Sep 19

Usenet Retention: How much is too much?

News Providers

One of the leading usenet service providers, Giganews, is expecting to announce a retention of 240 days by the end of this month. Coupled with its new acceptance of the popular online payment gateway PayPal, more and more users are finding it difficult to say no to the NNTP giant. But does more retention really deliver more value?

Having greater usenet retention can debated as having greater freedom. More freedom to download what you want, and when you want it. As Giganews strives to increase its retention for users, other providers are either struggling to keep up, or have given up altogether, left to hover around the 100 day mark. I can only guess that Giganews is aiming to hit a retention of 365 days (one full year), but is that giving us more value by having an account? Would we even use it, or do we tend to grab things as they are released?

Is it too much? Tell us in the blog comments at The NZB Blog at NZBTrader.org

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4 comments so far...

  • Robin Said on September 19th, 2008 at 11:34 am:

    Sometimes 100 days isn’t enough. Other times it is a waste.

    With to much retention, if you find a new group that interests you, it can take you forever to get caught up. On the other hand, a very long retention can save much bandwidth by stopping reposts. You can find that article or file you just need to have.
    If you have ever tried to use a news service with only 7 days retention, it is a real pain.

    Completion is a much better judge of a service provider in my books. Next is security and privacy.

  • anon Said on October 17th, 2008 at 11:16 pm:

    I actually switched from usenetserver to giganews, solely because of the retention - and that was just when it was 200 days vs 100.

    I kept finding files I wanted/needed that were like 104 days old. Now that I can get files back to 240 days, I’m in heaven. It’s not too much at all, I’d love to have 365 days.

  • We Saw It Coming: One Year of Usenet Retention! » NZB Trader Said on April 8th, 2009 at 6:38 pm:

    [...] It wasn’t too long ago when we announced that Giganews was going to try to hit 240 days. We had a feeling that they were going to try to do something drastic- something that hadn’t been done with Usenet before, when we asked you how much retention was too much. [...]

  • How to Get Six Pack Fast Said on April 15th, 2009 at 11:45 am:

    If you ever want to see a reader’s feedback :) , I rate this article for 4/5. Detailed info, but I just have to go to that damn google to find the missed parts. Thanks, anyway!

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