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).

  • @[email protected]English
    11•9 months ago

    I am the same as OP, although I’ve never managed to automate my torrents. I kind of enjoy the browse and bulk download method. But I’ve heard of Usenet for like decades at this stage, is it an invite only service or is there many variations? How would I go about joining?

    • JGrffnEnglish
      11•9 months ago

      You gotta pay. I posted an explanation on usenet as a reply to this post. You can find more info, such as specific providers and indexers, in the /r/usenet wiki.

      • @[email protected]English
        2•9 months ago

        Curious how it is now as I used to be a Usenet person back when fserves and bots on IRC channels were some of the best ways to request and get nzbs to throw into your Usenet client. I’ve been a torrent user on private trackers for the last 15 years and while I have everything automated, I still run into quality issues or rogue releases with inaccurate language info / subtitles / etc

        • JGrffnEnglish
          2•9 months ago

          I’m relatively new to usenet myself and have both torrent and usenet tied to my *arr automations. From what I can tell, for newer stuff they’re less distinguishable than for older stuff. Things basically get uploaded in both places for the most part, so you can also get duds on usenet, the same duds you’d get on torrents.