Soulseek alternatives?

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Saddest day of my life: Soulseek's global search functionality has sunk to a point that's rendered the network basically unusable for me. Two weeks ago, I'd have had 80+ search results for Soulwax's "E Talking," now I get five. I don't wanna cheese up on people here, but this is pretty crushing. I hate to ask, but it may be time: If I can't find a fix for this problem, what's the best alternative? Is there *anything* else out there that even comes close to having Soulseek's selection?

― Ryan Pitchfork, Monday, 3 January 2005 05:11 (twenty years ago)

I've been having similar problems with WinMX. (In fact, half the time, it won't even log in.)
(WinMX started becoming cantankerous a few days after I auto-updated to XP SP2. Has anyone else had any problems with WinMX or Soulseek after updating to XP SP2, or is this unique?)

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 3 January 2005 05:17 (twenty years ago)

I've stubbornly refused updating to XP SP2 due to all the problems people have been having with it.

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Monday, 3 January 2005 05:32 (twenty years ago)

I haven't noticed much of a difference, but then most of my searches have been pretty easy lately. To those having problems: do you know if having privilege (from donating) changes the search performance?

― sleep (sleep), Monday, 3 January 2005 05:54 (twenty years ago)

also, i'm still running 152

― sleep (sleep), Monday, 3 January 2005 05:58 (twenty years ago)

Privileges do provide better search results, but despite my privs (I have 200+ days left) I'm still having problems. I'm having the same problem with both 152 and 155, so either it's in my system settings (which haven't changed), or they've intentionally weakened the search function and it's just affecting me worse than others.

― Ryan Pitchfork, Monday, 3 January 2005 06:19 (twenty years ago)

http://forums.slsknet.org/BB2/viewtopic.php?t=16&start=45

Most of the thread is worthless except to illustrate that the problem is widespread, but "arsenic" is an admin/developer so check out his post.

The bottom line, so to speak: Basically the Global Search is not going to get any better soon, it will even eventually go worse as more users get on board. Hopefully in 155 you now have new tools for much more efficient searches than in the past: Userlist and Room search.

So yeah, alternatives anyone? :(

― sleep (sleep), Monday, 3 January 2005 06:30 (twenty years ago)

Exactly. I've tried userlist and room search, but because so many of my searches are for weird, obscure sub-sub-indie releases and/or Euro house music and/or Wire-type stuff that maybe 5-10 users on the whole network even have, global search is really the only effective method for me. I mean, I can't find Robert Pollard's "Waved Out," let alone this Jan Dukes de Gray reissue that David Tibet and Other Music are recommending...

― Ryan Pitchfork, Monday, 3 January 2005 07:13 (twenty years ago)

uh, don't you think the holidays might have something to do with your recent search problems? just a thought...

― heywood jablomi (heywood), Monday, 3 January 2005 07:51 (twenty years ago)

That's a very good point. It's working fine for me (155), with slightly fewer search results which started basically on 12/23.

― Spencer Chow (spencermfi), Monday, 3 January 2005 08:16 (twenty years ago)

I've considered it and am still hoping that's the case, but judging from the number of users in some of the rooms, it seems no less populous than usual. The indie and hip-hop rooms, for instance, have around 500-600 users, which seems pretty typical, and most of the people on my userlist are present as well. It's hard to say whether that's at all indicative of the overall user base, but given that, the massive dropoff in search results does seem pretty extreme-- especially since most users would seem to have returned from vacation by now.

― Ryan Pitchfork, Monday, 3 January 2005 09:07 (twenty years ago)

Tried to get new Chemical Brothers album yesterday with no luck, got very few results after searching by band name, album title, individual track title, you name it. Tried again just now and it's a different story - lots of results. Soulseek is like this alot, sometimes you get nowt, other times there's not enough hours in the day to download stuff you want.

― Neil FC (Neil FC), Monday, 3 January 2005 15:32 (twenty years ago)

A record store?

― 57 7th (calstars), Monday, 3 January 2005 15:51 (twenty years ago)

I've stubbornly refused updating to XP SP2 due to all the problems people have been having with it.

good call.

― Turkey versus Eagle, McCauley is my Beagle (Jody Beth Rosen), Monday, 3 January 2005 15:52 (twenty years ago)

Use Emule. I prefer it to Soulseek because there is less buggering around. Selection may not be as deep as Soulseek, but it good for most things.

