BT vs Usenet

[KFlint]

Thx, I was talking about forums. I heard of warez-bb but never looked at it. Will do.

edit : the site is so slow right now, my god...!

[Monaco]

What are the current strength/weaknesses of each?
In general, usenet has better retention. Sure, HDBits and some other places offer very old files, but on the average, torrents die a lot faster.
Torrents have a wider selection of content, especially if you're into niche stuff. However, if you scan headers of more rare groups, you could probably find some real gems, although I'd bet they don't overlap directly with say the FLAC offerings of What or Pedro's.

If all BT got shut down tomorrow, would Usenet be able to replace it completely?
Some people will point to the content difference now, but this overlooks that this gap would be filled by migrating BT users to some extent. Usenet would become even more comprehensive if BT did not exist.

Where would we go for community/drama?
Pornhub

Are there sufficient "rare files" available?
Almost. As I said, I don't think they overlap, but you can find rare files on both.

Which has better security?
Usenet. I don't care how invites are handed out or fake logins. I'm still showing my IP address to other random people on the internet.

Do private communities mean anything anymore with all of the selling/trading/for profit trackers?
Not as much. The experienced traders/sellers can and are in everywhere, often never detected. But I don't think the bad eggs ruin the whole community.

Where do you stand on these issues?
I fluctuate. I browse both. Anything older than a day or two and I'll usually be searching for the nzb.

Have you tried Usenet?
I've subscribed for years.

Have you already (happily) jumped the BT ship?
Not completely. But I've never found a bt site that felt right, at least not since I was totally new and just stuck with my first.

[anon]

edit : the site is so slow right now, my god...!

One of the disadvantages of having so many users. Once you make an account, enable LiteSurf in your options - that will remove avatars and signatures so that pages load faster.

[megabyteme]

Thanks for that thorough answer, Monaco. Your answers mirror much of what I feel or expect regarding the situation. My long-time mental model of filesharing has been of a library. I am beginning to wond4r if that model is not better suited to usenet- not BT.

I truly enjoy what BT could have been. Sadly, it has been swamped out by corruptions (selling, for-profit trackers, childish games). Perhaps, like in the real world, libraries should be silent place and not "communities".

I'm still working on this, but have grown disappointed at the (near) collapse of something I enjoy.

[Quarterquack]

Like I said missing my point.
Merry Christmas anyway heathen.

It's okay. I got it.

If for anything, it wasn't your language, it's probably the fact that people aren't accustomed to standing back and reviewing their stance on matters.

Although, you did miss out on one of Tokeman's finer points, which was the fact that he didn't need to rely on trackers to supply him the news because the news is freely available elsewhere, from friends who download from newsgroups, to sites dedicated to announcing pres or rapidshare uploads, etc.

[pakito]

News is less used that DD or BT..I dont think you can find a amazing thematic group dedicated to upload dvds with spanish audio (for instance)... Is not it ?

[stoi]

alt.binaries.dvd.spanish
alt.binaries.movies.spanish

there you go

[pakito]

alt.binaries.dvd.spanish
alt.binaries.movies.spanish

there you go

alt.binaries.movies.spanish is not a dvd thematic group..I guess it is only avi/mpg
alt.binaries.dvd.spanish is an amazing active group, really??

I was not searching the info (thanks, anyway), I dont think alt.binaries.dvd.spanish group equals ALL spanish-latin trackers.

does Usenet has the same content as demonoid ?

usenet or bt

usenet FTW , you dont have to seed anything

Demonoid either lol

[whatcdfan]

demonoid is slow ..

speed matters ..isnt it ?

especially when you are in a hurry

Demonoid solely does not represent BT, it has more to offer

And if you are solely talking about speeds, SCC has the ability to max out most of the connections
I have seen seedboxes going up to 100mbits, that is a lot of speed

[taniquetil]

With Usenet, you can also make do with much slower internet connections. For example, a basic 10up/1down plan is plenty for Usenet (that's what I use right now), but that 1mb is probably not fast enough for most private torrent sites (of course, there are exceptions like BTN and Torrentday).

So yeah, Usenet costs $10 a month for subscription (astraweb unlimited plan here), but I think it would be reasonable to assume that the vast majority of people on Torrent trackers have upgraded their internet for the sole purpose of having faster seed speeds (of course, seedboxes cost even more)

That being said, there are some boutique torrent sites that have access to a lot of material that isn't on Usenet, such as what, waffles, and various eBook trackers. And I guess without preview screens Bittorrent (and Direct Download)'s access to porn is probably a lot more user-friendly.

I think Usenet's a little daunting because there are a few weaknesses:
It's more of a hassle than just utorrent -> download torrent
Search definitely isn't as user-friendly as it is on good torrent sites, public or private
Indexing sites are not as good as private, 0-day sites like Torrentday or BTN. Especially not for older material (like Walker, Texas Ranger, which isn't on Usenet)