The real winner of the streaming wars.
this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2025
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Laughs in usenet
Yea, torrents. Sure. Lol.
Yeah I run a small service for friends and its almost all Usenet powered now. I still like to seed torrents anyway just as an extra fuck you.
That's the spirit!
Usenet really is miles better. It blew my mind how quick and hassle free downloading was.
Please don't tell us how to access this magical Dreamland or some people might do something unethical towards the streaming providers.
It requires a subscription, which scares off most of the casual “just looking to try it” users. It’s as simple as getting a Usenet subscription. Usenet providers are sort of like ISPs. Each provider will have an umbrella of servers that they sync with, so it’s worth researching which provider you want to go with. Most will have a wide variety of content, but they all follow different policies regarding things like DMCA takedowns. Many people like to get two different subs so they can have a primary and a backup provider.
Subs typically come in both monthly subs and usage subs. For instance, the monthly sub will be unlimited access for a month, while a usage sub will just be like 100GB of download bandwidth, and you don’t get charged again until you use that 100GB. If you’re doing a lot of downloading, you’ll probably want a monthly. So most people will have a monthly subscription for their primary, then a usage sub for their secondary. So they only actually use their secondary if something is missing from their primary, and they’re not constantly maintaining two monthly subscriptions.
Actually using Usenet will require a Usenet reader, which is a program that actually interfaces with the Usenet network. Sort of like how a torrent program is used to download torrents. Most readers will integrate with services like the *arr suite to automatically search for and download content. If that’s something you’d be interested in, look into the suite and see which readers work best.
Ok, doesn’t sound too bad so far.
Wait, so I have to pay for access and even then it’s still limited?
You know what works and is unlimited (subject to ISP restrictions that aren’t related to bittorrent)? Torrenting.
I mean, all subscriptions are limited in some way. That’s how a subscription works. You either get limited by time (monthly sub) or by usage (data cap). If it were a perpetual/lifetime access license, it wouldn’t be a subscription.
That’s why I said most people keep a monthly subscription for everyday usage, and then only use the secondary subscription when their primary is missing something. The usage doesn’t expire, so it’s not something you need to constantly maintain unless you’re actively using it. So they’re not constantly getting dinged for usage on that second provider, because the monthly doesn’t have a data cap.
The reason people like Usenet is because you don’t need to worry about seeders or dead torrents. You grab the file you want, and it caps out your gigabit download speed every time.
Netflix streaming isn’t limited.
Costco isn’t limited to 5 visitors a month.
Many ISPs don’t limit you to a preset amount of data (fuck you Crapcast).
Yes it is. It’s a monthly subscription. You pay every month. That’s a time limitation. If you pay for a month, you only get a month of usage, just like a Usenet monthly subscription.
But again, you only get the month you paid for. It’s a time limitation, just like a monthly usenet subscription.
Neither do monthly usenet subscriptions. I think you need to go re-read my original comment, because you seem to think that the monthly subs are limited. They’re not. The only limitation on monthly subs is time. Which is the exact same limitation as the other subscriptions you mentioned.
But that would break the first rule of Usenet.