[tor-bugs] #26002 [Metrics/Statistics]: Simplify graph with number of bytes spent on answering directory requests

[Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki]

#26002: Simplify graph with number of bytes spent on answering directory requests
--------------------------------+------------------------------
 Reporter:  karsten             |          Owner:  karsten
     Type:  enhancement         |         Status:  needs_review
 Priority:  Medium              |      Milestone:
Component:  Metrics/Statistics  |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal              |     Resolution:
 Keywords:                      |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                      |         Points:
 Reviewer:                      |        Sponsor:
--------------------------------+------------------------------
Changes (by karsten):

 * status:  accepted => needs_review


Comment:

 I'm changing my mind! After waiting for over 5 (!) days for the re-import
 of just the 2018 descriptors to succeed, I'm giving up on this plan. I
 don't know how far that import got when I aborted it, but even if it had
 succeeded 1 second after, the whole import would take many weeks if not
 months. It's not a good enough use of my time to babysit this import. Nor
 is it good timing to re-implement this code now. After all, this graph if
 by far not our most important one. Let's do something else to simplify
 this code and make it easier to specify.

 Suggestion !#2: We simplify this graph by a) updating the graph
 description to say that the graph only includes directory traffic from
 directory mirrors and b) taking out the extrapolation step.

 The difference to suggestion !#1 is that all data is already in the
 database. Here's a graph that compares the current approach with
 suggestion !#2:

 [[Image(dirbytes.3.png, 700px)]]

 This graph shows that the extrapolation step may have been useful in 2010
 and 2011. It also shows that it started producing weird results in late
 2016 when the extrapolated number got smaller than the reported number.
 I'm not even sure what happened there. Yet one more reason to get rid of
 it, in addition to the main goal of simplifying our statistics and making
 them easier to reproduce.

 Please review [https://gitweb.torproject.org/karsten/metrics-
 web.git/commit/?h=task-26002&id=a0cd20e13945ad7712f8cdb5f98e615fe41f81e6
 commit a0cd20e in my task-26002 branch].

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/26002#comment:8>
Tor Bug Tracker & Wiki <https://trac.torproject.org/>
The Tor Project: anonymity online