Bonum Certa Men Certa

World Wide Web Crushed and We Know Whose Fault That Might be

Video download link | md5sum fbe64d6ddc2a72ccf4301192fbe00152 Web Demise and Effect on People Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: With sites shutting down, media companies going bankrupt, and more sites dabbling in webspam/chatbots we cannot be optimistic about the future of the Web

THE World Wide Web (WWW) is rotting; in 3 posts yesterday [1, 2, 3] we provided examples of the Web turning into trash. In two of these we focused on "Linux" sites. It's not easy to find legitimate articles anymore. The problem of re-posted (under a current date) old posts aside, we see lots of fake 'articles' and sometimes barely articles at all. Some sites became webspam and others went offline, creating another issue (link rot and Web rot). The Web is actually shrinking over time and the golden era of the Web is well past us.



Recently we focused a bit on IBM, the subject which is discussed in the video above. After kicking out Fedora volunteers (slaves) IBM now fires Fedora staff from Red Hat. This is sabotage. We saw several names of people who lost their job at Red Hat, but one name that got more exposure was Ben Cotton, who incidentally decided that signing a defamatory attack letter (calling on the FSF to oust its founder, RMS) would be a good idea. Seems like joining the anti-RMS brigade did not safeguard his job at IBM, but that's another story.

"Some sites became webspam and others went offline, creating another issue (link rot and Web rot)."A few days ago we got confirmation that IBM had laid off people whose job was to run some Red Hat sites.

"So IBM is doing to Fedora etc what Oracle tried to do to MySQL and OpenOffice.org," an associate of ours remarked. "The latter split off a fork and continued as LibreOffice The site / domains under control of IBM are a problem though, they are very valuable and used at this point only to degrade the community." (This alludes to domains such as OpenSource.com)

"Oracle could have taken on and damaged if not beaten Microsoft in the server space with what it bought from Sun," the associate continued. "Instead, it allowed Microsoft to hang on by its fingernails in the server space by killing Sparc and MySQL etc. Now IBM seems to be mopping up part of the FOSS space on behalf of Microsoft."

"Recently we focused a bit on IBM, the subject which is discussed in the video above."So news sites are being shut down, including sites we routinely linked to.

It has meanwhile been noted that CNET staff fights back because CNET is making computer-generated pages. To quote the now-bankrupt VICE: "Around 100 workers have organized in response to the company’s restructuring plans, massive layoffs, and plans for AI content."

That's discussed towards the end of the video above. "Another topic," the associate said, is why "Wikipedia should either allow LLMs to produce articles or to train on articles, or forbid both, but allowing both creates a nasty feedback loop which realizes all kinds of problems."

"The future of the Web isn't bright at all.""Glyn Moody just wrote about that but missed the above concern," the associate added, citing Techdirt.

Wikipedia is fast becoming GIGO (garbage in, garbage out) because of Microsoft, which got caught bribing people to lie in Wikipedia. Well, it's no secret that Wikipedia was already having severe issues with AstroTurfers; expect that to get worse in years to come as human moderators lose patience and throw in the towel. The future of the Web isn't bright at all. It has been getting worse every year for the past decade or so.

Recent Techrights' Posts

When People Call a Best/Close Friend of Bill Gates a "Serial Rapist"
Good thing that the Linux Foundation keeps the "Linux" trademark ("Linux Mark") clean
Microsoft Bankruptcy in Russia, Shutdown in Pakistan, What Next?
It seems possible that in 2025 alone Microsoft will have laid off over 50,000 workers
What Matters More Than "Market Share"
The goal is freedom, not "market share"
Credit Suisse collapse obfuscated Parreaux, Thiébaud & Partners scandal
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
UK Media Under Threat: Cannot Report on Data Breach, Cannot Report on Microsoft Staff Strangling Women
The story of super injunction (in the British media this week, years late)
Under the Guise of "MIT Technology Review Insights" the Site MIT Technology Review Posts Corporate Spam as 'Articles'
Some of the articles aren't even articles but 'hit pieces' against Free software and some are paid advertisements
Brett Wilson LLP Has Track Record in Scam Coin Cases (e.g. Craig Wright and More), Now It Works for 'Crypto' Scam Purveyors
But wait, it gets worse
Will Brett Wilson LLP Handle Its Own Winding Up Petition or be Struck Off for Overt Abuse of Process?
Today we sue not only the first Microsofter
 
