[WikiEN-l] Accessing Wikipedia

[K Forstner]

I've been trying to access Wikipedia for hours now -- to no avail.
Immediately before that, simply saving an edit took more than a minute. My
knowledge in this field is extremely limited, but I've come to really hate
those periodical breakdowns. What is more, I guess newbies will be appalled
if they happen to be editing an article during such a time.

My three questions:

(1) Are these shutdowns a worldwide phenomenon, or is it just me (in good
old Europe) having difficulty?

(2) Are they planned (some sysop/developer/whoever making some important
changes etc.) or do they happen accidentally?

(3) If they are planned, could the community of users be given notice when
and approximately for how long Wikipedia will be down?

Kurt Forstner aka KF