Back in 2019 some releases installed directly from IGG-GAMES contained crypto miners. They also added their own DRM to releases. Since then I have stayed away and never looked back.

Best of luck with your endless tech support anytime something doesn’t work.

hallowed is the internal release group at MTV. Their aim is to produce highly streamable (think Plex/Jellyfin) but still high quality encodes. They also always include English subs and dual audio for foreign films. The quality of their releases are good but very few as they only started releasing under that name about 5 months ago.

However, if you are gunning for highest possible quality/bitrate (and file size) you can get, go with releases by CtrlHD, MainFrame or W4NK3R.

Windows - JDownloader

Android - Unchained

Tixati isn’t whitelisted on pretty much any private tracker because of how easy it makes spoofing other clients.

You have to add the FUTO repo https://app.futo.org/fdroid/repo/

FraMeSTor is the internal group at BHD. EPSiLON was previously releasing on PHD but left a couple years ago. They release to TL but are not nearly as active as they once were.

I prioritize FraMeSTor, and they have more releases post-2020.

Cloudflare’s CAPTCHA is Turnstile. I’ve found it very useful. It doesn’t use pick the image or type the text, it’s just tick the box. You can even set it to invisible, then the user doesn’t need to even do that, the challenge is sent to the browser and is completed automatically.

https://developers.cloudflare.com/turnstile/

In terms of privacy, it’s is still Cloudflare, but at least it’s not intrusive to the user experience.

Cloudflare’s Turnstile has an invisible mode that you’re probably using in a lot of places and aren’t aware of it. It provides an invisible challenge to the browser and requires no interaction. I would say no input require in quite user-friendly.

Yes, both SL and addy.io have the feature to enable/disable individual addresses.

They both will automatically create an address on-the-fly. Give a service whatever@domain.tld and it will automatically be generated and sent to your mailbox of choice.

First purchase a domain. Cloudflare is definitely the cheapest but there are other options out there if you don’t want to use Cloudflare.

Use an alias service like SimpleLogin or addy.io. addy.io has a cheaper ‘lite’ (limited) plan, SL has a cheaper ‘premium’ (unlimited) plan.

My Prowler stats over the last 90 days are ~1600 usenet grabs vs ~40 torrents. Definitely worth it not have to seed and constant gigabit speed.

You can but you don’t need to. All they really do is organise everything. Any requests go through Prowlarr/Jackett which do the API calls then push that to qBit. One could argue you should put Prowlarr behind a VPN as well but it depends on the trackers you have in there.

Microsoft Defender is good and free, but it is heavier on system resources than any reputable AV. Kasperskey is near the top for least impact on system performance.

I’ve used Joplin and Standard Notes. I do use Standard Notes premium and I much prefer it.

Gofile, Pixeldrain, Fileditch, Filen, Files.fm, Mediafire, Mega, MegaUp. I’m sure the list goes on.

You’re asking on Lemmy, so you’re going to get a lot of privacy related answers. For usability, Cloudflare tunnels are a super easy and free way to setup and don’t involve your family members having to VPN into your network with Tailscale or Wireguard. This is especially useful if they are streaming from a smart TV or media stick.

Is it the most privacy-friendly? No. You’re giving up a little bit of that for convenience and lower maintenance. IMO for my threat model, it’s worth it.

Fort Collins, CO also

I’m on Jellyseerr awaiting the day that Overseerr receives its decoupling update to allow Jellyfin servers.