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Laughs in Usenet. The proliferation of streaming services and restricted content has me investing in alternative options more these days. It's not about paying

Laughs in Usenet. The proliferation of streaming services and restricted content has me investing in alternative options more these days. It's not about paying for content, it's about content becoming less accessible again.

atourgates 6y ago
Alternately, a seedbox or seebox-like service like Put.io. My ISP actually prohibits P2P transfers, so whatever you're downloading, if you want to use torrents, it's the only way to go without getting nasty emails.
- rozab 6y ago
  What about, say, Windows updates?
- leetcrew 6y ago
  wouldn't a VPN also work? it should just look like a single encrypted stream to the ISP.
  - atourgates 6y ago
    Yes - but in my case I'm happy to comply. My ISP is a locally-owned small-business that operates a WISP. They're genuinely nice people, pick up on the 1st ring when there's an issue and provide great support. If they say that P2P transfers on their network cause congestion and degradation, I believe them, and I'm happy to find alternatives.
SV_BubbleTime 6y ago
Usenet has its own issues though. The past couple years there’s been a massive jump in DMCA takedowns. On certain things you now have download as it becomes available, in a week it’ll be gone. For things that no one cares to pay for monitoring of, you can go back years. So, pros and cons to torrents that don’t get taken down specially but torrents “die” of old age when no one seeds them. It’s odd to me that file sharing seems to have hit a wall after torrents got popular. Doesn’t it seem like Usenet shouldn’t be the best option considering it’s age?
- ViViDboarder 6y ago
  I believe it’s only really a good option for files because it’s old and there are many obscure providers. I don’t see anything about Usenet itself that makes it well suited for sharing files. In fact, quite the opposite. The fact that each file needs to be split and reconstructed after download results in an esoteric user experience. All that said, I love (or loved) Usenet for communicating on Newsgroups. I’m glad that they still are around. I hope Newsgroups and IRC never die.
  - ornornor 6y ago
    You can automate it all. Nzbget and sonarr, radarr makes it transparent to the user.
- techntoke 6y ago
  Usenet is still a good option for 5+ year old videos. I've noticed I'm getting 10+ years retention lately and some of the files that were missing started working again. However, there are services that you pay for that cache popular torrents and also provide premium file hosts leeches for the stuff that is missing on Usenet.
- LocalPCGuy 6y ago
  Two things for your last comment - in reverse order: - Usenet is likely the "best" option because it's super niche due to it's age. Only a certain subset of people even know it exists, much less use it, and the effort to track down anything except the most popular stuff is just too expensive. - I think file sharing in general started to die off because streaming services actually provided a good alternative for a while. Right now, they are basically online cable companies though, and I feel like a new re-surgance of file sharing is likely coming as a backlash. As the prices go up, the fragmentation explodes and items come and go as contracts, consolidation and new launches affect availability, people will be frustrated and look for alternatives, legal or not.
- iso8859-1 6y ago
  Why would something stop being popular just because it is old (aka 'mature')? What a weird argument. 'Best' is subjective, often the network effect wins and people will keep using something that is 'good enough'. Usenet archives go back 10 years. How are you going to start a Usenet competitor with 10 years worth of content?
TheRealPomax 6y ago
How can you tell if someone uses on usenet? Ask them what a par files are.
- loeg 6y ago
  I learned of par2 from usenet but I continue to use it for FEC on my local backups.
dingaling 6y ago
> Laughs in Usenet The rise in pirate binary groups is what killed Usenet feeds on most ISPs. I used to be a great follower of text groups but it became more and more difficult to find a feed and the overall signal:noise ratio faded. Eventually I gave up. Thanks for nothing, you folks who want to watch other people's content for free.
- Cyph0n 6y ago
  I don’t get this argument at all. Are you saying that the rise of online forums and then social media had absolutely nothing to do with it?
  - dleslie 6y ago
    Not the person you're responding to, but I had a similar experience. There were basically a few stages: 1. The Eternal September, and it was dark and cold. 2. The rise of the spam bots, and it became filthy. 3. The weight of the binaries, and ISPs began to shy away. 4. The popularity of PHPBB, and The Eternal September began to wane. 5. The binaries grew heavier, the spam more pervasive, and more and more human peers found their access dropped by their ISPs. NNTP was glorious while it lasted, but it died by its popularity.
SenoraRaton 6y ago
Less?! I have had little to no problem finding even niche media on the internet...

