[metrics-bugs] #23587 [Metrics/Website]: userstats-bridge-transport.html says that bridge users come from counting requests (not responses)

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#23587: userstats-bridge-transport.html says that bridge users come from counting
requests (not responses)
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 Reporter:  dcf              |          Owner:  metrics-team
     Type:  defect           |         Status:  needs_information
 Priority:  Medium           |      Milestone:
Component:  Metrics/Website  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal           |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  metrics-2017     |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                   |         Points:
 Reviewer:                   |        Sponsor:
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Changes (by karsten):

 * status:  new => needs_information


Comment:

 Technically, you're right that bridge users are derived from the
 descriptor line containing directory responses, not the line containing
 directory requests. Which is different from relay users which are derived
 from the descriptor line containing directory requests.

 However, the numbers are really the same, with minor differences being the
 result of binning. Both lines only contain requests that the directory
 could answer with a 200 OK status code. And even responses contain all
 responses that the directory decided to send back to the client, at the
 time of making that decision, regardless of how far it got with delivering
 the actual data.

 So, regarding the phrasing on the Tor Metrics website I guess we should
 aim for picking terms that are least confusing to users. On the one hand I
 could imagine that "request" does not fully express that only requests are
 included for which the directory had a response. But on the other hand
 "response" might imply that the client received the full response and was
 able to use it, which is however not the case.

 I'd say we stick with "requests" for both relay and bridge users to avoid
 confusions why the two metrics are based on different numbers. That's
 really a technical detail that very few Tor Metrics users will care about.
 We can still go into much more detail in the specification that we're
 going to write for our new [wiki:/org/sponsors/Sponsor13 sponsor 13],
 activity 2.1.

 What do you think? Does this make sense? Can we close this ticket as
 wontfix?

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Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/23587#comment:3>
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