[tor-mirrors] Outdated mirrors hide / Link to the 'Mirrors' at title page

Thwarth Wrhalthssen wrhalthssen at ya.ru
Fri Jun 21 11:21:43 UTC 2013


> Mostly because people find the mirrors in search engine results, and
> when it links to our page, they find they're out of date. This is a
> hint to not use them.
People, who should probably use a mirror, will not access the 
TorProject.org with actual statuses of mirrors. Instead, they will 
access some random mirror, possibly outdated, with the outdated mirror 
list. So, the information about a status of any particular mirror which 
they will gather from it, will be unuseful. So, I think there is no 
actually need in keeping outdated mirrors in the list non-hidden.

> If torproject.org is blocked, finding the mirrors
> page isn't going to help you.

If TorProject.org is blocked, it will be a small chance to find an 
up-to-date mirror on the net. For now, if you find some mirror, you 
never know if it is updated or not. Apparently, there need to be a 
method to display the mirror status, maybe on the title page.

Some script on the title page can be implemented, that will gather 
information from all known updated mirrors about latest actual 
timestamp. It will run on user's computer and will try to access the 
other mirrors' timestamps and if it will discover, that the current 
mirror (on which script is executed) is definitely outdated, the warning 
and some links to up-to-date mirrors will appear. Maybe even automatic 
redirect. I think it can be implemented easily and will add a plenty of 
accessibility and popularity to the mirrors.

Suggestions from all the operators concerned are very welcome.

On 06/20/2013 01:54 AM, Andrew Lewman wrote:
> On Wed, 19 Jun 2013 11:27:47 +0400
> Thwarth Wrhalthssen<wrhalthssen at ya.ru>  wrote:
>
>> I think the mirrors page should be redesigned a little. What is the
>> purpose of displaying all outdated and non-accessible mirrors? The
>> owners of such mirrors are barely interested in maintaining them, so,
>> I think, the best option is just to remove or hide them from the
>> list. If owner of such mirror is interested in running it updated,
>> he'll notice, that his site isn't listed anymore, he'll update it and
>> his mirror will show up again in the list. Additionaly, it would be
>> great to add a Javascript code to the list to make it possible to
>> filter mirrors by country and services accessible (and a tiny country
>> flags, just for lucidity).
> Mostly because people find the mirrors in search engine results, and
> when it links to our page, they find they're out of date. This is a
> hint to not use them.
>
> Frankly, the whole mirroring system needs a rewrite and update.
>
>> The second issue is the access to the mirrors page. For now you need
>> to scroll down to the bottom page and find a tiny 'Mirrors' link in
>> the 'Get Involved' section. Isn't it difficult enough? The Tor
>> software is blocked in variety of countries and the mirrors are
>> essential part of maintaining Tor website accessible, so isn't it
>> right to make a link to the mirrors list somehow more accessible? I
>> mean, for example, put 'Mirrors' list in the top navigation section
>> ('Home', 'About Tor' etc). I believe lot of people failed to find
>> this list just because it's location on the site is non-obvious.
>> Maybe a crucial part of them are simply don't know the mirrors list
>> exist.
> Mostly because we know people find the mirrors via search engines, not
> linking to our site. If torproject.org is blocked, finding the mirrors
> page isn't going to help you.
>
> We're open to ideas here.
>


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