atourgates 6y ago

Alternately, a seedbox or seebox-like service like Put.io. My ISP actually prohibits P2P transfers, so whatever you're downloading, if you want to use torrents, it's the only way to go without getting nasty emails.

rozab 6y ago
What about, say, Windows updates?
leetcrew 6y ago
wouldn't a VPN also work? it should just look like a single encrypted stream to the ISP.
- atourgates 6y ago
  Yes - but in my case I'm happy to comply. My ISP is a locally-owned small-business that operates a WISP. They're genuinely nice people, pick up on the 1st ring when there's an issue and provide great support. If they say that P2P transfers on their network cause congestion and degradation, I believe them, and I'm happy to find alternatives.

SV_BubbleTime 6y ago

Usenet has its own issues though. The past couple years there’s been a massive jump in DMCA takedowns. On certain things you now have download as it becomes available, in a week it’ll be gone. For things that no one cares to pay for monitoring of, you can go back years. So, pros and cons to torrents that don’t get taken down specially but torrents “die” of old age when no one seeds them. It’s odd to me that file sharing seems to have hit a wall after torrents got popular. Doesn’t it seem like Usenet shouldn’t be the best option considering it’s age?

ViViDboarder 6y ago
I believe it’s only really a good option for files because it’s old and there are many obscure providers. I don’t see anything about Usenet itself that makes it well suited for sharing files. In fact, quite the opposite. The fact that each file needs to be split and reconstructed after download results in an esoteric user experience. All that said, I love (or loved) Usenet for communicating on Newsgroups. I’m glad that they still are around. I hope Newsgroups and IRC never die.
- ornornor 6y ago
  You can automate it all. Nzbget and sonarr, radarr makes it transparent to the user.
techntoke 6y ago
Usenet is still a good option for 5+ year old videos. I've noticed I'm getting 10+ years retention lately and some of the files that were missing started working again. However, there are services that you pay for that cache popular torrents and also provide premium file hosts leeches for the stuff that is missing on Usenet.
LocalPCGuy 6y ago
Two things for your last comment - in reverse order: - Usenet is likely the "best" option because it's super niche due to it's age. Only a certain subset of people even know it exists, much less use it, and the effort to track down anything except the most popular stuff is just too expensive. - I think file sharing in general started to die off because streaming services actually provided a good alternative for a while. Right now, they are basically online cable companies though, and I feel like a new re-surgance of file sharing is likely coming as a backlash. As the prices go up, the fragmentation explodes and items come and go as contracts, consolidation and new launches affect availability, people will be frustrated and look for alternatives, legal or not.
iso8859-1 6y ago
Why would something stop being popular just because it is old (aka 'mature')? What a weird argument. 'Best' is subjective, often the network effect wins and people will keep using something that is 'good enough'. Usenet archives go back 10 years. How are you going to start a Usenet competitor with 10 years worth of content?

TheRealPomax 6y ago

How can you tell if someone uses on usenet? Ask them what a par files are.

loeg 6y ago
I learned of par2 from usenet but I continue to use it for FEC on my local backups.

dingaling 6y ago

> Laughs in Usenet The rise in pirate binary groups is what killed Usenet feeds on most ISPs. I used to be a great follower of text groups but it became more and more difficult to find a feed and the overall signal:noise ratio faded. Eventually I gave up. Thanks for nothing, you folks who want to watch other people's content for free.

Cyph0n 6y ago
I don’t get this argument at all. Are you saying that the rise of online forums and then social media had absolutely nothing to do with it?
- dleslie 6y ago
  Not the person you're responding to, but I had a similar experience. There were basically a few stages: 1. The Eternal September, and it was dark and cold. 2. The rise of the spam bots, and it became filthy. 3. The weight of the binaries, and ISPs began to shy away. 4. The popularity of PHPBB, and The Eternal September began to wane. 5. The binaries grew heavier, the spam more pervasive, and more and more human peers found their access dropped by their ISPs. NNTP was glorious while it lasted, but it died by its popularity.

SenoraRaton 6y ago

Less?! I have had little to no problem finding even niche media on the internet...