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Can someone explain the benefits of Usenet to a long-time torrent-er? (lemmy.world)

submitted 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) by nopersonalspace@lemmy.world to c/piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com

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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/6240929

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).

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[-] commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

you pay for an account on some server. that helps the server with bandwidth and storage costs. the server you use knows where some popular forums are (sort of like fediverse) and will cache certain boards.

when you want one of the items, you ask your server for it and they shove it down the pipe.

don't forget to pay your bill.

edit: i only read the title. it seems like i literally taught you nothing. sorry to waste ur time.

[-] nopersonalspace@lemmy.world 2 points 11 months ago

Haha no worries, still helpful. I edited the title to be a bit more clear about what I'm asking for :)

[-] Xirup@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 11 months ago

I am interested in this topic but I unlike the OP do not know anything about the theme, what difference does Usenet have from a debrid service like AllDebrid? if I’m not wrong, Alldebrid download on their servers by torrent the magnet you give it and you just download it as a direct download, what difference does this have with Usenet?

[-] Nyarlathotep@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 11 months ago

The two things are similar in the big picture view. You do a direct download from Usenet as well. The difference is in where the data comes from (people choosing to upload files, like they choose to seed) and how exactly you download it (you need one or more usenet indexer accounts plus download tools).

Usenet is basically an old school message board that has adapted to host binary files instead of shitposts. :)