[tor-bugs] #22261 [Metrics/Onionoo]: Remove the $ from family fingerprints

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#22261: Remove the $ from family fingerprints
-----------------------------+------------------------------
 Reporter:  teor             |          Owner:  irl
     Type:  defect           |         Status:  needs_review
 Priority:  Medium           |      Milestone:
Component:  Metrics/Onionoo  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal           |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  metrics-2017     |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                   |         Points:
 Reviewer:                   |        Sponsor:
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Changes (by karsten):

 * status:  new => needs_review


Comment:

 I think we can just decide whether we want to make this change or not,
 without going out and asking users. After all, Onionoo users are
 developers, not end users. If they'd prefer to keep the $ for their users,
 they could easily add it back to any hex string of 40 characters contained
 in the three family-related fields. But I somehow doubt that. In
 particular the part about other fingerprints and hashed fingerprint not
 starting with $ is pretty convincing. Let's remove the last remaining $
 from family fingerprints, too.

 I wrote a simple patch in
 [https://gitweb.torproject.org/user/karsten/onionoo.git/log/?h=task-22261
 my task-22261 branch] that needs review.

 Regarding documentation, I suggest we simply remove the "$-prefixed" part
 in the specification, e.g., "Array of ~~$-prefixed~~ fingerprints of
 relays that are in an effective, mutual family relationship with this
 relay. These relays are part of this relay's family and they consider this
 relay to be part of their family. Omitted if empty or if descriptor
 containing this information cannot be found. ''Removed $ from fingerprints
 on October XY, 2017.''"

 And just as a reminder: when we deploy it, we'll need to do a major
 protocol version bump. That means announcing the protocol change at least
 1 month before releasing the change.

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/22261#comment:7>
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