If you could bring back one Web site/service...

**anon** · 28.06.16, 04:43

...that has ceased to exist, what would it be?

My vote goes to Grooveshark. It was a free music streaming service that shut down last year. I have yet to find a comparable alternative (and with the legal atmosphere being what it is these days, I don't expect one to show up)... even though some important names weren't available due to licensing restrictions, the rest of the selection was excellent, and diving through it made me find many, many great songs and artists.

For a runner-up, I thought of Megaupload or Rapidshare, except that if you think about it, on all occasions people bitched a bit over the lost files, uploaders switched to the second-best hosts, and that's it. Everyone moved on, and most people would be hard-pressed to name more than a few of all the services that have disappeared over the last five years.

**Lucius** · 28.06.16, 12:10

moofdev and the old uTorrent.

But There is a lot of streaming services nowadays, what was so special about Grooveshark ?

**yoco** · 28.06.16, 22:50

Does old YouTube count?

**anon** · 29.06.16, 17:02

Originally Posted by Lucius

But There is a lot of streaming services nowadays, what was so special about Grooveshark ?

All of the songs were user-supplied, so you could find anything that wasn't explicly disallowed by licenses; the radio feature was awesome (and didn't send you from death metal to Beethoven as it sometimes happens); and in general, the free service wasn't crippleware. There is also the nostalgia factor, which amplifies everything tenfold and I am not immune to

GoEar is the closest alternative I have found, but its music database still lacks in comparison. I could get on uploading, though...

Originally Posted by yoco

Does old YouTube count?

Old designs don't count and neither do sites that have had "better days", otherwise the list would be endless!

**gagaolala** · 29.06.16, 21:52

Napster, but only because I found the mislabeled songs completely hilarious. No examples spring to mind immediately, but they were all absurd. "Sk8er Boi" was neither written nor performed by Céline Dion, but you can bet your ass that at least one file on Napster would say otherwise.

**anon** · 30.06.16, 20:53

I never got to use Napster

But I did use Kazaa. It's amazing how both of them were so successful during an era when most people were on dial-up and CD ripping was a fairly complex task.

**yoco** · 30.06.16, 22:44

lol, Kazaa

I remember! Downloaded so many viruses

Wasn't there an alternative similar to Kazza, only less popular!

**anon** · 01.07.16, 03:37

Originally Posted by yoco

Wasn't there an alternative similar to Kazza, only less popular!

Audiogalaxy, Morpheus, iMesh, WinMX. Of those, I have only used Morpheus (which had adware

) and WinMX when it had that revival movement on '08.

OpenFT and Filetopia are two networks that have been around for a while and still exist, yet one seems to know about.

**yoco** · 01.07.16, 10:58

Yea, Morpheus and iMesh

God I'm old!

**gagaolala** · 02.07.16, 00:36

Kazaa Lite, Grokster, Gnucleus, WinMX, iMesh, AudioGalaxy, BearShare, LimeWire, KCEasy, Blubster, Piolet, Soulseek...

You really had to want something to go through all that crap. Took a long damn while to find a legit copy of something without half a dozen different file extensions, too.

Some Boy Band - Lame Song #22.exe.doc.rtf.com.bat.vbs.mp3

How about "no?" Will that work for you? Great.

**anon** · 02.07.16, 19:37

Originally Posted by yoco

God I'm old!

You're as old as you feel

Originally Posted by gagaolala

Kazaa Lite, Grokster, Gnucleus, WinMX, iMesh, AudioGalaxy, BearShare, LimeWire, KCEasy, Blubster, Piolet, Soulseek...

Blubster/Piolet (they use the same network) is still around, but your computer must have a public IP for it to work. It doesn't connect at all if you're behind NAT, which I daresay half the world is these days.

I have used KCeasy and was thrilled to see the new 2008 release at the time. Having four networks on a single program (similar to Shareaza) was pretty cool, but in practice anything bigger than single tracks often stalled or got corrupted in transit... and automatically deleting corrupted files is the default... very nice when you have a slow connection and that movie you were waiting for suddenly disappears

I have never used Soulseek, but I heard it's pretty good.

You really had to want something to go through all that crap. Took a long damn while to find a legit copy of something without half a dozen different file extensions, too.

Some Boy Band - Lame Song #22.exe.doc.rtf.com.bat.vbs.mp3

How about "no?" Will that work for you? Great.

A clever one I once saw was sticking a hundred spaces before the ".exe", that way most people wouldn't see it.

**slikrapid** · 02.07.16, 21:00

and my vote goes to... none of them - there were many useful sites & programs but their disappearance happened for good reasons (unable to keep up with the era & new challenges) and eventually they got replaced by other alternatives that often introduced new, improved features (torrents as a good example) - in other words, what we have now would not be available without previous programs/sites/circumstances/events/people/attitudes,... including the rise and fall of many of them, including their supporters as well as enemies, etc. - so wishing them back (or longing for their return) is pointless on several levels, as well as wanting to change things from the past (past is there to learn from it, not to be changed)

Originally Posted by anon

both of them were so successful during an era when most people were on dial-up and CD ripping was a fairly complex task.

so they used floppies, zip drives, exchanged hard drives,... other people's connections, downloaded from schools/colleges/work, etc. ('where there's a will/interest, there's a way', so to speak)

Originally Posted by VA

Audiogalaxy, Morpheus, iMesh, WinMX.
Kazaa Lite, Grokster, Gnucleus, WinMX, iMesh, AudioGalaxy, BearShare, LimeWire, KCEasy, Blubster, Piolet, Soulseek.

audiogalaxy was good for single songs, related artists, 'what other users liked', descriptions of artists
winmx was good for albums, browsing user collections on their hard drives
soulseek was good for albums, browsing user collections on their hard drives, genre-oriented user groups, non-mainstream music
shareaza was good for searching several networks at once, rare e-donkey (e-mule) files

though many songs ended up with errors and glitches, then there were incomplete albums, various sources/bitrates, renamed files/tags and all kinds of other annoyances

Originally Posted by yoco

God I'm old!

good thing you're not a minute older than you ought to be

Originally Posted by gagaolala

You really had to want something to go through all that crap. Took a long damn while to find a legit copy of something without half a dozen different file extensions, too.

eh? all it took was to figure out useful networks and good sources therein (trustworthy file-sharers and content creators, like the scene)

**gagaolala** · 04.07.16, 00:49

Originally Posted by slikrapid

eh? all it took was to figure out useful networks and good sources therein (trustworthy file-sharers and content creators, like the scene)

When I started file sharing in 2002, trying to find anyone or anything trustworthy was almost more hassle than it was worth. In fact, I would liken Kazaa and most of the other programs popular at that time to a thrift shop in the worst part of town. You may never find what you're looking for and there's a good chance you'll catch something while you're there.