• #moviegods maybe it changed now, but this was like 2-3 years ago. Before the second they detected you are using proxy/vpn you were auto banned.
• #the.source.nospam maybe it changed now, few months ago you were able to use it unregistered. But its alwasy recommended to register your nick and use SASL/SSL to authenticate.
• skullxdcc I looked at the style of coding and it seems not, but i dont know.

EDIT: My bad for some reason I confused skullxdcc with xdcc.rocks. You might be right.

Using linux and downloading only media files makes you 90% safer. But malware comes in many shapes, for example i’ve seen it executed from .pdf or .url or .lnk files. Even if you download only music and movies, dont open included files like that. And if possible make a filter to not download anything except what you need like .mkv .mp4 .mp3 .flac

Using a killswitch on any vpn is a must, and actually number one good practice you should always do at firewall level. If you use linux use iptables or ufw for that dont rely just on your vpn software. Another good practice is to bind your transmission to specific network/ip/port. So when your vpn killswitch triggered software stops to function.

SSD/HDD encryption is really a personal preference its not required if you are torrenting. I would use encrypted storage for more important things than just your movies/shows =) But remember encrypted storage does not save you from a virus or malware.

Actually avoid using pirate bay org use something more modern like EXT (dot) TO or 1337x (dot) TO or something more smaller like YTS (dot) BZ or uIndex (dot) TO or PiratesParadise (dot) ORG or EZTVx (dot) TO or if you want CAM/TS try CinemaCity (dot) CC (but it has watermark logo flying around) The reason why I say try not to use pirate bay is because from my own experience that where the most malware and viruses are coming to torrents from.

And joing a private tracker really not required, the piracy is so widespread now its actually more work than just finding content in the open. Everything sooner or later ends up in the open. Leaks of content from scene, p2p groups or private trackers happen hourly.

Another alternative you could try is direct downloading, there are many places out there, especially for older content. For the newest content i recommendation using irc, its so easy and quick and you can automate downloads.

• #moviegods - used to required this, but they don’t allow any proxy.
• scenep2p - you can use #the.source.nospam without registration, and proxy is allowed as long as you behave.
• I dont think skullxdcc.com was built by same people, style of coding completely different unless they did ai vibe coding than its possible.

scenep2p allows three requests per person and you can ask any release on Pbot to be on regular, but a lot of new stuff is not on Pbots.

I think only one has api SunXDCC and its bad. Best code your own apis for that.

It’s actually not that hard to build your own search engine for specific server/channel.

Very cool, good job!

Honestly, I think they are preoccupied with other things right now.

IRC never left the scene. 😜 I recommend trying at least scenep2p you wont regret it.

Good old days, I remember downloading movies than splitting it into many floppies to share. Once i could get my hands on CDs/DVDs/USBs, collection grew like wildfire, and of course sharing was so much faster. Now I can’t use anything except HDDs/SSDs, just so much easier.

Hey, this could get you started. Its not the same but you can try “c/Archive” and/or “c/YouTube” but its not much yet :-) You can also try IRC Downloading its free no seeding needed and if you use SASL/SSL you don’t need vpn. There is also something like this “Only One Petabyte and 464,392 files” of shows/movies, should be enought for you for a while =) I mean who needs torrents if you can easily download direct LOL