NZBGeek Review

Just when it seemed like NZB sites were dropping off at a startling rate, new sites have come up, offering some great features. NZBGeek hasn’t been available to the public for long, but it has been around enough on a more limited basis to have had a good shakedown cruise and to be ready for the general public.

The Site

NZBGeek is separated into a bulletin board and an USENET indexer. The bulletin board software is based on MyBB and the USENET indexer is based on NewsNab. NZBGeek has been around for approximately 3 months, but only for a small group of people, according to the developers. It went online for the general public only in the last couple of weeks. The site already has well over 500,000 NZB files indexed, but it expanding by the hour as they backfill their indexes. They plan on backfilling to January 1, 2011 and the developers say that they are at around 50% completion at the time of writing.

Speed

Speed if of the essence with NZB sites. The index at NZBGeek updates every 10 minutes, so it’s not an issue. The site wants to be more than another fast NZB indexer, however.

NZBGeek wants to grow over the next year or so to the point where they have a good membership base that centers on community as much as USENET. The site will, if the developer’s get their way, serve as a “place for likeminded Geeks” to gather and talk about technology. While USENET will obviously be the focus of much discussion, they also want to make a place where people talk about gadgets, technology and other related topics. According to the developers, they’re not so much concerned about being the biggest NZB site out there as they are about being “awesome”.

Among the offerings they plan on extending to members are monthly prizes. The drawings will be available for those who sign up at the Very Important Geek (VIG) level of membership.

Developers and Members

There are currently approximately 133 members on the site. The NZBGeek staff consists of experienced IT experts. The current hardware is a 4CPU, 2GB memory server with plenty of storage that feeds from a 100MB pipe. The NZBGeek developers plan on expanding this as needed to ensure quality of service. They aren’t located in the US.

Membership levels include free or paid. Free membership allows you to download 2 NZBs per 24 hours and doesn’t give you access to the API. You can access the forums. The paid membership costs $1 per month and offers a host of benefits. You can access the API, download unlimited NZBs and invite up to 5 friends to join. You also get access to VIP forums threads, monthly prize drawings and are generally treated like a VIP whenever NZBGeek finds a way to extend that privilege.

Registration is currently open and there is no advertising on the site: “I have always hated that stuff,” said the lead developer. The developer recommends that USENET users find an NZB that fits your budget and that uses SSL. He also recommends that you find one that makes you feel like you’re part of a community, which NZBGeek is trying to foster.

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