I've never used torrents and I've always used newsgroups. Does that make me old? Anyway, I feel naked now, with newzbin down and now this I feel I'm going to have to end my fun or try torrents which I'm worried about the legal issues. Are torrents "safe" now a days, what's the best approach (Seedbox?)
Torrents aren't really safe or unsafe, it's mostly about the quality of the trackers you use. There are some OK cultivated communities out there, but the worry over ratio and constant leech on one's upload stream is a real bummer when you can just purchasing blocks from a news server and not have to worry about it. A seedbox is way more expensive than a news account and usually comes with quotas which one must mind.
All in all, nzbs are a much more pleasant experience if you can afford the account (and pretty much any employed person can) and have a good indexing site (harder to come by, and now I don't have one either :( ).
I'm old too (using USENET since mid-90s). There are other indexers out there. Try http://www.nzbsearch.net/, http://binsearch.info - and if that one goes belly up, there will be others, or install your own private indexer (or write your own). I stay the hell away from torrents.
