this post was submitted on 08 May 2026
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Is this because they don’t know how to torrent? Or did the “you wouldn’t download a car” ads get into the water supply?
99% of internet users don't know what a torrent is.
Which is probably a good thing for torrent users
torrent is useless, who wants to connect to a million people who are only sharing the arch iso?
woah now; I also share the debian iso! ✌🏼
You're doing the Lord's work.
Kinda the opposite given that's kinda the whole point of torrenting. The more people there are the faster the download speeds and longer the seed will stay up.
If copyright laws weren't draconian, maybe
Swim sideways to not get caught in a torrent.
Someone who isn’t me sideways
Yeah I feel like millennials got lucky because both the older and the younger know nothing about how the internet works.
Torrenting isn't difficult but it's also not very user friendly.
I don't really know what a magnet link is, I just know it's what I want. There's also a bunch of stats and settings in my torrenting app that I don't understand but apparently it's ok to just ignore them. I'm fine with that, but that level of confusion is very off-putting to most people.
I know people who have some app, I forget its name, on their smart television which is very accessible. It looks like a regular streaming service dashboard. Torrenting doesn't have to be difficult and technical - but I wouldn't have seen this if I didn't go to that friend's place.
I think anyone comfortable with managing files on a computer would be fine with torrents. Especially anything like qbitorrent which has integrated search. But the majority are ipad kinda users.
And I guess you get into torrents because you don't know what usenet is.
Or don’t want to have to pay for Usenet access.
But will pay for a VPN to run torrents or just risk the exposure?
I've been using a private tracker and no vpn for the last 15 years.
I forgot about private trackers. Yeah, if you can get into those they can be pretty good. You normally have to worry about your seed ratio for those private sites though. At least the one I was a member of wayyy back in the day.
Buying a Usenet plan is like buying a cell phone plan in the 90’s; there’s limits and download caps and is my Usenet group restricted and all sorts of things to figure out.
Buying a VPN doesn’t have download caps and restrictions on specific websites. It just works.
And, yes, buying access to a VPN is not only radically easier but can also be used on my phone / laptop / etc to prevent advertisement/ISP snooping. Can I do that with a Usenet subscription?
What are you talking about? My usenet subscription is unlimited less than $10/month and it even comes with a VPN subscription. Nothing hard to figure out at all. Certainly nothing harder than figuring out which VPN to subscribe to.
Which one?
Usenet Server
Yes, which Usenet Server service?
Typically, people stay on the torrents because they are free, while all usenet costs money. Which is the point. Maybe genz can't even afford Usenet access.
Using torrents without a VPN is crazy to me.
Doesn't that mostly come down to where you live and what enforcement looks like there?
Ya i dont use a vpn, never had any issues. Once in a while ill get an automated email saying ive been naughty but I just ignore it.
I suppose that could be true.
Word
Both in use.
Why be exclusive with it if you can get the best of both worlds