Support:FAQ General
(Redirected from Newzbin:FAQ)
[edit] Site Questions
[edit] What is the purpose of Newzbin?
- A brief summary of 'Description of Newzbin' from the Beginner's Basics page is as follows: "Newzbin is a service that is dedicated to indexing the ever-changing contents of Usenet, also known as Newsgroups. The reason why we do this is to remove the hassle of crawling through the thousands of newsgroups and millions of headers to find what you're looking for, whether that be obscure music, tv shows, games or movies. Think of it as a TV guide, but we're a guide that applies to Usenet."
[edit] What exactly can I do on Newzbin?
- Assuming that you know how Usenet works, the main (and still free) feature of Newzbin is to provide you with detailed list of what is recently posted to Usenet. This includes a formatted title and the related newsgroups for each Newzbin Report. You will not have to unnecessarily download headers yourself from newsgroup(s) to search for something you like. Thus, we help you find something to download, rather than offering you downloads upon our site.
[edit] How do I download from Newzbin?
- Refer to the question What exactly can I do on Newzbin? The simple answer is that you cannot download from Newzbin with a few exceptions. The only available files for download are NFO files and NZB (Message-ID) files, which allow you to set up a queue in your Usenet client to download files automatically. The reason why we do not provide any other downloads is: We are an information based resource and do not exist to provide you with the content of Usenet, merely the information of what is currently on it.
[edit] How do I use the site with my Usenet client?
- Our Editors gather the information from Usenet and catalogue them by their category, then give the 'post' a title. You can click the categories on the left for posts within that category, or you can click on 'Browse by Category' above to get an even more detailed run down of the categories. Each post represents a post on Usenet, just look at the newsgroup, use your client to download the headers for that newsgroup, and then find the post.
- You can find out more information on the Feature Overview page. Additionally, some of the functions are only available to Premium Members.
[edit] How does the site work, and where can I download the code?
- The site incorporates the usage of a wide variety of today's technologies and brings them all together to provide you with what you see. Some of the technologies used are C/C++, PHP, Ruby, XHTML, CSS, XML, Apache, and MySQL - All running under the stable Operating System, FreeBSD.
- The backend system codenamed 'newzDog' is what powers the backend to the main site, and provides the interface for which Editors get all the information required to create posts. It is a system that negotiates with and exchanges data to and from Usenet.
- Everything within the site has been programmed by scratch by the Newzbin developers (apart from MediaWiki), and therefore, cannot be downloaded anywhere. We do not rely on so-called 'canned' scripts and code, due to the dangerous nature involved with code that you did not write (and sometimes, if the coding is bad, understand.)
[edit] I can't login to Newzbin, whats wrong??
- If the site says your username is not recognised, and you have not used your account for a while, your account may have been automatically purged. We do this to keep the user database at a reasonable size, and not full of dead unused accounts. Note that we never delete an account which has premium credit on it.
- If you get an error about cookies, contact your browser's support, not us - we won't help diagnose problems with your browser's security settings. The only advice we can give is check the time on your computer is correct; if it's wrong that can confuse a browser's cookie system.
[edit] There's no XXX/porn/adult content. Where is it?
- We have split the XXX category off into http://www.newzxxx.com.
[edit] Why do I get more results on www.newzbin.com than I do on v3.newzbin.com?
- The preferences in v3 vary slightly from the old (v2) site.
- Some preferences are carried over, but some aren't. You should check your v3 preferences all the way through the page, and make sure they're all correct.
- Pay particular attention to Retention - this may be lower than you expect.
[edit] How do I invite someone to join Newzbin?
- Before you you can invite someone to join Newzbin, you must have been a member for at least 8 weeks.
- You also need to have Premium Credit to receive and use invites.
- You can send an invitation from http://v3.newzbin.com/account/invite/
[edit] Email Questions
[edit] I got spammed by you, what are you going to do about it?
