ZDNet Kills the Linux RSS Feed (Syndication Redirected to Loads of Marketing Spam and Fake Articles)
IT was probably just a matter of time. Major enshittification!
The marketing company that bought ZDNet already did this to CNET, so why stop there? They probably were going to do this regardless, sooner rather than later, due to how shady they are.
Damn!
Do what exactly? Well, look below for details.
Basically stuff the site with fake 'reviews', spammy slop, and lots of Amazon marketing (webspam), just like in CNET (where this happened over a year ago and real articles gradually vanished).
This enshittification isn't over yet. The worst is yet to come.
Today, trying to retrieve items from the ZDNet Linux feed, I get only crap like this:
- Mon, 08 Jul 2024 20:17:15: The 20 best Prime Day 2024 deals under $25
- Mon, 08 Jul 2024 19:17:00: The 45+ best Walmart deals right now
- Mon, 08 Jul 2024 18:42:09: The 8 best early Amazon Prime Day Kindle deals
- Mon, 08 Jul 2024 18:29:00: The 26 best early Prime Day 2024 Nintendo deals
- Mon, 08 Jul 2024 17:49:29: You can get Amazon's new Echo Spot alarm clock at 40% off through Prime Day
This has gone on for about 2 days already.
Jack Wallen and SJVN (Steven Vaughan-Nichols) have been screwed. All the people they managed to earn as followers over RSS (http://www.zdnet.com/topic/linux/rss.xml) have been thrown astray. This isn't a mistake or an accident, as a rule has been added:
wget http://www.zdnet.com/topic/linux/rss.xml URL transformed to HTTPS due to an HSTS policy --2024-07-09 09:08:49-- https://www.zdnet.com/topic/linux/rss.xml Resolving www.zdnet.com (www.zdnet.com)... 2a04:4e42:82::666, 146.75.74.154 Connecting to www.zdnet.com (www.zdnet.com)|2a04:4e42:82::666|:443... connected. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 301 Moved Permanently Location: /news/rss.xml [following] URL transformed to HTTPS due to an HSTS policy --2024-07-09 09:08:50-- https://www.zdnet.com/news/rss.xml Reusing existing connection to [www.zdnet.com]:443. HTTP request sent, awaiting response... 200 OK Cookie coming from www.zdnet.com attempted to set domain to cnet.com
Yes, "Moved Permanently".
Page source (http://www.zdnet.com/topic/linux/rss.xml gets rewritten):
CNET became a spamfarm of LLM slop over a year ago. Now ZDNet is becoming the same and in the process they kill RSS feeds which worked for a long time. Way to get rid of your remaining audience!
Notice the last line above: "Cookie coming from www.zdnet.com attempted to set domain to cnet.com."
Checkmate. ZDNet is "dead man walking". See "Wikipedia Demotes CNET Due to Chatbot-Generated Spew as 'Articles'; It Should Do the Same to ZDNet (Also Red Ventures, Also Microsoft Propaganda)".
Jack Wallen and SJVN ought to look for a new site to write in. To some extent, they already have. Wallen and Vaughan-Nichols both write in a few other sites and Vaughan-Nichols has his own, albeit updated with new articles only 7 times this year, i.e. about once a month.
The state of online journalism is worsening very rapidly this year. █