Wow, this is finally the debut article!
As the website name implies, I review Usenet related (or maybe adjacent?) services from an UNBIASED point of view. Look, usenet review websites (or ones that claim they are) are a dime a dozen really, but none of them really review services, at least to a degree that would be useful for the end user.
I noodled over just WHAT my first article to the site was going to be for quite some time. Then it hit me, the first article should be a review of the so called reviewers! Keep in mind, I am only discussing 2 of these sites for now, I am sure the others will come into my cross hairs at some point in the future but until then…..
If you’ve spent any time trying to find an honest comparison of Usenet providers, you’ve probably landed on sites like top10usenet.com or bestusenetreviews.com. They certainly look the part, clean layouts, numbered rankings, star ratings, some spec tables. They read like someone actually sat down and tested these services.
Would you believe it if I told you they didn’t?
Or more precisely, even if some testing happened, the rankings you see have almost nothing to do with that testing. They exist to move you through to a signup link and ultimately purchase. That’s the whole game.
The Affiliate Playbook
Here’s how these operations work, and it’s not complicated once you understand the incentives.
Certain usenet providers pay handsomely for referrals. Services like Newshosting, Eweka, Easynews, and UsenetServer (and most others owned under this corporate umbrella) are channeled through to an affiliate system owned by the very same owner of the services, UsenetJunction. Click the right link, sign up, and whoever owns that link collects a commission, sometimes a flat fee per signup, sometimes a percentage of the sale, sometimes recurring commissions. It’s perfectly legal, and in principle it’s a reasonable way for a legitimate review site to cover its costs.
The problem is, what happens when commission rates become the primary or only factor determining which provider sits at #1.
Sites like top10usenet.com and bestusenetreviews.com don’t lead with an affiliate disclosure. They lead with a big, confident “Best Usenet Provider” headline and a shiny badge. Scroll to the bottom, squint at the fine print, and maybe you’ll find a vague statement about earning compensation from recommendations. Or in some cases you won’t find it at all. Either way, what you won’t find is a clear, upfront explanation that the rankings you’re reading may directly reflect who’s paying the site owner the highest commission that month.
A Few Things Worth Noticing
Look closely at these sites and some patterns emerge.
The same three or four names always win. Go to top10usenet.com or bestusenetreviews.com and notice which providers consistently occupy the top spots. Newshosting. Eweka. Easynews. UsenetServer. Funny enough, these providers are the cornerstone of the major Usenet affiliate network, Usenet Junction (owned by the same company), which openly markets itself as a way to earn commission by directing traffic to exactly those services. Coincidence?
The “urgency” language is relentless. Phrases like “Hurry! Limited Time Offer!” appear on top10usenet.com not once, but repeatedly and not in a sidebar, but woven into the actual review content. That’s not editorial voice. That’s sales copy. Legitimate reviewers don’t write like that because they’re trying to inform you, not convert you.
There are no bad reviews. Spend an hour reading through these sites and try to find a provider that gets genuinely criticized not with a softly worded “this might not be for everyone” hedge, but actual criticism that might cost them a signup. You’ll be looking for a while. When every provider on a “top 10” list is described in glowing terms, that’s not because the Usenet industry is uniformly excellent. It’s because providers who don’t pay affiliate commissions, or who pay lower ones, simply don’t make the list.
The methodology is circular. bestusenetreviews.com claims its team tests providers on metrics like “completion rates” and “network performance,” with testers “around the world.” But there’s no actual data. No test dates. No documented methodology. No information about who these testers are or how their findings translate into the final rankings. The criteria exist to give the rankings an air of legitimacy, not to actually drive them.
The “exclusive deals” tell the story. Both sites heavily feature discounts that are presented as special offers negotiated for their readers. In practice, these “exclusive” links are standard affiliate tracking URLs. The discount may be real but it’s the same one any affiliate can offer. The reason these sites push them so hard is simple: a signed-up user means a paid commission.
Who ARE These Sites
Top10usenet.com – Google tells us that Top10usenet is run by Ken (Kenny) Hyder. You can search his name and see that he is a successful marketer doing all of the stuff that most web users hate (but can not get away from), particularly when it comes to ads and pushing nonsense to you, just so he can get a kick back to his own pockets. It seems his usenet roots run deep, at least with the corporate owner of the above usenet retail brands, and his allegiance to the above usenet services pay him quite well as he has been doing this for years. Over a year ago he also branched off to the subreddit r/usenetguides where he continues to try and influence and funnel traffic to the above brands.
Bestusenetreviews.com – Owned by Immutable Marketing LLC but their website is offline. However, the internet archive shows us that they only exist to be an signup generating service to line their own pockets. They appear to have been a big influencer for various brands over the years without a care as to what is factual or not.
Why This Matters
You might be thinking so what? Newshosting and Eweka may genuinely be good services. If someone gets steered toward a quality provider and saves some money on a discount deal, what’s the harm?
This is a fair point, but it misses the bigger problem.
When rankings are driven by commission rates rather than real-world performance, you don’t just get biased #1 picks. You get an entire information ecosystem that fails you. Smaller providers with excellent service and no affiliate program get ignored entirely. Providers with strong privacy policies but less generous commissions get buried. Providers that have had reliability issues but pay well get soft-pedaled or omitted from critical coverage entirely. And if you’re someone trying to make a genuinely informed decision about pricing transparency, about data retention, about customer support, about how a provider handles DMCA requests these sites are worse than useless, because they give you false confidence while steering you away from information that actually matters.
The Usenet space has some legitimate reviewers out there….I think. Well, maybe not. Ive seen some come and go over the years but they all seem to get enticed by the generous payments by the above services.
Sites like top10usenet.com and bestusenetreviews.com operate at the opposite end of that spectrum. They’re built from the ground up to convert traffic into commissions, and the “reviews” are the vehicle for doing that. The language, the structure, the urgency cues, the convenient lack of anything negative it all serves one purpose.
What You Can Do
From the start, we can safely write off top10usenet.com and bestusenetreviews.com as a legitimate source of information.
For any others that you may come across, ask yourself a few questions.
Does the site tell you upfront in the actual article, not a footer disclaimer that it earns money when you click through? Does it ever recommend a provider without an affiliate deal? Does it include any actual criticism of providers in its top rankings? Are there test results with real data, not just marketing language recycled from the provider’s own website?
If the answers are no, no, no, and no; you’re not reading a review site. You’re reading a sales page that’s been dressed up to look like one.
The Usenet space isn’t particularly complicated, but it does require a bit of homework. Do that homework somewhere other than sites that get paid the moment you stop asking questions.
