On the contrary, ezinearticles is the only few sites which are working fine in terms of SEO. And they do not accept duplicate content or spun content. The effectiveness might have decreased a bit and I agree but it is still the best in terms of backlinks and given the highest order. But it might take sometime before results show nowadays and it has be supplemented by quality content on the respective websites to become effective. Based on my personal tests. Quality SEO works but needs to be supplemented by quality and informative content in the respective sites.
I think most article directories are shit... who wants to go to a website to just read about random shit? These days it's about the content within, videos, images, social tools etc. Google is giving priority to older sites with new items... and the newer items are coming to the front og search results, Focus on your own site and submit your content to your own site... quit wasting time on other peoples sites and work on your own.
I am not agree with that Ezine are taking duplicate contents but it's article are not gating place on SERP. If article not gating good place in SERP then whey we post article on Ezine.
Because the normal, everyday person is not interested in reading boring old articles about acne, casinos, how to build bridge etc. The articles look shit and smell like shit. Google tries to provide relevant and exciting results- and now up to date topics. Ezine is so 5 years ago. Page Rank and link building is a waste of time... if you offer decent content then it will happen naturally any way.
Personally I stopped using them after the first wave of the Panda update, they took their own penalty from google and took it out on their users, previously passable articles got rejected and considering they were annoying and demanding to start with I was only too happy to ditch them for other more effect ways