Where do you find all the ultra-rare stuff?

[orfik]

I've never been able to find anything on Usenet that I couldn't find on my trackers or Emule. I've even challenged people to prove that Usenet would suit my needs better, to no avail.

If you're into rare movies, get yourself on KG and Cinematik. If you don't find it there, I can almost guarantee it'll be on Emule, but quality is sometimes a concern.

For music, get Waffles (What is optional), MBT, Pedro's, and E****. Even if you aren't a fan of lossless, they're always putting up rare and out of print stuff that you'll only find on those sites. If you don't find it there, go to Emule.

Using this combination, I've been able to amass thousands of albums while missing out on maybe three or four that I simply cannot find.

[The Flying Cow]

The usenet has things even E**** doesn't IMO. I know this not from being a member in E****, but because I have a friend who actively uses the news, and he got me an EP and a tape album that are I think available nowhere else.

This was really really really really rare stuff. I don't think even Pedro or the tasty Waffles have this kind of stuff. But hey, just my opn.

[arvind_sampath]

yeah, but obviously this stuff your friend found was on some exclusive, paid-members-only usenet group, right? correct me if i'm wrong.

and another thing...if anyone can answer me...why has all usenet (atleast the good parts) access become pay-only (i.e. through paid accounts on servers) when the torrent world, the mule and pretty much all other competiting sources for download, are still very friendly, and still allow good unfiltered access to free users?
did something go wrong with usenet?
i'm sure it wasn't what the guys who started it intended...

[saqib]

usually some trackers hold great content in shape of packs TL has retro section too .for movies basically .. but in rare cases RS also holds it share .

[Gun Nac]

The usenet has things even E**** doesn't IMO. I know this not from being a member in E****, but because I have a friend who actively uses the news, and he got me an EP and a tape album that are I think available nowhere else.

This was really really really really rare stuff. I don't think even Pedro or the tasty Waffles have this kind of stuff. But hey, just my opn.

For one thing, both What and Waffles have more lossless rips than E****
Also, music trackers have standards for monitoring torrent quality. How good is usenet at doing that?

[The Flying Cow]

Well both the EP and the tape were in great quality (192 and 256 Bitrate for iPod its great (can't put lossless/FLAC on the iPod i think) but I do get what you mean Nac.

And yes I also find it extremely annoying that news now requires pay. Isn't that against the motto of what we do? Some can get good news for free though, but I don't know how .

[Chewie]

yeah, but obviously this stuff your friend found was on some exclusive, paid-members-only usenet group, right? correct me if i'm wrong.

and another thing...if anyone can answer me...why has all usenet (atleast the good parts) access become pay-only (i.e. through paid accounts on servers) when the torrent world, the mule and pretty much all other competiting sources for download, are still very friendly, and still allow good unfiltered access to free users?
did something go wrong with usenet?
i'm sure it wasn't what the guys who started it intended...

Usenet newsgroups are not exclusive members-only sites but news service providers can choose which groups to 'carry' on their servers.

The providers that don't charge (basically, ISPs that provide the service to their users) tend to carry only text groups or perhaps the least active binaries but not the most active ones such as DVD groups.

In the UK Blueyonder & NTL offered quite impressive content but with less than a week retention so you had to be on the ball to get things. Since Virgin bought out both, I hear the service has been heading downhill, somewhat.

As regards finding rare items, if what you want is not there then all you need do is request and someone usually provides. It helps to post something useful with your request in the subject line (this has never failed for me) but it's not a good idea to use your ISP to do this... Tera News offer unlimited posting on their free accounts, though.

[arvind_sampath]

originally posted by Chewie:

Usenet newsgroups are not exclusive members-only sites but news service providers can choose which groups to 'carry' on their servers.

The providers that don't charge (basically, ISPs that provide the service to their users) tend to carry only text groups or perhaps the least active binaries but not the most active ones such as DVD groups.

In the UK Blueyonder & NTL offered quite impressive content but with less than a week retention so you had to be on the ball to get things. Since Virgin bought out both, I hear the service has been heading downhill, somewhat.

As regards finding rare items, if what you want is not there then all you need do is request and someone usually provides. It helps to post something useful with your request in the subject line (this has never failed for me) but it's not a good idea to use your ISP to do this... Tera News offer unlimited posting on their free accounts, though.

1.)yes, sorry for getting those words mixed up. i intended to say "usenet service providers", and was wondering why most of the good ones are pay-only, especially when the newsgroups, which they tap into for material, don't restrict or charge access in any way. this is particularly difficult to understand when most of the material available there (i say most because i'm not sure all of it is) is also simultaneously available in so many other places...on trackers, blogs etc.

2.)the requests you're talking about are ones that can be made in newsgroups, right? well, yes, that is something that i haven't tried yet. thanks for the help.

[Sonnentier]

what are private stro's?

Stro stands for 'servers that are owned', means hacked servers for the purpose of warez distribution. They are used within the FxP scene.

why has all usenet (atleast the good parts) access become pay-only (i.e. through paid accounts on servers) when the torrent world, the mule and pretty much all other competiting sources for download, are still very friendly, and still allow good unfiltered access to free users?
did something go wrong with usenet?

The centralized structure of Usenet, between the user and the server, means that their service can't scale at no cost. With growing number of users, their bandwidth increases - for every user's download they need equivalent upstream. The data due to higher retention also has to be stored completely on their own servers.

Free servers would be exhausted and overwhelmed. The users only leech and can't give back upload or anything that would take load from the servers. Providers carrying binaries became commercial, as that's how they can ensure reliable service. That way providers can continuously extent their connectivity and storage.. premium customers always say, you get what you pay for..

You can also see this phenomena with other centralized projects, like file-hosters. Usually they are great in the beginning, but just some time later they are so unreliable and slow, and most of them disappeared over time because the cost was too high or something. Basically only commercial ones like Rapidshare etc. survived..

If someone would launch a free but high-retention binary newsserver, the users will rush and it will become known over time. Soon many gbit connections will be saturated all the time, and you have to manage all that load so leeching can go on. This becomes very expensive and if the users don't contribute financially this creates immense cost

[arvind_sampath]

Sonnentier, thank you so much for that explanation. Now it's clear. Also, i have another question (i don't know if this belongs here, but starting a new thread just for this seems unnecessary). You mentioned the STROs used within the FxP scene. I'm presuming these are the servers to which the "scene" members upload their new releases. My question is, what is the roadmap that these "new uploads" take from here? Do they come on to the private trackers after this, and if so, how long does it take? Where do the new releases go after they've come on the private trackers? And where does the usenet fit in on this roadmap? Does it operate in parallel to these scene releasers, with a different set of people, or are they the same people? Also, where do the files come on first: the usenet or the STROs? Is there any competition?

Phew, that's more questions in a paragraph, than i ever remember writing! Hope to hear from you soon...