Henry Mintzberg, a professor of management at McGill University who studies organizations, said a visionary leader is crucial at the beginning. But, he said, “what these people do is, they are determined and focused,” he said, keeping the vision pure, “not mixing it up.”

It is natural that over time a visionary leader’s role is diminished and that is good thing, he said, quoting Bertolt Brecht, “unhappy is the land that has no heroes  no, unhappy is the land that needs heroes.” Despite some of the attacks on Mr. Wales, he is still largely a hero within the Wikipedia community  walking through the annual conventions with assistants in tow, greeting the most enthusiastic Wikipedia contributors from across the globe, receiving invitations to the World Economic Forum in Davos, attending George Soros’s birthday party.

Ms. Gardner said there will always be a need for what Mr. Wales provides.

“People want to reach out to someone, and they know his name  it could be a famous person, a celebrity, or not  if they have a problem with their entry they will contact him.”

Image Rachel Marsden, a New York columnist and former Fox News commentator who dated Jimmy Wales, tried to auction a T-shirt, among other items, that he left in her apartment.

It was in this capacity that Ms. Marsden, a columnist and a former commentator on Fox News, said she had reached out to Mr. Wales, after her article page was being vandalized. She wrote via e-mail that “Jimmy volunteered to make changes to my Wikipedia page after we became involved personally and romantically. Before that, he really couldn’t have cared less.”

Mr. Wales wrote on his user page that he would not interfere before meeting Ms. Marsden, and summed up, “My involvement in cases like this is completely routine, and I am proud of it.” However, the incident did pry open his personal life to Silicon Valley gossip sites (he said that he had been separated from his wife when he met Ms. Marsden) and has created the embarrassing spectacle of having his old laundry put up for auction on eBay.

At the same time, a former foundation employee, Danny Wool, has created a blog where he has been detailing what he says were Mr. Wales’s abuses of expense reimbursements, twisting Mr. Wales down-home nickname “Jimbo” to “Jimbeau.”