>I just switched to usenetserver.com
I've been with UNS for years. When they started increasing retention by leaps and bounds, some years back, they asked us what we thought of that. My reply (re the binaries groups) went something like this.
You'd better have a Plan B, because you're killing the groups. That level of retention, coupled with NZBs, will dissuade people from initiating or participating in any discussion. People will remain outside the groups, simply double-clicking NZBs to grab what they want, days or months or years after the posts go up.
The big problem with that is that the posters of original stuff will quickly lose interest and you'll end up with "just giving back" types downloading from one group and uploading back to another group, probably after stripping off any nfo's, artwork, comments, etc., thus homogenizing and anonymizing what's available and further discouraging any original posters.
In my experience, those who create and post original material are motivated in part by discussing, teaching, learning, discovering, and adding to the collective knowledge about whatever the group is about. Take that away and the groups quickly stagnate.
You'll be left competing with other ISPs solely on the basis of price and retention. Since your costs must be roughly the same, that's a dead end. Your customers won't have any reason to pick you over anybody else.
You may feel you don't have any choice but to do what you're doing, but my read on it is that it's suicidal.
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