[metrics-team] Bringing back Tor Weather - volunteering developer

[Iain Learmonth]

Hi Eran,

Sorry it's taken a while to reply to this thread. I have been busy on
another task.

First, I think that it's great that you'd like to volunteer to help
bring back Tor Weather. Unfortunately we cannot be sure how much time we
could commit to helping you with this, or whether we would be able to
run the service once it is finished.

As this would not at least at the start be considered an official
project, we would ask that you don't call the new service Tor Weather.

We have previously thought about what a new Tor Weather service would
look like when roadmapping. Some thoughts:

* It should use Onionoo as a data source. I know nusenu has raised
concerns about the delay, but I don't believe that 2 hours will make a
huge difference. This greatly reduces code complexity and increases the
chances of it being adopted as an official project.

* It should allow operators to subscribe by email to all relays, for a
relay's family or for a single relay.

* It should not, at least initially, attempt to parse contactinfo. At a
later time this feature could be added but initially it would be best if
we were not sending emails to relay operators that they are not
expecting. This is especially the case during early development where we
may inadvertently spam operators with garbage messages.

* The volume of email being sent should be quite low. We would probably
fit into the SendGrid free plan. This would further reduce code
complexity by offloading email functionality from the new service.

* E-mail addresses should be verified before we sent anything other than
a verification email. We should rate-limit verification emails.

* All events could be stored in a log and presented via an RSS feed that
you could subscribe to. This could be a feed for all relays, for a
relay's family or for a single relay.

* Personally I am comfortable with Python, Java and Go. If you pick one
of these languages I am far more likely to be able to assist you.

* nusenu has listed a lot of additional emails that might be sent, but I
think we should first have a minimum viable product before expanding
beyond that. The fact that more events might be added in the future
should be kept in mind though in the implementation, so that it's not
more work than is needed to have them later.

You are welcome to come along to our next meeting at 14:30 UTC on
Thursday 26th in #tor-meeting (irc.oftc.net) to discuss this project.
I'll also try to be more responsive replying to this thread.

Thanks,
Iain.

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