Jeff Merkey, a former Novell chief scientist, has issued a statement accusing Jimmy Wales of extortion. Merkey says that Wales offered him "special protection" for his Wikipedia entry in exchange for a "substantial" donation to Wales's Wikimedia Foundation. After Merkey withdrew his donation over concerns that the funds were being mismanaged, he was banned from the site for "frivolous and unsubstantiated claims." Merkey's not the only one: Rachel Marsden, Wales's ex-girlfriend, has privately threatened Wales with a lawsuit over what she claims are hostile revisions to her Wikipedia entry which began after they broke up. While they were together, Wales promised Marsden swift action on edits so he could "continue fucking [her] brains out." After the jump, Merkey's statement and Marsden's email.

In a simpering interview on CNET — "Let's just get this out of the way," the host actually says — Sue Gardner, executive director of the foundation which runs Wikipedia, used the classic disgruntled-employee line to dismiss charges that Wales had abused his position there. But that's not the only way she made a fool of herself. "He's a good guy, he's a really good guy, he's a modest guy, he's a frugal guy," says Gardner. Oh, really? Read this transcript of a chat between Wales and ex-girlfriend Marsden, as he debates whether to go first-class or business-class on a junket to Korea in February, and judge for yourself. His hosts, not the foundation, apparently paid for the tickets; Gardner says Wales has only charged $1,100 to the Wikimedia Foundation in the past six months. All the same, if there's any sign of modesty or frugality here, I'm missing it.

You're bored with the whole thing, but watch and learn, people. This is media training at its finest. "What's happening here is we have a disgruntled former employee. This guy has a blog, and he's used that blog as a platform to spread a bunch of unsubstantiated rumors and gossip. It's hard for us to even respond to — I don't know if you've read it, but it's not entirely even clear necessarily always what's being alleged." — Wikimedia Foundation executive director Sue Gardner on CNET. She praises ex-chair Jimmy Wales's saintly, parsimonious behavior all the way back to last summer.

We keep hearing new rumors about women Jimmy Wales has been involved with. But why tell you? Some Wales critics say it's not the sex, it's the money. But it's hard to separate the two when charges fly that Wales took a girlfriend on trips paid for by the nonprofit WIkipedia. The latest names linked to Wales: Barbara Cohen, formerly an editor with the Public Library of Science, left; and Julie Melton, an online-learning expert, right. Wales's relationship with Cohen, former Wikipedia insiders say, contributed to the breakup of her marriage. Melton stayed in Wales's apartment, though she's said to be seeing someone else. Yes, yes, I know, enough about the sex — did he edit their Wikipedia entries?

In mid-February, he'd Wales announced he wasn't leaving the U.S. for two months. (Necker is in the British Virgin Islands.) But a little white lite, so he can hobnob with the rich and powerful, ignoring his responsibilities as parent, startup founder, and spiritual leader of a social movement? That's the worldly Wales we've ungrudgingly come to admire. Go to Necker, Jimbo — carbon offsets be damned!

In a recent blog post, Jason Calacanis predicts that "Google will have 90 percent search market share in the U.S. one year from now." That leaves little room for Calacanis's own Mahalo. So how'd he bring himself to say it?

Are you an investigative journalist? Here's a cheat sheet, with sources: The single worst charge against Wikipedia chair emeritus Jimmy Wales is that he erased a $5,000 donor's embarrassing page history, an act akin to shredding a dossier or spiking a feature story. This allegation allegedly (pardon my reporter-speak) comes from the donor himself, former Novell chief scientist Jeff V. Merkey. Wikipedia's own records show that Merkey donated, and that Wikipedia editors complained when Wales scrubbed Merkey's page completely. Why is this worse than Wales editing his girlfriend's page? If you're a gumshoe reporter, you get it already.

Jimmy Wales should quit Wikipedia — but please, not the rest of the Internet. He's far too entertaining.On Jimmy Wales's MySpace page, he lists himself as "married" and a "proud parent" who's "looking to meet Wikipedian MySpacers." His friends list tells another story. The most recent comment comes from a MySpace user named Andrea, whose picture closely resembles Andrea Weckerle, a woman to whom Wales has been linked. Scroll through Wales's friends list, and you'll find a woman in a French maid's outfit, a woman in a thong bikini, a woman posing in lingerie, and several girls who seem a bit young for Wales. One almost needs an online encyclopedia to keep track of them all.

"What's it like to be a famous guy on the Web?" Wallstrip host Lindsay Campbell asked Jimmy Wales in an interview last year. "Being an Internet rock star is like being a regular rock star, except there's no sex and drugs," Wales replies. We're inclined to believe him on the drugs — Wales can barely handle liquor, from what we hear — but no sex? Even in this finance-oriented chat, we detected Jimmy's subliminal message for the ladies at the end. The full clip:

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales has been leaving Facebook groups at a prodigious rate over the past few days. Is it related to his recent relationship troubles or is he just cleaning house? Check out the screenshots below to see just how many groups he's left. We know the feeling, Jimbo: Who has time for this?

