NZBgeek? I’m honestly not sure. I currently use NZBgeek, and for the most part have been very happy with it. Lately, however, I’ve been running into some issues with articles no longer being available. I’ve tried a couple of different Usenet providers (had been using NewsgroupDirect - tried Newshosting and Eweka) to see if that would make a difference, and they didn’t.

From reading around online, and specifically Reddit, Drunken Slug came up a lot as a good indexer. Some claim it to be better than NZBgeek, many say they’re about the same. But most everyone agrees that having NZBgeek AND Drunken Slug is an ideal combination.

Premium (and invite only) NZB indexer.

I know I’m a couple of months late to this post, but I just joined Lemmy and found it… In a lot of ways, Usenet is just easier. Sure it takes a bit more to set it up - as you need not just a good provider but a good indexer - but once you set it up, it’s just so much easier to find the things you want vs. torrenting. In addition, as others have stated, the speed is very, very real. I use newsgroupdirect for my provider, and it’s not uncommon for me to be downloading at 100 Mbytes/sec (not bits - but bytes!). I’ve actually had a number of big downloads pause because the cache on my hard drive got filled up and it needed time to write the data from the cache to the disk.

I’d say Usenet has five big upsides when compared to torrents: 1.) Significantly faster 2.) Much more secure, as your connection to the server is SSL encrypted 3.) Piggybacking on 2.), no need for a VPN as a result of how you connect to the usenet provider 4.) No need to seed! For me this is huge, as I’ve always found seeding to be a real pain in the butt, especially when most people’s upload speeds are significantly slower than download speeds. So if you’re using any kind of tracker that requires keeping up with a certain ratio, you’ll be seeding for a lot longer than you download. 5.) With the right indexer(s), you really only need to search in a couple of places to find what you want - whereas I often find with torrents you need to jump from site to site to find what you need.

There are two big downsides to usenet though. 1.) It’s not free. You need to at least pay for a provider, but typically an indexer as well (there are free indexers out there, but they’re not the best). With that being said, torrenting isn’t really free either, as you typically need to pay for a VPN to ensure you don’t get caught by your ISP for violating the DMCA. And, if you’re using a private tracker, you might need to pay for a seedbox as well. 2.) DMCA takedowns are becoming more and more common. What that means is your indexer will find what you want to download, but then when you start to download the file, it fails. This typically happens because the file was removed the provider’s servers due to a DMCA takedown. Fortunately, I’ve usually been able to find the file I want, it just may not be there first one to pop-up in a search.

Can I save all BUT one? Because then I’d choose Michael Burnham NOT to save. I actually liked her character in season 1, and even in most of season 2, but once they jumped to the future, she’s just become insufferable. I hate the term “Mary Sue,” as it is typically used incorrectly (and typically for misogynistic reasons), but Burnham has very much turned a Mary Sue.

He was also a jerk to (at least) Denise Crosby as well. Rick Berman posted on Twitter X a number of years ago with a pic of Tasha’s com badge stating Tasha’s com-badge. Denise gave it to me after her last day of shooting on SKIN OF EVIL. It’s been on my desk for nearly 31 years.

Seemed like a really nice little story/memory. Unfortunately, it wasn’t true at all. Denise responded Oh friend, my final scene on @StarTrek was not in SKIN OF EVIL but SYMBIOSIS which was filmed out of order. You came to the set to thank me and brought a cake, then ceremoniously ripped off my Communicator badge saying “you won’t be needing this anymore.” Don’t remember?

She later backed down from the comment (saying it was a joke b/w friends), but she had given an interview to TrekCore a good 10 years ago basically saying the same thing - that Berman ripped the com badge off her uniform, and that she was expecting him to rip off the rank pips next. Maybe it was a joke on his part? But even still, kinda of a dick thing to do.

As far as I remember, I don’t think we were ever told how long a symbiote can live for, as such it’d be kinda cool for a Dax to show up in the final season of DISCO. I highly doubt that will happen, but it’d be cool :)