Taking note of the emerging trend that site contributors are migrating out of Wikipedia, founder Jimmy Wales revealed on Thursday that the web-based encyclopaedia is implementing tweaks that hopefully would lure fresh entry providers.

Speaking at the seventh annual Wikipedia conference held at Haifa, Israel, Wales noted that the non-profit website, currently ranked number five as the world's most visited site, is gradually losing its contributors.

Wales was quoted by The Associated Press as saying that "we are not replenishing our ranks ... it's not a crisis, but I consider it to be important."

Acknowledging that changes might be required to reverse the trend, company administrators are now looking for ways to retain and even win new contributors and one area that needs radical revisions, Wales said, is Wikipedia's editorial policies.

"A lot of it is convoluted ... A lot of editorial guidelines are impenetrable to new users," Wales told AP.

As of March 2011, Wikipedia said that it has roughly 90,000 active contributors but officials have conceded that after a decade in existence, nothing much can be added to the popular educational site apart from necessary revisions, corrections and updates on existing entries.

However, Wikipedia executive director Sue Gardner said that the online firm is targetting to beef up its ranks of freelance writers by 5000 come June 2012 and officials are considering partnerships with academic institutions that would allow teachers to require their students to take writing duties on Wikipedia.

Targeted countries, according to Gardner, are India, Brazil, Canada, Germany and Britain as she added that the website's improved reputation among the academic community would encourage young students to contribute their writing skills and possibly reach millions in the process.

To spice up a simple consultation visit on the site, Wales said that Wikipedia users can now enjoy a new site feature called WikiLove, which he said replicates the 'Like' button popularised by Facebook and allows readers to send a note of encouragement to authors of specific entries.