is usenet drying up?

[Captnhook]

To answer the OP original question .. No it's not drying up.
Things have certainly changed and it's become more of a challenge but Usenet is here forever as long me fellow pirates be sailing the internets and keeping things real.
I admit retention isn't as great it used to be (ah the good ol days ceratinly were very good indeed) but if you want something today grab it quick or know of a good news server outside the reach of DMCA takedowns.

The good ol days of nzbmatrix are gone.

Part of the problem with take down notifications is the attention nzb indexing have brought to usenet.
Before it took some work and know how to get your binaries but now it's automated and easy and on the radar screen of the MPAA/RIAA
So NZBs are sort of a blessing and a curse at the same time.

[HHH]

Haven't missed a beat here.

[newz97]

It depends on the provider, seems to be a growing need to have more than one provider as time goes by. Take down notices are going to usenet now to and some get more than others, or do it quicker at least.

[davidchu234]

Is it just me or does it seem harder and harder to manually find NZBs, that are either not scrambled code names so you don't know what they are, or their password protected. Is theses posts just for special private groups that list the pw(s) or something?

[bumblebsticker]

It is not just you. It is harder and harder to manually find NZBs - and mostly not worth the effort. I tried to keep up when the DMCA's really kicked up in Dec 12/Jan 13 and was not able to do it without searching constantly through different newsgroups and not knowing when things were going to be released.

[wai]

I haven't had many problems finding things but still have to find other ways get certain files.

[MasterBrowser]

@bumblebsticker
Sometimes these posts are just people trying to get you to their website to either generate more clicks (more clicks = more money) by making you jump through hoops, get spyware/malware installed on your machine, or just like you said, some private groups that want you to "sign-up" (for a fee of course) so you can get the password. So this (although I don't agree with but ) I understand.


What I've yet to understand is why so many groups like to rar their subtitle files inside the rar collection of the movie. It's not like they're saving any extra space. I don't get that.

[piercerseth]

Is it just me or does it seem harder and harder to manually find NZBs, that are either not scrambled code names so you don't know what they are, or their password protected. Is theses posts just for special private groups that list the pw(s) or something?

No, it's not just you. NewzNab and automated indexing had a big hand in where we're at now. NZBs themselves too. You distill something down so as to make it so stupid simple/easy/convenient. Think of where usenet was 10 years ago, and look at how turn-key it's become.

[frinky1]

That's the mixed blessing of making usenet easier to use - more people hop into the pool, which in turns, draws more attention to usenet.

[Raxitoriux]

I think it depends on the provider, astraweb has an automated DMCA removal process which is why a lot of things go missing on their service. I've found tweaknews to work okay though.