Elisabeth Bauer was Jimmy Wales's first big perk as lord and master of Wikipedia. As with Rachel Marsden, the Canadian journalist at the root of Wales's recent woes, Wales and Bauer struck up a friendship online, over Wikipedia. And people are now saying Wikipedia paid for Bauer, known online as "Elian," to travel with Wales as an upaid Wikipedia press officer — a title he insisted on for her, though some argue she was unqualified for the job.

Jimbo, face it: You're not meant to live out your days administrating nonprofits and setting the low bar for lifestyle. You're not Al Gore. You're CEO material, meant to soar like an eagle, fly first-class, bang one bimbo after another, and dine at the finest restaurants. Your for-profit search engine Wikia could totally kill Google and make billions — ignore Marissa Mayer's giggling, we're serious here. Let go, let go of the tedious pro bono, pro-Bono work. Disengage from Wikipedia completely. The latest accusation — that you traded edits for donations — just show how dull fundraising is. The board of directors will thank you for making it safe for Seagate's chairman to donate another hundred grand, but screw them. This is about you, Jimbo. Become what you are.

(Photo by AskMen.com)

A post at AntiSocialMedia.net that's best quoted verbatim:

"The Wikipedia effort is not personality-driven," claims a commenter who insists that "nobody cares" about Jimmy Wales's behavior. The cult of personality in action: Journalist Cyrus Farivar — a regular contributor to NPR, The Economist, Wired and the New York Times — has had his Wikipedia page deleted several times in retaliation for a joke he made on Slate ("Yes, I added an entry on myself to Wikipedia. Why haven't you?") Meanwhile, Wales's entry is missing the "Personal controversies" section that sprouts on any conservative media personality's page. Of course, his Fox TV paramour Rachel Marsden has one. Here's the current sum of all human knowledge of the Wales/Marsden affair stored in Wikipedia as of 9:15 a.m. PST:

Open-source developers are motivated by personal development and building their reputation, according to Psychology Today. Which of course means that they're a self-serving, greedy bunch — just like the rest of us. If such self-interest leads to new software like the Firefox brower I'm using right now, good for us. And if fame-seeking keeps open-source developers from getting screwed over like Wikipedia users — who, according to Psychology Today, edit Jimmy Wales's comprehensive list of English soccer stars for more altruistic purposes — well, good for him. (Photo by jagelado)

You probably don't care who Wikipedia's chair emeritus Jimbo Wales went to bed with, or what his official relationship to the site is now. What matters is that he's Mr. Wikipedia to thousands of volunteers who contribute to mankind's definitive collection of Foghat trivia. The past week's leaked chats and emails document three acts that aren't crimes, but certainly aren't Wales leading by example. Here's the cocktail-party list to remember.

Did Jimmy Wales misuse funds from the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit he set up in 2003 to oversee Wikipedia? Publicly, the foundation's leaders are saying no. Privately, foundation chair Florence Devouard has alternately bragged about how she's mislead reporters and upbraided Wales over the scandal.

On Facebook, Jimmy Wales has just one question for you: Are you interested? If you're cute and female, he is. We're told Wales will friend just about anyone who fits that description. Since his breakup with Canadian journalist Rachel Marsden became public, he's sanitized his Facebook profile, dropping most of the racy apps. Even so, his profile still shows evidence of a promiscuous approach to adding people. Here's a screenshot:

News Corp. overlord Rupert Murdoch may be getting a bit slow in his dotage, but he still knows a good story. Is it a coincidence that three arms of his media empire — the Times of London, Fox News, and the New York Post — have belatedly picked up on Jimmy Wales's bizarre breakup with Rachel Marsden? Marsden was, until last fall, a Fox News commentator, which can only make the tale more delicious for Murdoch: The prodigal daughter welcomed back as grist for the gossip mill. Beyond that, why the onslaught?

In an IM chat with ex-girlfriend Rachel Marsden, Jimmy Wales scolded Valleywag for not following his sex life more closely: "I have shown up at many different Silicon Valley events with many different "dates" through the past year or so, although not always actually dates, so the assumption would be colleagues or whatever, and figured they would eventually pay attention to that." True, Jimbo, we've been remiss. And we're doing our best to make it up to you. Besides Marsden, we've heard two names frequently linked to Wales, who is separated from his wife. Either would be an impressive catch. If the rumors are true, then all we can say is — well-played, Jimbo, well-played.