum of all human knowledge,” the declines in participation have raised questions about the encyclopedia’s ability to continue expanding its breadth and improving its accuracy. …

[A]s it matures, Wikipedia, one of the world’s largest crowdsourcing initiatives, is becoming less freewheeling and more like the organizations it set out to replace. Increasingly, newcomers who try to edit are informed that they have unwittingly broken a rule — and find their edits deleted.

I’m sure that makes Wikipedia a less fun place to contribute free work to than it used to be. It’s less start-up and more corporate, probably for the staff of 34 as well as the volunteers. But the staff gets this thing called a paycheck for the hours they put in on behalf of Wikipedia. The volunteers? Wikipedia’s eternal gratitude.

There appear to be two issues here. One is simple burnout: Volunteering to edit and write for Wikipedia undoubtedly begins as a labor of love for many before devolving into a grind. If you’re writing about anything contentious — politics, we’re looking at you — the arguing and editing and re-editing could wear down even the most determined Wikipediaist.

The second (and related) fact is that Wikipedia is eight years old. The truth is, a lot has changed since 2001, and even since 2006, Wikipedia’s high-water mark for attracting volunteers. The original vision that inspired so many dedicated volunteers appears to have faded over time and under increasing procedural rules. Plus, let’s face it, with Facebook, Twitter and other social media tools becoming increasingly popular, the crowd simply has better things to do than edit Wikipedia. For free.