[untog]

Why does it seem absurd for software yet it seems to work (perhaps inefficiently) for Wikipedia?

Mostly because software is deeply interconnected - every file will call something within another one. Wikipedia will link to another file, but never depends upon the content within it.

[Buge]

Wikipedia templates are often very interconnected.

But they often have those protected.

[lbotos]

That got me thinking, I wonder if you can make a redirect loop or a mega redirect loop that would OOM wikipedia?

[jerf]

There probably was at some point, but being in the top ten sites on the Internet, you get good at that sort of basic security thinking or you get not-on-the-top-ten-anymore.

[anemonette]

No, redirects on Wikipedia bottom out after a depth of 2.