UPDATE: Just checked and subscene is now down for me

So... what're your guys favorite alternatives?

The ones I'm aware of but haven't used much are:

UPDATE 2: needed subs for an ep of a moderately popular crime procedural show that aired 4 days ago on a regular tv channel, so updated to note experience with them. tested in librewolf on vpn:

• english-subtitles (dot) org : had latest subs, no issues downloading.
• subdl (dot) com : site was realy fast compared to some of the others. had latest subs, no issues downloading. that said, it had creditted the uploaders from subscene so it was easy to see that the subs were just copied from there. i probably need to retest this stuff again in with something else in a few days to see which sites are getting new uploads that arent just copied from subscene.
• my-subs (dot) co : did NOT had subs for latest ep. did have subs for previous ep. no issues downloading.
• podnapisi (dot) net : had some weird css fuckup on the search results (i use always https mode so maybe realted to that?). but they had latest subs and no issues downloading.
• subtitlecat (dot) com : mostly for translations. Otherwise I generally avoid this one since I prefer my subs to be spot-on. had latest ep, no issues downloadig.
• ~~yifysubtitles (dot) me~~ : they did not even have current season of the show. if they did, then there search sucks balls so hard you might get a ruptured testicle.
• ~~opensubtitles (dot) org~~ : update: these guys use fucking google fucking recaptcha which has been extremely fucking assholish in firefox/librewolf lately especially when on vpn (im talking you can submit 15+ correct and it still say you wrong and dont let you pass). so they can fuck right off my list until they decide to switch to literally anything else besides recaptcha. seriously guys how can you call yourselves "open" anything and using fucking google recaptcha. you can do better than this.

Happy to hear complaints on any to avoid too.

edit: for any curious why, I found this is from an older thread from before the final closing announcement:

24 February 2024

...

Yesterday, we received unfortunate news from one of our trusted admins stating that the owner of the site intends to shut it down due to insufficient revenue.

...

TL;DR - 1. How do most PT's track ratios? is it always by IP address or are there other methods. Asking bc IP address seems like it would be an issue on VPN. 2. Do all PT's operate on ratios or are there other systems? 3. Which PT's are best for competition and education tv shows? 4. other options besides PT's?

1. In general, do Private trackers require you to reveal IP address or some other info that could be used to track real world identity (even temporarily)? Some online recs for ABB alternatives included myanonamouse.net but rule "1.2 Duplicating IP Addresses" sounded VERY anti-VPN / anti-privacy to me and got me wondering if this is something all private trackers do as a method for tracking ratios via IP address or if it is just some of them. Not sure what the BT protocol supports, but seems like using public/private keys or some other equally anon method could be used instead of IP address for tracking stats if privacy was a main goal. If IP address based tracking isn't the norm, then how are ratios generally tracked on PT that let you remain completely anon?

2. Do all private trackers require maintaining ratios or is that misconception on my part? I'm just an average home user and like a lot of people my ISP imposes a monthly bandwidth cap. I don't mind sharing but I also don't plan on paying for something like a seedbox - if I'm going to spend money, I would probably look into some other option that doesn't require any effort on my part. Maybe usenet or real debrid? I haven't explored either of these in as much depth as I would like (so far).

3. Aside from looking for redundant alternatives to nyaa, ABB, irchighway, and libgenesis, the main content I'm having a hard time finding on public trackers is "educational" tv shows. Some documentaries are ok but I mostly mean non-fiction, non-reality-tv shows like like home improvement/gardening/animals/history/engineering/science/firearms/crafting/etc. Don't want to break rule 3 by mentioning any specific names but for example, a competition show that focused on crafting and had eliminations based on design or implementation flaws rather than how a competitor's crafted product looked would be right up my alley. I might also like a competition show that focuses on blue-collar workers. And pretty much anything related to archery/firearms, home improvement, maker, or outdoor challenges is usually fair game. Are there any private trackers (or usenet/real debrid/etc) that specialize in this kind of thing or are at least are more likely to have that kind of content than public trackers? I'm mostly interested in pirate sites for new and existing tv shows but am open to hearing about new youtube channels and the like that match my description too.

4. If there is another option besides public or private trackers that seems relevant to my questions, please feel free to enlighten me...

If it matters, I usually prefer smaller file sizes with x264/x265 encodes. I generally prefer 480p or 720p releases since I sometimes watch from mobile and family doesn't really care about resolutions over 720p anyway (I generally avoid downloading anything over 1080p).

i'm wanting to get on usenet but remain compeltely anon (vpn, anon purchase, etc).

i know this ins't stricly a piracy question and is maybe more of a crypto question but figure there ain't nobody who knows privacy and anoniminitry like you guys do.

so if i want to some amounts of bitcoin/whatever anonymously, how tf do i get it? liek not large amount, just small shit like to buy subs for a few for usenet indexes and whatnot?i know the bitcoin atm's and banks do "know your customer" stuff (basically they id you first) and are not anon. have hear d that you can mine it anon but not sure if apps track hw specs and whatnot that could be used to id you. is there another ways that dont require you to have sepcial sms accounts or burner phones pr whaetver first? or maybe you guys can recommend me some foss mining apps which are safe that i could check out?

i'm on linux ifg it matters for good mining aps. i can write some bash scripts but im not a super hacker or anthing so ones that dont require a degree are appreciated.

edit: i don't specifically care about bitcoin. i just don't know jack about crypto and assumed that was what the usenet service providers would accept. if there's something else they'd take that is still anonymous, that's fine with me as long as you guys can help my dumb noob ass understand what to do.

I like watching things like educational tv or some competition shows if they are objective and have good sportsmanship... stuff that definitely does not appear in the top ten list, probably not the top 50 list. Assuming I should not mention show names here but will mention on DM if woul;d help.

I've found public torrent sites and dht searches can be hit or miss. For older episodes, if I can even find torrents at all, then there are no seeds. But some of the shows I like, it seems like the scene release groups just completely ignore them... despite covering past seasons. I've had this happen with 2 different shows (one while rarbg was still around, another just this last month). One I'm currently looking for, I found only EZTV covering and they completely skipped one of the episodes.

I've had bad experiences with private trackers in the distant past. But even if I was willing to try again, I saw one or too that want you to reveal your real (e.g. non-VPN) IP addres and am waay too fuckign paranoid to do that. Do you guys think I'd have better luck on usenet? If not, is there something else you guys would recommend? I am looking to have offline copies similar to what you get with torrents (streaming might be an option if there are ways to download that don't require me being smart enough to do video editing or having to manually record)

edit: just to clarify, I ahve read the megathread here and on the old pre-reddit migration r/piracy. have tried practically every public torrent tracker and dht search engine (btdig/solidtorrents/etc) i can think of as well as looking on most of the direct download sites i can access.