Title says it. Is anyone still on the newsgroups? For reasons I need to amass a large collection of music in MP3 format, preferably full albums, and I’d like to do it somewhat quickly. Is there a better place to hunt before I buy news server access? I been on land for too many years.

  • 0x0@lemmy.zipEnglish
    3·
    3 小时前

    I was under the impression Usenet was a BBS from the past, with designated port and server software, but people in the comments pay to use it as a P2P network?

    How does it compare to soulseek?

    • Pat_Riot@lemmy.todayOPEnglish
      2·
      2 小时前

      I haven’t tried soulseek, just learned about it from the replies to this thread. Last time I saw the newsgroups was almost 29 years ago. I’m definitely going to give soulseek a shot.

  • 503@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    7·
    8 小时前

    I predominantly use Usenet for procuring all my media, except for

    1. Switch ROMs, which I rely on torrents via NSWTL. I have 4 indexers and all of them give me “missing parts” error when I try to download Switch ROMs.
    2. Music, which I rely on Telegram bots. I am in the process of migrating my streaming library to Navidrome and I haven’t found a better workflow than to send a playlist link to the bot, and downloading the music and then tagging it using Picard.
    • retro@infosec.pubEnglish
      3·
      8 小时前

      The missing parts sounds like a provider issue, not an indexer one. Do you have a backup block on a different backbone?

      • 503@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        7 小时前

        I don’t have one yet, but I do plan to get one as I infrequently get those errors with movies too.

        I am using NewsHosting as my primary/sole provider (the bundled Privado VPN is what I bound qBitTorrent with), which is on Omicron.

        Will look for a fallback on a different backbone. Though any inputs on this will be appreciated. :-)

        • retro@infosec.pubEnglish
          2·
          7 小时前

          BlockNews or Usenet.farm seem like they could be good fits for your set up. Since you can already get what you want, it may be worth it to wait until Black Friday sales.

  • dis_honestfamiliarEnglish
    23·
    12 小时前

    I use it exclusively. I think it’s better than worrying about torrents. It almost feels obfuscated with the indexer.

    • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
      5·
      6 小时前

      I haven’t used usenet for 15 years or so. After nzbindex chucked it in.

      What’s the situation with incompletes / DMCA’d releases?

      Is one usenet subscription enough or do you have 2 monthly subscriptions? do you need a block account ?

  • stumu415@lemmy.zipEnglish
    18·
    11 小时前

    I have not used torrents in years after discovering usenet. You can find the most obscure stuff that is impossible to find on torrents. Plus you are not dependent on seeders, nor do you have to seed yourself. Or the frustration that the torrent stops at 99% and you still can’t play. And to top it off the speed is amazing.

    I do want to give a shout out to Kevin who developed the NZB360 app. It’s the best app for usenet and my most used app on my phone.

    • Pat_Riot@lemmy.todayOPEnglish
      2·
      4 小时前

      I’ve actually never used torrents. Had newsgroups access years ago, but I think I am going to try soulseek for now.

  • ergonomic_importer@piefed.caEnglish
    24·
    12 小时前

    Usenet is still very much alive.

    For music, I use Lidarr (along with the rest of the arr stack) and Headphones as an indexer.

    It doesn’t have absolutely everything that I want but enough to make it worth the price.

    • Pat_Riot@lemmy.todayOPEnglish
      2·
      4 小时前

      I don’t have a single thing with a CD drive anymore and work says we can’t use Bluetooth anymore so I need to load up a bunch of SD cards for my speaker. I’m gonna try this soulseek I see a lot of suggestions for.

      • harrys_balzac@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
        1·
        1 小时前

        I’ve been using Nicotine+ as my Soulseek client and it’s been working great for me.

        I had an old mp3 player so I took that music and used it as my first set of shareable files. It took some time but I have been able to build up my library.

        Once you’re on soulseek, look for joaquim_149. A lot of it is lossless audio but there’s also some mp3 files.

      • fizzle@quokk.auEnglish
        4·
        6 小时前

        9USD / mo for eweka.

        I’ve only signed up in the last 24 hours. It seems incompletes are a thing, so that might mean I need another account with another provider as well.

        nzbgeek cost 9 USD / year

    • Thorman@lemmy.mlEnglish
      21·
      11 小时前

      1. Generally don’t need a VPN with usenet because according to isp providers it’s general downloaded content with encryption so they don’t see what you’re downloading

      2. speed depends on your provider, not seeder counts, meaning that it’s generally much more consistant speeds and can easily reach multi gigabit

      3. don’t need to worry about seeding at all, instead you have two caps to worry about that reset daily for indexes, api hits and download counts. Generally you get a couple thousand api hits for third party apps or your Starr apps and a few hundred downloads per day.

      4. older content is generally easier to find on usenet because there is no inactivity deletion due to lack of seeders like on private torrent trackers. The only limitation is your providers retention time generally in the thousands of days range

      The one major downside of usenet over torrents is that you pay for access either monthly, yearly, or lifetime for both the provider and the indexer.

      And you do need both because the providers give you the ability to download the files and the indexers host the files. So if you have just an indexer you can see the files but not download them or if you have just a provider you have the ability to download the files but can’t find any files to download.

      Hope this helps!

    • HuudaHarkiten@piefed.socialEnglish
      2·
      7 小时前

      You get to sit through interviews, possibly get to pay for access and have to deal with gatekeepers.

      Joking aside, theres some variety in the selection. In my experience, torrents have excellent selection of mainstream and well known artist, not so much with smaller, niche and local artists. Soulseeks fills that hole nicely. Some friends of mine who use usenet have reported that when you need to find that one EP from that one band that existed for 4 months in 1978, you have good chances of doing that there.

      For me, its not worth the effort and trouble getting things set up and getting in to a server. Others will disagree and tell you its the best thing since recording C-cassette tapes for your friends.

    • BottleBoardBakon@lemmy.mlEnglish
      9·
      12 小时前

      Uses encryption so you can’t be dinged by copyright trolls, high speed downloads (usually), easier automation and higher quality control.

      Only note is that it isn’t free.

  • Confused_Emus@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    29·
    15 小时前

    I know Usenet is still alive and well for video, at least. Check out soulseek for music downloads if you want to try avoiding a subscription.

    • Dr. WeskerEnglish
      13·
      14 小时前

      slsk would also be my recommendation for music, though I’m not sure I can recommend in good faith leeching a bunch of music all at once. Unless it’s a pretty even split amongst source users, and OP intends to share afterwards.

  • Avid Amoeba@lemmy.caEnglish
    8·
    12 小时前

    Hell yeah. It’s good to have as an alt source in an arr-stack setup. I prioritise torrent since that helps folks who don’t/can’t pay but it’s there when TL falls or smth.