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).

    • ChewyEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      Thanks for the writeup! I’ll share it if someone needs a german guide. Your dual language guide helped me set up arr* for media since I want german audio for family, but also english for myself.

    • float@feddit.deEnglish
      2·
      1 year ago

      German content is mostly on Sharehosters or One-Click-Hosters or whatever you call them. I really don’t know why because they are expensive and worse than the other options. I know BitTorrent is not popular in Germany because of the law but the Usenet could be the better option if it was more popular.

      • redprog@feddit.deEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Usenet is popular in Germany (among the fraction of the population that sails the high seas, that is). There are also German indexers with a shitton of German content