[tor-commits] [metrics-web/master] Update contents on About page.

[karsten at torproject.org]

commit 8b92d9d4d18fcaf4f0c6d595bddea9880f8c4f19
Author: Karsten Loesing <karsten.loesing at gmx.net>
Date:   Wed Dec 14 19:52:10 2016 +0100

    Update contents on About page.
---
 website/web/WEB-INF/about.jsp | 268 +++---------------------------------------
 1 file changed, 15 insertions(+), 253 deletions(-)

diff --git a/website/web/WEB-INF/about.jsp b/website/web/WEB-INF/about.jsp
index c169969..f16a114 100644
--- a/website/web/WEB-INF/about.jsp
+++ b/website/web/WEB-INF/about.jsp
@@ -29,266 +29,28 @@ of data, rather than just dogma or perspective."
         <br>
         <!-- Navigation end -->
 
-<h3>Frequently used terms</h3>
-<br>
+<h1>About</h1>
 
-<a name="advertised-bandwidth"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#advertised-bandwidth">advertised bandwidth:</a></b> the
-volume of traffic, both incoming and outgoing, that a
-<a href="#relay">relay</a> is willing to sustain, as configured by the
-operator and claimed to be observed from recent data transfers.</p>
+<p>Tor metrics are updated daily to provide transparency for Tor users, give
+feedback for developers, and measure evidence of network anomalies.</p>
 
-<a name="bandwidth-history"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#bandwidth-history">bandwidth history:</a></b> the volume
-of incoming and/or outgoing traffic that a <a href="#relay">relay</a>
-claims to have handled on behalf of <a href="#client">clients</a>.</p>
+<h2>Philosophy</h2>
 
-<a name="bridge"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#bridge">bridge:</a></b> a <a href="#relay">relay</a> whose
-existence is non-public and which can therefore provide access for blocked
-<a href="#client">clients</a>, often in combination with
-<a href="#pluggable-transport">pluggable transports</a>, which registers
-itself with the <a href="#bridge-authority">bridge authority</a>.</p>
+<p>We only use public, non-sensitive data for metrics. Each metric goes through
+a rigorous review and discussion process before appearing here. We never publish
+statistics—or aggregate statistics—of sensitive data, such as
+unencrypted contents of traffic.</p>
 
-<a name="bridge-authority"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#bridge-authority">bridge authority:</a></b> a
-special-purpose <a href="#relay">relay</a> that maintains a list of
-bridges as input for external bridge distribution mechanisms (for example,
-<a href="https://bridges.torproject.org/">BridgeDB</a>).</p>
+<h2>Contributing</h2>
 
-<a name="circuit"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#circuit">circuit:</a></b> a path through the Tor network
-built by <a href="#client">clients</a> consisting of at most one
-<a href="#bridge">bridge</a> and at least one
-<a href="#relay">relay</a>.</p>
+<p>Collecting and processing new data won't likely happen without your help! If
+you really want to see something measured here, we would be happy to work with
+you.  (Link to Trac wiki page)</p>
 
-<a name="client"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#client">client:</a></b> a node in the Tor network,
-typically running on behalf of one user, that routes application
-connections over a series of <a href="#relay">relays</a>.</p>
+<h2>Contact</h2>
 
