[tor-project] New Tor Metrics graph: Tor Browser downloads and updates

[Karsten Loesing]

On 27/01/17 21:18, Arthur D. Edelstein wrote:
> Hi Karsten,

Hi Arthur,

> This is great work and very important for us -- thanks for doing it!

Glad to hear it's useful!

> I think a number I would be interested in knowing is the total
> (cumulative) number of downloads and update requests for each version
> (6.0.0, 6.0.1, etc.). Is that something we can extract from the data?

We don't keep version strings when aggregating statistics, but we do
keep channel information (stable, alpha, hardened).  Maybe have a look
at the .csv file and data format to decide whether that works for you, too:

https://metrics.torproject.org/stats/webstats.csv

https://metrics.torproject.org/stats.html#webstats

I'm worried that adding version strings to the .csv file, in particular
until patch level, would be too much.  Major and minor version might
work, but even that would grow the file a lot.

Another option would be that you run your own Metrics webstats module
that downloads from webstats.torproject.org and puts logs into a local
PostgreSQL database.  I'd be happy to walk you through the setup process.

All the best,
Karsten


> 
> Thanks,
> Arthur
> 
> On Fri, Jan 27, 2017 at 7:15 AM, Karsten Loesing <karsten at torproject.org> wrote:
>> Hi everyone,
>>
>> we just put a new graph on Tor Metrics called "Tor Browser downloads and
>> updates":
>>
>> https://metrics.torproject.org/webstats-tb.html
>>
>> This graph is the result of a joint effort of the metrics team (with a
>> lot of input on the underlying code from iwakeh) together with Sebastian
>> (who co-authored the original database schema and who operates the web
>> log sanitizer), gk and boklm (who analyze an earlier graph and provided
>> insights about Tor Browser internals), and others who discussed the
>> graph and earlier prototypes.
>>
>> Please take a look at this graph, play a bit with the two inputs (start
>> and end date), and give us feedback by raising questions about the data
>> or giving answers to previously raised questions.
>>
>> The goal would be to write a blog post about this graph together with an
>> early analysis.
>>
>> Currently open questions are:
>>
>>  - gk asks on the ticket
>> (https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/21236#comment:11): "The
>> results still confuse me (like: We have 100,000 new downloads each day
>> but that does not show up in the update pings which basically stay the
>> same? We still have more than 120,000 update requests every day, even
>> after almost 6 weeks after the last release?). But that is probably
>> another story. :)"
>>
>>  - hellais asked at yesterday's Vegas meeting: "how many times does a
>> normal tor browser do an update ping every day?" which was answered by
>> mikeperry and gk with "twice" "and on every start".  This is probably
>> something we should clarify in the graph description.
>>
>>  - yawning asks on the ticket
>> (https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/21236#comment:25):
>> "Does it matter that the Linux sandbox behavior is totally different
>> from everyone else, because it uses a different implementation to
>> download, update check, and update? I suspect the user base isn't that
>> big right now, but I'd hate to throw stats off..."
>>
>> Note that we're mostly hoping for feedback on the data, not on the
>> presentation.  We know that there's room for making the graph prettier
>> or for providing more inputs to customize it.  But we already spent way
>> more time on this graph than we had planned, so we'd save any feedback
>> on the presentation (except for typos or trivial tweaks) for later in
>> the year.
>>
>> Thanks!
>>
>> All the best,
>> Karsten
>>
>>
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