CALEA / CALEA2 is the Real Problem, Not Chinese Operatives Exploiting CALEA / CALEA2 (as Any Other Nation Can)
CALEA / CALEA2 is more of a front door than a back door
99.99% Uptime in First Half of 2025
Since January there was only one noticeable outage
Nils Torvalds and Anna "Mikke" Torvalds (née Törnqvis) Hopefully Use GNU/Linux by Now
"Torvalds Family Uses Windows, Not Linus’ Linux"
Attack of the Slopfarms
FUD-amplifying bots with slop images, slop text (LLM slop)
Not My Problem, I Don't Care
Context/inspiration: Martin Niemöller
Honest Journalism About the European Patent Office Ceased to Exist After SLAPPs and Bribes to the Media
The EPO is basically a Mafia
Life Became Simpler When I Stopped Driving and I Don't Miss Driving When I See "Modern" Cars
Gee, wonder why car sales have plummeted...
Why I Believe Brett Wilson LLP and Its Microsoft Clients Are All Toast
So far our legal strategy has worked perfectly
EPO Jobs Are Very Toxic and Bad for One's Health
Health first, not monopolies
Response to Ryo Suwito Regarding the Four Freedoms
the point of life isn't to make more money
Microsoft's Morale Circling Down the Drain
Or gutter, toilet etc.
Tech Used to be Fun. To Many of Us It's Still Fun.
You can just watch it from afar and make fun of it all
Links 17/07/2025: "Blog Identity Crisis" and Openwashing by Nvidia
Links for the day
Greffiers and the US Attorney of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft
The lawsuit can help expose extensive corruption in the American court system as well
The People Who Promoted systemd in Debian Also Promote Wayland
This is not politics
Victims of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, Wanted to Sue Him But Lacked the Funds (He Attacked Their Finances)
Having spoken to victims of the Serial Strangler From Microsoft
Links 17/07/2025: Science, Hardware, and Censorship
Links for the day
Gemini Links 17/07/2025: Staying in the "Small Web" and Back on ICQ
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, July 16, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, July 16, 2025
Exclusive: corruption in Tribunals, Greffiers, from protection rackets to cat whisperers
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Links 16/07/2025: Chip Bans and Microsoft’s “Digital Escort” Program
Links for the day
Ubuntu Becomes Microsoft GitHub, Based on Decision Made by British Army Officer
You're hopeless, Canonical
Revolving Doors: One Day You're a Judge, the Next Day You're an Attorney Paying Public Officials and Working for Violent and Dangerous Microsoft Employees
how the US justice system works
Sharing Code and Recipes
It helps explain the triviality of software freedom
Slopwatch: Noise, Plagiarism and Even Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt/Fear-mongering/Dramatisation
What are we meant to do to prevent a false association or misleading connotations? Game the LLMs? No. Boycott slopfarms.
How Many Women Has Microsoft's Alex Balabhadra Graveley Already Strangled and Where Does That End?
If you too are a victim of this man and wish to share information, contact us
Gemini Links 16/07/2025: BaseLibre Numerical System and Simple Web Browsing with TLS
Links for the day
Links 16/07/2025: Fascist Slop Takes "Intelligence" Clothing, New Criminal Case Against MElon
Links for the day
"We Might Save Somebody's Life"
I follow the example of my father
Why I am Suing the Serial Strangler From Microsoft, Alex Balabhadra Graveley, in the UK High Court This Week
Out of respect to the process and to the Court, I shall not share any pertinent details about the case
Links 16/07/2025: China’s Economy Grows Steadily, France Takes Action Regarding Harm to Children by GAFAM and Fentanylware (TikTok)
Links for the day
It is Not About Politics
Beware the people who try to make this about politics
Good Journalism Saves Lives
a shocking number of women die or get seriously hurt every day due to violence from a partner
Recognition of Women's Contributions to Free Software
Being passive is not an option when bad things are happening
Slopfarms Are Going to Perish Because Public Opinion is Changing
Many slopfarms will simply go offline
19 Years of Standing Up for Justice, Equality, and Truth
This week we shall take it up a notch
Gemini Links 16/07/2025: Tmux and OCC25 Working TLS
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, July 15, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, July 15, 2025
Links 15/07/2025: LLM Pollution and Pushback in Ukraine
Links for the day
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: xkcd, New Cert, and Alhena Gemlog
Links for the day
Links 15/07/2025: Press Freedom at Risk and New Facebook Blunders
Links for the day
Reboots Should Never be Necessary
"BUT WHAT ABOUT SECURITY!!"
There's Still Hope for the World Wide Web
Let's hope that the trajectory of the Web won't be leading us to over-reliance on Google, nor will it reward worthless slopfarms
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Smolweb and Alhena 5.1.7
Links for the day
The Danes Want GNU/Linux
David Heinemeier Hansson recently moved to GNU/Linux
Cory Doctorow Explains Why Software Freedom Matters, Whereas "Open Source" Misses the Point and Helps Monopolies
It's a very long article
BillPR (EpsteinGate-Bribed NPR) is Turning Into a Partial Slopfarm that Promotes Slop
"I went on a date with a chatbot!"
Two Weeks Passed Since Latest Large Wave of Microsoft Layoffs, More Expected Next Month
Blaming the debt on "AI" is just self-serving storytelling
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, July 14, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, July 14, 2025
Gemini Links 15/07/2025: Gemini "Style Sheets" and Switching From Microsoft GitHub to Codeberg
Links for the day