Just wondering what a rough split is of people using either Usenet, torrents, or both?

I’ve only just discovered Usenet and while it is paid, it is very cheap and much more convenient than torrents.

Using torrents as well with the *arr suite set up for my various Linux ISOs.

  • NotBadAndYou@ttrpg.network
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    30 days ago

    Usenet as daily driver works 99% of the time. Only use VPN/torrents for extremely new or very obscure shows. $5/month pays for unlimited Usenet and VPN.

      • shrugal@lemm.ee
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        30 days ago

        This UsenetServer discount link gives you 1 trial month for $1, then $50/year after that, and includes a 1TB TweakNews block and a paid PrivadoVPN account.

        • Sunny' 🌻@slrpnk.net
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          30 days ago

          Just want to let you know that Privado VPN is not a private vpn, please read their privacy policy before buying into their services.

  • BillionsMustSeed@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    29 days ago

    I don’t even know what Usenet is, so I’m 100% torrents, which I keep seeding ad infinitum as I don’t have storage issues. My most-seeded thing is nearing 150 ratio lol

  • Dizzy Devil Ducky@lemm.ee
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    30 days ago

    I have no idea what to do or how to even get started with Usenet, so I just use a VPN and torrent as needed.

    • bzxt@lemmy.ml
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      29 days ago

      I am also in that basket. To me Usenet seems like another, older protocol that achieves practically the same thing. If someone is more knowledgeble, feel free to correct me or explain further.

  • PenguinCoder@beehaw.org
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    28 days ago

    Usenet here. 4 paid indexers and the Usenet sub. Still cost less in a year than cable or streaming services cost in a month. Get everything I want and look for easily.

  • Nyarlathotep@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    28 days ago

    100% Usenet here. Maybe I am basic, but it has everything I want and grabbing stuff is very easy.

    Once in a great while I cannot find something and then I ask a friend to check his private trackers.

    YMMV

  • Saik0@lemmy.saik0.com
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    29 days ago

    Torrents only here… I have 8gbps internet. I’m privileged, so I seed (10x or one year). I don’t see a point to paying to be part of a usenet in my situation. I have a few private trackers I’m on. I should see about getting into a few more though to spread the bandwidth wealth. 4 seedbox vms to roundrobin the new torrents that get added.

  • Eryck Gutteral@lemmy.studio
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    25 days ago

    Just torrents and I seed as much as possible. I knew about Usenet many years ago but, for whatever reasons, never really got into it. One day…

  • the_doktor@lemmy.zip
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    30 days ago

    I used to when usenet was free from every single ISP, there was an active community behind every single alt.binaries.* group, and it wasn’t “subscribe to this usenet provider that gives you 5 years of posts from every group and you download things by this oversimplified NZB crap” instead of relying on and engaging with the community to post new and interesting things all the time.

  • CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml
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    30 days ago

    I tried it but TBH went back to torrents. I found it to be very fiddly to get working, every single component seems to want you to pay for it (and not wanting to pay for and keep track of half a dozen streaming things is one of the main draws for piracy for me anyway) and overall it just didn’t seem worth it to find the ~1% of things I can’t find on torrents (and I didn’t even find all of them on Usenet either.)

    Other people’s mileage may vary of course, but I didn’t really think it was worth it.

  • CosmicTurtle0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    30 days ago

    I’m 100% torrents if I need it. Fmovies or other sites seem to have the majority of what I want to watch.

    Is there a guide on how to use usenet? What does it offer that torrents does not? Is it nitch stuff?

    • overload@sopuli.xyzOP
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      30 days ago

      I used the wiki on r/usenet, which was pretty helpful.

      From my understanding, you need 3 things:

      1. Usenet Provider (these are servers that host all of the content - you pay them to have access to download the content)
      2. Indexer (this is kind of like Google but for the usenet providers - they will find and give you the .nzb file which will be used to access the content from the usenet provider above - you pay the indexer for their service)
      3. Usenet client (This would be akin to a torrent client like Qbittorrent - it is the program which you use to download the content from the provider, using the .nzb file provided by the indexer)

      Benefits of Usenet I believe are the high speed of downloads, generally accessibility to older and more niche content, and ease of use. You don’t need to fish through torrents hoping that the seed/peer numbers are enough to actually get all of the content in good time. I’ve found a lot of stuff there lately that I have not been able to find via torrenting sites, but are important childhood media to me/my wife.

      • jmp242@sopuli.xyz
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        30 days ago

        Usenet is hurt a lot by takedown notices unfortunately. So lots of older popular stuff doesn’t work. That said, things like Anime or something that isn’t given a takedown seem to be on there about forever. The server speed is a benefit for sure.