Hello Tor, hello world!
Below you'll find the highlights of Tor metrics team work done in October 2018 as well as a few expected highlights for the current month, November 2018.
On behalf of the Tor metrics team, Karsten
October 2018:
Added a new graph to Tor Metrics that compares total consensus weights across bandwidth authorities [1, 2].
[1] https://metrics.torproject.org/totalcw.html [2] https://bugs.torproject.org/25459
Extended the graphs on Tor Browser downloads by platform [3] and by locale [4] to also show Tor Browser update pings [5].
[3] https://metrics.torproject.org/webstats-tb-platform.html [4] https://metrics.torproject.org/webstats-tb-locale.html [5] https://bugs.torproject.org/27931
Worked towards extending metrics-web's ipv6servers module to cover existing statistics on relays by flags/versions/platforms [6]. The goal is to replace some really old code and to prepare creating new graphs on relays by consensus weight and bridges by versions/platforms.
[6] https://bugs.torproject.org/28116
Deployed changes to streamline percentile computation in various metrics-web modules to now use Apache Commons Math rather than custom implementations [7].
[7] https://bugs.torproject.org/26035
Released CollecTor 1.8.0 [8] with some minor fixes and improved logging to hopefully track down an issue where we were missing server descriptors.
[8] https://lists.torproject.org/pipermail/tor-dev/2018-October/013493.html
Improved monitoring of Onionoo uptime and freshness [9]
[9] https://bugs.torproject.org/28271
November 2018:
Start rewriting the CollecTor module that archives relay descriptors in Python using Stem as proof of concept. This is part of our Sponsor 13 work [10].
[10] https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/wiki/org/sponsors/Sponsor13
Review and deploy the extended ipv6servers metrics-web module to replace major portions of the old legacy module [11].
[11] https://bugs.torproject.org/28116
Find a Metrics Data Architect as third full-time member of the metrics team. The job description [12] will soon be distributed by the usual channels and also linked from the Tor Metrics website.
[12] https://www.torproject.org/about/jobs-metrics-data-architect.html