-<a name="consensus"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#consensus">consensus:</a></b> a single document compiled
-and voted on by the <a href="#directory-authority">directory
-authorities</a> once per hour, ensuring that all
-<a href="#client">clients</a> have the same information about the
-<a href="#relay">relays</a> that make up the Tor network.</p>
-
-<a name="consensus-weight"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#consensus-weight">consensus weight:</a></b> a value
-assigned to a <a href="#relay">relay</a> that is based on bandwidth
-observed by the relay and bandwidth measured by the
-<a href="#directory-authority">directory authorities</a>, included in the
-hourly published <a href="#consensus">consensus</a>, and used by
-<a href="#client">clients</a> to select relays for their
-<a href="#circuit">circuits</a>.</p>
-
-<a name="directory-authority"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#directory-authority">directory authority:</a></b> a
-special-purpose <a href="#relay">relay</a> that maintains a list of
-currently-running relays and periodically publishes a
-<a href="#consensus">consensus</a> together with the other directory
-authorities.</p>
-
-<a name="directory-mirror"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#directory-mirror">directory mirror:</a></b> a
-<a href="#relay">relay</a> that provides a recent copy of directory
-information to clients, in order to reduce the load on
-<a href="#directory-authority">directory authorities</a>.</p>
-
-<a name="hidden-service"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#hidden-service">hidden service:</a></b> a location-hidden
-service (for example, a website or instant-messaging server) that is only
-accessible via the Tor network.</p>
-
-<a name="pluggable-transport"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#pluggable-transport">pluggable transport:</a></b> an
-alternative transport protocol provided by <a href="#bridge">bridges</a>
-and used by <a href="#client">clients</a> to circumvent transport-level
-blockings (for example, by ISPs or governments).</p>
-
-<a name="relay"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#relay">relay:</a></b> a publicly-listed node in the Tor
-network that forwards traffic on behalf of <a href="#client">clients</a>,
-and that registers itself with the
-<a href="#directory-authority">directory authorities</a>.</p>
-
-<a name="relay-flag"></a>
-<p><b><a href="#relay-flag">relay flag:</a></b> a special
-(dis-)qualification of <a href="#relay">relays</a> for circuit positions
-(for example, "Guard", "Exit", "BadExit"), circuit properties (for
-example, "Fast", "Stable"), or roles (for example, "Authority", "HSDir"),
-as assigned by the <a href="#directory-authority">directory
-authorities</a> and further defined in the
-<a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/dir-spec.txt">directory
-protocol specification</a>.</p>
-
-<h3>Frequently asked questions</h3>
-<br>
-
-<div style="line-height: 18pt;">
-<p>
-<b>Q: How do you obtain all these facts in an anonymity network without
-hurting user privacy?</b><br>
-A: The metrics on this website are based on different data sources in the
-Tor network.
-Some of these data sources are not sensitive at all, like properties and
-capabilities of a relay.
-Others are more sensitive, like statistics on fetched directory listings
-by country.
-But others are simply too sensitive to gather at all, like contents of
-unencrypted connections leaving the Tor network, so we don't have metrics
-on those.<br>
-We wrote a
-<a href="http://freehaven.net/anonbib/#wecsr10measuring-tor">research
-paper</a> where we describe how we measure potentially sensitive data in
-the Tor network.
-Whenever we plan to add new data, this plan needs to go through a rigorous
-process of writing a
-<a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torspec.git/tree/proposals/001-process.txt">proposal
-document</a>, which is usually discussed on the
-<a href="https://lists.torproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/tor-dev">public
-development list</a>, and publicly reviewing code patches on the
-<a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor">bug tracker</a>.
-Furthermore, as a core principle, we only use data for metrics that have
-been made publicly available:
-if the raw data are too sensitive to publish, then we shouldn't even
-publish aggregate statistics of it.
-See the <a href="https://collector.torproject.org/">CollecTor service</a>
-that we use as single data source for all graphs and tables on this
-website.
-</p>
-<p>
-<b>Q: How do you know <a href="network.html">how many servers there are in
-the network</a>, how many of them permit exiting, etc.?<br></b>
-A: The servers in the Tor network, called relays and bridges, send a
-document with properties and capabilities to a set of central directory
-servers.
-These directory servers perform some reachability tests and publish a list
-of running servers.
-All we have to do is throw these documents into a database and run
-aggregation functions on it.
-</p>
-<p>
-<b>Q: How do you know <a href="bandwidth.html">how much bandwidth is
-advertised and consumed</a> in the network?</b>
-<br>
-A: Relays and bridges report bandwidth numbers to the central directory
