I'm a pretty heavy torrent user, running a media server complete with sonarr/radarr for automatic downloads. I download a lot, and have multiple TBs of upload on various private trackers. I've been torrenting forever, but I've always wondered about usenet. Over and over on this, and other, forums I see people saying that usenet is way better - but why?
I understand what it is overall, but what makes it better than traditional torrenting? In my mind, it's always just seemed like a different means to the same end. I pay for a VPN and torrent for "free", or I pay for usenet access and download directly from there. As someone who's "snobby" around the quality of the stuff I torrent, does usenet provide an advantage there?
Usenet fans, I'd love to hear what makes you love it! I'm always open to trying new things, and if It really is better I'd love to know why! (Plus, maybe what providers/tools etc you recommend).
You're paying them money, so it's in their best interest to keep hosting.
The uploader uploads their stuff to their own Usenet provider (whom they're probably paying for). Usenet servers are frequently mirroring/syncing with each other. So very quickly after the uploader uploads, you will find their post on your Usenet provider, and you download directly from them.
If a Usenet provider someday decided not to host any more, they would be out of business (because who would use them), and so you'd switch to a different Usenet provider, where you'd find exactly the same stuff mirrored.
Usenet providers compete/distinguish themselves mostly based on:
What provider has such low retention? I've never seen such a thing. The lowest I can find is 600 days, with most being between 2000 and 5000.
Also some corrections, the provider doesn't package anything together. The indexers do that in the form of an nzb file. Unraring is still necessary, but most download clients will do that for you.
Does the retention period mean that older content (say, a show from a decade ago) is less likely to be present?
Not really, especially when you use the 5000+ ones since that is nearing 14 years. Also, people re-upload old stuff all the time. If you want, you can give me some examples of what you think might not be available and I'll let you know if it's there.
I was assuming that typically people only post really in demand stuff, but if the period is a decade, someone probably posted I dunno Bucky O'hare or Street Sharks in that time.
Yup, found both of those.
Sweet. Thanks.