Comments on: Use it or lose it.

Question: Use it or lose it.

matkline — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 21:53:01 -0800

What's the best way to find cool stuff on Usenet?

I often wish there was a Digg style interface for usenet to enable my finding of obscure awesomeness. I've set several lots of fancy search criteria within newzbin, and that seems to have yielded results close to what I want. (I've set them up to have the most viewed reports at the top) Unfortunately, that method prefers things like NOW 9423 cds, etc.

Any suggestions?

By: doublesix

doublesix — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 22:28:32 -0800

The first rule of usenet is don't talk about usenet.

That being said, I find the good stuff by directly browsing the newsgroups that I know will have decent posts. You can create grouplists to assist in this.

I have absolutely no idea what you mean by obscure awesomeness but have a look at a.b.dvd.mnm and related cross-post groups.

By: register

first rule!

also: browse & scroll.

By: Leon

Leon — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 22:46:38 -0800

Sort by article size and deleting everything < 100 lines strips out a lot of the spam.br>
Sort by title makes the group a lot more readable.

After that I just scan what's left with page down, looking for something eyecatching. I tend to download things based purely on interesting titles, so having an IMDB window open is helpful in the DivX groups. For the indie groups it's quicker just to sample a track at random.

By: rhizome

rhizome — Sat, 08 Sep 2007 23:18:54 -0800

Subscribe to the groups the articles newzbin points you to are in.

By: -t

-t — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:28:14 -0800

Indeed.

Shhhhhhhhhh.

That said, a good client with filters.

By: melorama

melorama — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 01:30:34 -0800

Umm...Usenet was shut down 7 years ago. I don't think you're gonna find "cool stuff" on something that no longer exists.

By: ReiToei

ReiToei — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 04:47:21 -0800

"Umm...Usenet was shut down 7 years ago. "

Eh, no it wasn't.

By: jeremias

jeremias — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 04:58:32 -0800

Uhh melorama . . . better check your facts before you make sweeping statements.

Anyhoo, because Usenet is a store-and-forward system, searching only goes so far, you really have to be willing to roll up your sleeves and investigate groups and even "participate" in them.

By: caddis

caddis — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 05:37:54 -0800

Google groups for more mundane sites like rec.bicycles.tech. Google doesn't carry much of usenet's forbidden fruit though.

By: melorama

melorama — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 06:52:27 -0800

Uh, no, jeremias, you're wrong. There is no such thing as The Usenet anymore. When AOL bought it out, they pretty much killed it because it competed with thier "chat rooms".

I mean, doesn't everyone pretty much know that?

Jesus, next thing you're probably gonna tell me is that Kaycee Nicole was a hoax or something.

By: melorama

melorama — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:06:18 -0800

Oh, and before any other smarty-pants chime in on this, let me just state categorically that, no, there is no such thing as a site called "EASYNEWS", and it does NOT allow you to globally search the entire binaries heirarchy in this mythical "Usenet" feed using very granular and complex search criteria (including type of video/audio codec, file extension, bitrate, pixel dimension, etc), and NO, it does NOT allow you to build dynamic RSS feeds based on these searches.

It also does NOT automatically join and un-RAR multi-segment posts for you that you can download directly with your webbrowser or a download manager.

All you myth mongers better check your facts before claiming that things exist when they really don't.

By: doublesix

doublesix — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:24:34 -0800

Newzbin has something similar to the above ... it's been in beta for months v3.newzbin.com.

Oh, one more thing.

We never had this conversation.

By: ROU_Xenophobe

ROU_Xenophobe — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 07:54:05 -0800

melorama is correct, there is no usenet anymore. unless matkline is going to upload his collection of obscure awesomeness, in which case the best answer I can give is:

If you want obscure awesomeness, there's just no substitute for just loading a relevant group and seeing what's available two or three times a week. That's part of the zen of usenet, if it existed which it doesn't. You sit down in the river and see what floats by, and if you have sharp eyes you'll catch the obscure awesomenesses in the vast stream of Big Daddy rips.

By: porn in the woods

porn in the woods — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 09:46:35 -0800

Binsearch and a solid news feed is all you need.

By: scarabic

scarabic — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 10:41:06 -0800

There are various sites that list the posting of interesting new stuff to usenet. None of them is terribly good. VCDQuality is one. Usually these sites make you connect the dots a little bit. They won't contain links or NBZ files or the name of the group where it's posted. But they may have the filename, which you can then search for. Stuff like that.

By: jeremias

jeremias — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 11:28:21 -0800

Crap, melorama. I feel like an idiot. Upon further investigation, I stand corrected. I've been out of the loop for a while, didn't have my coffee, etc.

I've asked the mods to delete this thread, because I fear I've confused the issue.

So to be clear. It's 2007 and there is no Usenet.

By: Freaky

Freaky — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 12:16:20 -0800

How do you mean "digg style"? You want users to be able to vote up reports and an interface which responds to how rapidly they're voted up, or a "sort by recent rate of report views" or something like that? What sort of searches are getting close to what you want, and how do you think they could be improved?

I'm a Newzbin developer, so answering your question is kind of my job ;)

By: oaf

oaf — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 05:03:15 -0800

Jeez. Next thing I know you're going to be telling me that there's a cabal.