-servers, both how much bandwidth they advertise and how much is used up by
-clients.
-</p>
-<p>
-<b>Q: How do you measure <a href="bubbles.html">diversity of relays</a> in
-the network?</b>
-<br>
-A: We resolve relay IP addresses to country codes and autonomous system
-numbers using <a href="https://www.maxmind.com/en/opensource">MaxMind's
-open source databases</a>.
-That gives us a rough idea whether there are certain countries or Internet
-providers running larger parts of the Tor network than others.
-</p>
-<p>
-<b>Q: How do you know <a href="users.html">how many users</a> there are in
-the network?</b>
-<br>
-A: We don't actually count users but directory traffic induced by Tor
-clients.
-Clients periodically need to update their view on the network, and by
-counting those requests we can make some rough estimates how many users
-there are.
-If you want to learn more, there's a more detailed document available
-dubbed
-<a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-web.git/tree/doc/users-q-and-a.txt">Questions
-and answers about user statistics</a>.
-We also wrote a technical report titled
-<a href="https://research.torproject.org/techreports/counting-daily-bridge-users-2012-10-24.pdf">Counting
-daily bridge users</a> which is very related.
-</p>
-<p>
-<b>Q: How do you <a href="performance.html">measure performance</a> in the
-network?</b>
-<br>
-A: We run our own measurements using a tool called
-<a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/torperf.git">Torperf</a>.
-This tool fetches files of three different sizes over the Tor network and
-measures how long that takes.
-</p>
-<p>
-<b>Q: How often are graphs updated?</b>
-<br>
-A: The graphs and tables on this website are updated multiple times per
-day.
-However, some graphs have the last few days cut off, because we don't have
-enough data available yet.
-It simply takes time to report, collect, and process all the data.
-</p>
-<p>
-<b>Q: Are the raw numbers behind graphs available for download?</b>
-<br>
-A: Yes, all raw numbers are available in <a href="stats/">comma-separated
-value files (.csv)</a>, which are further explained on the "Data:" pages,
-e.g., <a href="https://metrics.torproject.org/servers-data.html">"Data:
-Number of relays and bridges"</a>.
-In addition to that, the raw data behind those .csv files are available
-via the <a href="https://collector.torproject.org/">CollecTor service</a>.
-If you do something cool with either the .csv files or the raw data,
-please drop us a note, so that we may add a link here.
-</p>
-<p>
-<b>Q: How can I request a new graph or table?</b>
-<br>
-A: Please open a ticket in the
-<a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor">bug tracker</a> using
-component "Metrics Website".
-But please understand that adding a new graph or table may be harder than
-it seems.
-The following categories of feature requests may help you assess how
-likely it is that we implement your suggestion and how long it may take.
-Of course, you can always influence both likelihood and time to get your
-graph or table added by helping out!
-<ol>
-<li>Adding a link to a related project that does something cool with Tor
-network data is easiest.
-These links can be pretty useful, because somebody might pick up the idea
-and write a patch to include a fully customizable graph or table for this
-website.
-Adding a link is usually done within a day or two.</li>
-<li>Improving an existing graph or table is slightly more work.
-For example, you might suggest to add a new parameter or put another line
-on a graph.
-If the data for that is already available, this can be done within a
-couple of days, assuming somebody is free to do it.</li>
-<li>Adding a new graph or table based on existing, already processed data
-requires writing some graphing code in R and some HTML around it.
-This may take a few weeks.</li>
-<li>Adding a new graph or table based on raw data that needs processing
-takes quite some more work.
-This may require us to do some heavy database lifting, because we need to
-be sure that the processing code scales in the next few years.
-So, expect this to take a couple of months.</li>
-<li>Finally, adding a new metric based on newly gathered raw data, that
-is, new fields in descriptors or even new descriptors types, is most
-time-consuming.
-And to be honest, it is least likely to happen without your help.
-In addition to the significant development work, we may have to wait one
-or even two Tor release cycles to get the new code running on relays
-and/or bridges.
-Everything under one year is optimistic for this type of enhancement
-request.</li>
-</ol>
-</p>
-<p>
-<b>Q: Are there open feature requests or other issues related to this
-website, and where do I start writing code for it?</b>
-<br>
-A: The bug tracker has a list of
-<a href="https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/query?status=!closed&component=Metrics+Website&order=priority">open
-tickets in the Metrics Website component</a>.
-The sources are
-<a href="https://gitweb.torproject.org/metrics-web.git/">available via
-Git</a>.
-</p>
-</div>
+<p>If you have any questions, contact us at <a
+href="mailto:metrics-team at lists.torproject.org">metrics-team at lists.torproject.org</a>.</p>
 
     </div>
   </div>