― Good Dog, Monday, 3 January 2005 15:56 (twenty years ago)

Hey RP, I've noticed this as well. Glad you brought this up, because I didn't think much of it. I just thought it was a freak glich or something.

And just to make sure:

Global Search Functionality is the regular search function, right?

― pheNAM (pheNAM), Monday, 3 January 2005 17:16 (twenty years ago)

ha, i've been looking for the rex the dog mix of 'e-talking' for ages too now. slsk's search capacity does seem somewhat dimished, but still very usable. (winmx, which i find good for rap and dancehall, on the other hand, is working pretty great for me)

― m. (mitchlnw), Monday, 3 January 2005 17:37 (twenty years ago)

when was the last time you gave them money? i found an extra donation or two always helped my searching for some reason :)

― david day (winslow), Monday, 3 January 2005 17:39 (twenty years ago)

As of this morning, my searches seem to be back to normal. This coincides with high schools going back from Christmas break. I don't consider these two things to be separate.

― Xii (Xii), Monday, 3 January 2005 18:34 (twenty years ago)

I am guilty of turning off slsk for winter break. I'm sure that most college students are did the same. I imagine that college students with fast internet connections make up a huge number of fast slsk users...

My searching seems great.

― Matt Boch (Matt Boch), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:03 (twenty years ago)

searching has been weird and inconsistent; looking for "transmaniacon" brought nothing all day yesterday, but searching for "rtx" brought the album up fine. the other weird problem I've started having: queing issues, where my privilages get me places 1,2,3,4 and so on when I try to download, but randomly six or seven of the files I'm trying to get get slotted way back with all the other non-privilaged users, so I can only get half an album speedily and have to wait for the rest.

― kyle (akmonday), Monday, 3 January 2005 19:11 (twenty years ago)

Okay, considering that Napster is a no-go, KaZaa is the will of Satan, Rhapsody and iTunes costs money, and WinMX and SoulSeek aren't working properly...
...can anyone suggest a decent Napsterclone that can:

is connected to a sizable network

contains no spyware

Allows downloads of high-bitrate .mp3s or .oggs

Download from multiple users simultaneously

plays nice with WinXP

― Lord Custos Epsilon (Lord Custos Epsilon), Monday, 3 January 2005 23:45 (twenty years ago)

Make some hip friends and start a private ftp server!

― Sam Hunt (robosam), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 01:53 (twenty years ago)

we need an audiogalaxy doppleganger. same concept, different set of lawyers.

― deanster, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 02:07 (twenty years ago)

If you are getting no (or few) results on a search query add it to your wishlist and within a couple of hours you should have more results.

― Chewshabad00, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 11:10 (twenty years ago)

or try to search in the different rooms. that might work

― Rizz (Rizz), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 11:14 (twenty years ago)

Ares Galaxy is worth looking into - sometimes get very good results - I got all of 'Germfree Adolescents', 'Cut' and 'The Raincoats' - but it's been pretty patchy of late. It comes with spyware but you don't need to install it.

― Charles Dexter (Holey), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 14:20 (twenty years ago)

or try to search in the different rooms. that might work

what is this, a filesharing network or an infocom adventure?

― grimly fiendish (grimlord), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 14:32 (twenty years ago)

Results haven't been that bad lately, although ironically I am having more trouble browsing people's files.

Also, TS: E-mule vs E-donkey

― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 19:58 (twenty years ago)

GET REX THE DOG REMIX OF E-TALKING
DISEMBARK

― Alba (Alba), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 20:01 (twenty years ago)

Shareaza is an excellent napster clone, open source...no spyware connects to the very good G2 network, does Bittorrents...

www.shareaza.com

― Maimonides (Maimonides), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 20:47 (twenty years ago)

although ironically I am having more trouble browsing people's files.

This has been my biggest problem with slsk lately, though searching has sometimes been a problem as well.

― Leon the Fratboy (Ex Leon), Tuesday, 4 January 2005 20:52 (twenty years ago)

supposedly help is on the way searchfucntionwise maybe??? i am having more trouble browsing files which is a pain, though truth be told i haven't been looking for that much lately.

― blount, Tuesday, 4 January 2005 20:54 (twenty years ago)

three weeks pass...

or try to search in the different rooms. that might work ***
what is this, a filesharing network or an infocom adventure?

HAHAHAHAHA!!!

