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