i think the only real spot for a curated list of bf deals will be the usenet subreddit. otherwise the shitty affiliate sites wont really show you all the actual deals, just their pay per sign up links.
i dont think any service is going to give you free weeks or a month with no strings attached. if they did everybody would use them and not pay. you can just buy 1 unlimited month of frugal usenet for 5 bucks (not a subscription) and call it good.
you dont have to pay. you can get an account on google groups or eternal september or one of the other very few remaining text only servers but you get what you pay for. poor interface (google groups) or various account or posting restrictions. no binary groups, etc.. for a couple of bucks, you can get better service quality, high message retention, faster speeds etc. it costs significant money to run these servers now with all the bandwidth and hard drives.
Here is a good list of active groups, i am sure there are more. of course plenty of binary groups are active to. if one you like isnt that active, why not try to revive it?
alt.culture.usenet:
alt.fan.usenet:
alt.obituaries:
alt.privacy:
alt.tv.simpsons:
ba.broadcast:
comp.ai:
comp.arch:
comp.compilers:
comp.dcom.telecom:
comp.infosystems.gemini:
comp.infosystems.gopher:
comp.lang.c++:
comp.lang.c:
comp.lang.forth:
comp.lang.misc:
comp.lang.python.announce:
comp.lang.python:
comp.lang.raspberry-pi:
comp.lang.tcl:
comp.misc:
comp.mobile.android:
comp.mobile.misc:
comp.os.cpm:
comp.os.linux.announce:
comp.os.linux.misc:
comp.risks:
comp.sys.apple2:
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action:
comp.text.tex:
comp.unix.shell:
gnu.emacs.help:
misc.legal.moderated:
misc.taxes.moderated:
news.admin.moderation:
news.announce.important:
news.announce.newgroups:
news.groups.proposals:
news.groups:
news.software.readers:
rec.arts.drwho:
rec.arts.movies.current-films:
rec.arts.sf.tv:
rec.arts.sf.written:
rec.autos.sport.f1:
rec.aviation.soaring:
rec.bicycles.tech:
rec.food.cooking:
rec.games.backgammon:
rec.music.beatles:
rec.music.classical.recordings:
rec.radio.amateur.antenna:
rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors:
rec.radio.amateur.equipment:
rec.radio.amateur.homebrew:
rec.radio.amateur.misc:
rec.radio.amateur.moderated:
rec.radio.amateur.policy:
rec.radio.amateur.space:
rec.radio.info:
rec.radio.shortwave:
rec.sport.rowing:
rec.woodworking:
sci.astro:
sci.electronics.design:
sci.electronics.repair:
sci.logic:
sci.physics.relativity:
sci.physics.research:
talk.origins:
uk.comp.sys.mac:
uk.radio.amateur.moderated:
uk.rec.sheds:
uk.sci.weather:
BTC you would "probably" be okay but if you are going full anon i think Monero is the only true anon. im not really into crypto so i dont know how true that is, I just see that mentioned a lot that Monero / XMR is a privacy coin. Cash is king though. Maybe the most annon? frugal usenet and Blocknews actually have a cash payment option on the website at checkout, if you are worried maybe ask them the track record for receiving it. If you are doing VPN to, Mullvad takes cash but you do not need vpn for usenet.
Know someone to get on or know someone to talk back and forth with? I mean, you could use google groups interface which is awful but still sort of an on ramp to it (and free). Plenty of usenet services out there though. you could pay a buck or two to blocknews.net for a few gigs and now you have "premium" access. discussion groups will take a long time to eat up 5 gigs. the real problem is sorting through to find the active groups not to mention finding decent nntp newsreader software for your platform. actually someone just posted a few days back in alt.fan.usenet some decently active discussion groups. got to start somewhere i suppose.
alt.culture.usenet:
alt.fan.usenet:
alt.obituaries:
alt.privacy:
alt.tv.simpsons:
ba.broadcast:
comp.ai:
comp.arch:
comp.compilers:
comp.dcom.telecom:
comp.infosystems.gemini:
comp.infosystems.gopher:
comp.lang.c++:
comp.lang.c:
comp.lang.forth:
comp.lang.misc:
comp.lang.python.announce:
comp.lang.python:
comp.lang.raspberry-pi:
comp.lang.tcl:
comp.misc:
comp.mobile.android:
comp.mobile.misc:
comp.os.cpm:
comp.os.linux.announce:
comp.os.linux.misc:
comp.risks:
comp.sys.apple2:
comp.sys.ibm.pc.games.action:
comp.text.tex:
comp.unix.shell:
gnu.emacs.help:
misc.legal.moderated:
misc.taxes.moderated:
news.admin.moderation:
news.announce.important:
news.announce.newgroups:
news.groups.proposals:
news.groups:
news.software.readers:
rec.arts.drwho:
rec.arts.movies.current-films:
rec.arts.sf.tv:
rec.arts.sf.written:
rec.autos.sport.f1:
rec.aviation.soaring:
rec.bicycles.tech:
rec.food.cooking:
rec.games.backgammon:
rec.music.beatles:
rec.music.classical.recordings:
rec.radio.amateur.antenna:
rec.radio.amateur.boatanchors:
rec.radio.amateur.equipment:
rec.radio.amateur.homebrew:
rec.radio.amateur.misc:
rec.radio.amateur.moderated:
rec.radio.amateur.policy:
rec.radio.amateur.space:
rec.radio.info:
rec.radio.shortwave:
rec.sport.rowing:
rec.woodworking:
sci.astro:
sci.electronics.design:
sci.electronics.repair:
sci.logic:
sci.physics.relativity:
sci.physics.research:
talk.origins:
uk.comp.sys.mac:
uk.radio.amateur.moderated:
uk.rec.sheds:
uk.sci.weather:
Frugal Usenet vote from me. It has multiple backbones so make sure you set it up correctly in your newsreader (server priorities). there is no provider that doesnt have takedowns. it happens to them all. best to look for reposts if you can.
i wouldnt waste my time with torrents now. it is one of those things hard to explain but once you make the jump for yourself you will just know and wish you did it long ago. if you are all in for under a $100 per year, i dont consider that expensive at all.
frugal usenet here as well but i have collected block accounts over the years that really never get used so they just sit there.
If blocks work for your traffic patterns, then stick with it. im sure most download so much that blocks dont make sense to use when an unlimited acocunt is pretty cheap.
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thisusernameistaken
joined 1 year ago
blocks could be a bit restrictive unless you reliably download the same each month so you have predictable usage. if you ever deviate or find yourself having to hold back so you dont burn up your block, an unlimited account may be better and then you dont have to worry. unlimited is cheap enough now.