YOU ARE IN A ROOM. YOU SEE A FILE.

> SEARCH FILE

YOU CANNOT DO THAT RIGHT NOW

> HIT FILE

FILE SAYS "OW"

> FUCK FILE

HEY! KEEP IT CLEAN.

> SEARCH FILE

TRY AGAIN LATER

> GO SOUTH

YOU ARE STANDING IN A ROOM. YOU FEEL A NICE BREEZE. YOU SEE A FILE.

― Ian Christe (Ian Christe), Wednesday, 26 January 2005 15:52 (twenty years ago)

one month passes...

Message from slsk admin this morning:

Work in progress...

Soulseek 156 will be released this month with an improved Distributed Network system.

On the server side, we are working on adding new hardware to the system

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Sunday, 6 March 2005 17:05 (twenty years ago)

Cool!

― Mr. Snrub (Mr. Snrub), Sunday, 6 March 2005 17:13 (twenty years ago)

haha when did the soulseek forum start automatically replacing the word "search" with "Britney Spears"? that's brilliant

― W i l l (common_person), Sunday, 6 March 2005 19:04 (twenty years ago)

Have you tried DC++? If your share is large enough to get into a good hub, you can find great stuff. Much better selection, quality, and ease of use than anything else that I've tried recently. It's not as US & UK-centric as Soulseek, so you'll get a lot more songs and artists with insane umlaut-laden names, but overall a great service.

― Game Genie, Sunday, 6 March 2005 19:07 (twenty years ago)

I tried using the ILM DC++ hub, but could never browse anyone (or do any general searches for that matter)... I eventually deleted the software.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Sunday, 6 March 2005 19:22 (twenty years ago)

Yeah, using "Britney Spears" as a euphamism for global searches is probably the only funny thing to come out of that entire forum.

― Johnny Fever (johnny fever), Sunday, 6 March 2005 19:23 (twenty years ago)

I've noticed that the global search function has been slightly better in the past week or so.

― Matthew C Perpetua (inca), Sunday, 6 March 2005 19:31 (twenty years ago)

Here's a question... how tough would it be to start an ILM file-sharing FTP site? and would there be any interest?

― Aaron W (Aaron W), Sunday, 6 March 2005 19:34 (twenty years ago)

Did anyone hear the news that someone in Britain is being sued by the BPI and they are a slsk user?

― Allan Smythe, Sunday, 6 March 2005 20:10 (twenty years ago)

Here's the article:

The Independent:Music fans pay £50,000 for illegal filesharing /
By Louise Jury, Arts Correspondent / 05 March 2005

Twenty-three British internet users have agreed to pay record companies a total of £50,000 compensation after admitting distributing music illegally through filesharing on the internet.

In the first cases of their kind, 17 men and six women have paid more than £2,000 each on average to settle the claims which would otherwise have gone to court in a crackdown on the filesharing which is costing record companies millions in lost revenue.

Two of the illegal filesharers are paying more than £4,000 to settle their cases with the British Phonographic Industry (BPI), the record companies' trade association.

The filesharers illicitly made thousands of popular songs available online over what are known as file-swapping networks. The file-swapping services allow people to swap copyrighted music, and other files, between computers.

Another three cases are still in negotiation with legal action remaining a possibility.

The 26 were the first cases to be tackled after the BPI won a High Court order forcing internet service providers to hand over details of people alleged to have repeatedly given away tracks for free. Geoff Taylor, the BPI's general counsel, said yesterday: "We hope people will now begin to get the message that the best way to avoid the risk of legal action and paying substantial compensation is to stop illegal filesharing and to buy music online, safely and legally, instead."

The BPI decided not to name the users after each made an undertaking to the High Court not to repeat the offence.

And it returned to court yesterday to seek orders for the disclosure of the identities of a further 31 illegal filesharers on peer-to-peer networks including KaZaA, Grokster, Soulseek and Bearshare. The cases were chosen on the basis of which users were making themselves obvious by distributing large numbers of songs.

There is evidence that the record companies' crackdown is having an effect. There were an estimated nine million download sales in the UK last year. The BPI claims research shows that illegal activity on what was once the most popular filesharing network, Fast Track, has fallen considerably, with users in January 2005 down 45 per cent from its peak in April 2003.

― Tannenbaum Schmidt (Nik), Sunday, 6 March 2005 20:38 (twenty years ago)

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