- We take user privacy very seriously. If someone has used your e-mail address and attempted to sign up on our site, you will have received an e-mail from us about it. If you have no intention of using this site, we can add your address to our block-list so that no e-mails will ever be sent to you again (even if you sign up with us intentionally.) Contact us from the e-mail address you wish to be blocked, and we'll be happy to add it.
[edit] None of your e-mails ever arrive in my Inbox. Why not?
- It is quite likely that your ISP has classified us as a source of spam. You will need to bring this to the attention of your your ISP's helpdesk and convince them that we're not. If you can't do that, use another e-mail address. We are sorry for this inconvenience but we can assure you that it is not because we have spammed anyone. Newzbin never has and never will spam anyone through any method.
- It is also possible that you could have typed your email address incorrectly (twice) and it is sending to the wrong address, or, the address you are trying to use is no longer valid, or, the inbox is full. Additionally, some email services have a spam filter function which moves some mail directly to a folder other than "Inbox".
[edit] Hotmail?
- Apparently Hotmail do not accept emails from Newzbin. There is nothing we can do about it.
[edit] Premium Membership Questions
[edit] What features do I get for the Premium Membership?
- With basic membership you are able to browse the listings of posts - This was, is, and always will be free. Due to the demand of our services and the resulting server costs we implemented a premium membership system to both cover the costs and to offer advanced features to premium members. A few of the features are: The ability to view the filenames in a report, the ability to grab NZB (Message-ID) files, the ability to view our Usenet Files database (it contains ALL of the files currently on Usenet), the ability to view and post comments on the site, and much, much more - See the Newzbin Feature Overview for more indepth details on features and costs.
[edit] How much do I have to pay for this service?
- The current rates are located on the Premium Membership page. We would like to state that you can use the site for free, but you don't see all the information we store. By upgrading your account to a Premium Account, all the site features are unlocked to you, along with any new ones we code along the way. Editors have free Premium Accounts, obviously.
[edit] I sent a Payment, where is my premium credit?
- Our Payment FAQ will provide the answers to most of your common questions, and also inform you of alternative payment methods Newzbin offers.
[edit] Legal Questions
[edit] Are you sure that this site is legal?
- We think so, or we wouldn't run it. Nobody has yet proven that running a search engine breaks any laws.
[edit] What data do you store about me?
- We store standard webserver (we run Apache 2.0 & 2.2) logs for a minimum of 28 days. This includes your IP and the page you visited. Not storing this information would seriously compromise our security and make us very vulnerable to any attacks. If you are not happy with us storing this, do not use Newzbin.
- As part of your Newzbin account, you have an email address. The current email address linked to your account is stored so we can email you when required. Old emails you may have previously used are discarded after they fall out of our log rotation (28 days).
- When you make a card payment, we store the fact that you made a payment, when, and how much it was for. We do not store the card details you used.
[edit] IRC Questions
[edit] Where's the IRC channel? I'm lonely!
- We have an IRC server at irc://irc.newzbin.com - join channel #newzbin for social chat (expect lots of verbal abuse, the channel is full of nefarious characters), or #nbhelp for, well, getting some help. (asking questions that are already answered in this FAQ or in the documentation will bring you ridicule).
- Note that #nbhelp is not an official help channel and nobody is obliged to help you. They just might, if they're around, and feel like it.
- For official support, open a Support Ticket at http://v3.newzbin.com/support/.
[edit] What are the rules of the #Newzbin IRC channel?
- No spamming. Swift banning will ensue.
- No requesting (!list, @find) - peddle your warez SOMEWHERE ELSE.
- The primary channel language is English.
- The Newzbin administration do not care if you get banned/abused/anything on IRC
- While we provide the hardware it runs on, and chill out there, it is not an official support channel and using it is your privilege, not your right.
- If you get banned, ask a #newzbin op politely if you can return, and apologise to who you offended.
- Do not mail Newzbin staff about it. We don't care.