BT vs Usenet

[megabyteme]

What are the current strength/weaknesses of each? If all BT got shut down tomorrow, would Usenet be able to replace it completely? Where would we go for community/drama? Are there sufficient "rare files" available? Which has better security? Do private communities mean anything anymore with all of the selling/trading/for profit trackers?

Where do you stand on these issues? Have you tried Usenet? Have you already (happily) jumped the BT ship?

[anon]

Have you tried Usenet? Have you already (happily) jumped the BT ship?

Yep. I landed on the one-click hosters one.

I can't really comment on the rest, given I have very little Usenet experience, so consider this just another spam post by me. One thing is for sure, though - if you look at the BT section here, it's pretty hard to think of another filesharing medium that can match it on the drama regard.

[mrnobody]

BT wins easily b/c of packs, community, pretime,...and the 4th thing that i can't remember atm.

[pakito]

I found a New$ free server at China (Pekin Univeristy, I think so) some year ago and I tested it..Its a good invention, but i prefer utorrent low cost..

[Funkin']

Have you tried Usenet? Have you already (happily) jumped the BT ship?

Yep. I've been using newsgroups for quite sometime now(along with DDL), and yes I've pretty much left BT behind. For the most part I only use a couple music trackers anymore and that's about it. And even then, just like here, I rarely participate in the forums nowadays.

And for me, Usenet wouldn't be a complete replacement if BT shutdown. But the majority of it would be. And what wasn't replaced, I would get used to not having very quickly.

The so-called "communities"/drama/and annoying people? These were some of the reasons I decided to further myself from BT.

For your other questions I'm sure someone else(probably Cabalo or one of the other newsgroup users) will come by and give you answers so I won't bother with it.

[Tokeman]

I used newsgroups for a while, and was quite satisfied with them. In terms of 0 day, yes, it could replace BT right now without any question. In terms of content (niche sites) no, it couldn't IMO, at least not right now. Maybe it would get better with time though, more requests, more unique uploads etc.
Biggest downer is its not free, but you are paying for the downspeeds you get from servers, instead of relying on peers to donate it to you (seeders) for free. And its not like its a fortune either, less then 10 bucks a month aint bad!

[whatcdfan]

usenet definitely has more rare music then BT, i found some albums there which i cudent find on what & waffles

[Cabalo]

After using usenet intermittently for the past 11 years and bittorrent since the suprnova days, here are my thoughts:

Comfort: Newsgroups win, without discussion. You add the .NZB (usenet "equivalent" to the .torrent file), files get downloaded, unrar'd, the ISO moved to the chosen destination on the HDD to the category you set, and then the RAR's are deleted (of course all this is customizable). You can shutdown the computer and go sleep. What you save on the power bill by not having the PC on 24/7 is almost enough to pay for a monthly subscription, I would dare say.

Speed: Newsgroups win. You always max out your connection speed, no matter the age of the file. Old torrents are usually extremely slow, as they are seeded by home connections.

Contents: You can't compare the usenet to a single tracker, but to the cloud. There's no clear winner, if you compare usenet to sites like TPB or demonoid for example. You can't compare it to any private tracker, as they all get squashed. I'll get to the "niche" trackers later.

Searching the contents: There are several automatic and manual indexers (FST is one of them). Also, there are several bt trackers. The difference is you would need quite a lot of memberships on sites to even close to what a NZB indexer can find. It's a clear win for Newsgroups too. Automated indexing sites like NZBIndex.nl or even Newsleecher's integrated SuperSearch blow away any competition. If you got used to the manual indexing, like you see on any tracker, then you'll find FST's NZB section very lookalike.

Cost-effectiveness: I have already mentioned that you don't have to keep your PC turned on 24/7 seeding 365 days per year. You can shut it down any time you want and still get the files when you wish without ratio worries.
Additionally, many people resort to seedboxes to keep their ratios up and build a "buffer". Once you start using newsgroups, and if you ever paid for a seedbox before, you will shake your head in disbelief when you think of the wasted money. The cost of a decent seedbox is enough to let you pay for newsgroups for one entire year. Add to this the power saving, the hassle saving, and do your math. So, saying bittorrent is free and usenet is not, is a false statement. Obviously, BT is populated with kids who live with their parents who cough up the cash for the bills, so they will always argue this point.

Community: What is a community? FST surely is one, xtremesystems is another, etc. In the end of the day, if you are a guy with too much free time, you will see you won't have to participate in some communities you otherwise wouldn't bother to, unless you are expecting some kind of reconnaissance to get you invited to other places. This saves you a lot of time you can spend on other tasks, like banging your wife / girlfriend. Newsgroups is about getting your files and few technical related discussions. Bittorrent is about the drama. So, BT wins on entertainment value, to the day you get bored.

In my personal opinion, for a perfect downloading experience you would use usenet for nearly everything, a couple of niche trackers (BCG, what.cd and a few elearning sites) and places like warez-bb or even emule for very rare contents.

PS: Oh, did I say you don't have to deal with kids who masturbate each other because they "staff" at some site? And who behave like heroes because they can ban you and even tell their buttbuddies to ban you too? Expecting it makes any difference because all summed up you can get the same content at a dozen other places.

[yevgeny]

I joined Astraweb a couple of months ago, speed on old (150-200 days) files is the main thing I like. You can use a vpn, proxy etc; and you cant be disabled for silly things such as being a member of FST. The indexers (layout and content) are one part of usenet that I think could be much better.

[anon]

Stuff

Man, we need a Thanks button for this section. Very detailed and informative post.

Specially liked the postdata.