Shit I started back on AOL when mass mailers and servers were popular. Private rooms "server", "server 2", etc. Of course you couldn't get in as easy without your room buster. hahaha. That was more than a decade ago.
After that came IRC, which I still use, just not for downloading.
Bottom line is nothing beats torrents. I find everything I want and max out my connection. You literally can not beat that.