[metrics-bugs] #21014 [Metrics/Censorship analysis]: Turkey blocking of direct connections, 2016-12-12

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#21014: Turkey blocking of direct connections, 2016-12-12
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 Reporter:  mrphs                          |          Owner:  metrics-team
     Type:  task                           |         Status:  new
 Priority:  Medium                         |      Milestone:
Component:  Metrics/Censorship analysis    |        Version:
 Severity:  Normal                         |     Resolution:
 Keywords:  censorship block tr Turkey UX  |  Actual Points:
Parent ID:                                 |         Points:
 Reviewer:                                 |        Sponsor:
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Comment (by dcf):

 Replying to [comment:12 dgoulet]:
 > Extra data point. Since December 13th, our directory authorities have
 seen a significant increase in consensus direct download timeout. Below is
 a graph that shows you the stat over time for the "div-v3-direct-dl-
 timeout" statistics reported by dirauth I'm collecting:

 [[Image(tor_dirauth_dir_v3_direct_dl_timeout-
 pinpoint=1479226024-1482077224.png)]]

 dgoulet, good find! This indeed makes me think that the metrics graphs are
 overcounting users in this case where consensus downloads are being
 interrupted. That's why the direct-user graphs show ''more'' users when in
 reality there are probably fewer.

 #18203 is a proposal to base direct-user counts on directory
 ''responses'', rather than directory ''requests''. Doing that might solve
 this overcounting issue. (Apparently bridge counts are already based on
 responses.) In normal operation, it doesn't matter, because the number of
 requests should be very close to the number of responses—karsten showed
 this in [[comment:1:ticket:21014|a graph of responses vs. requests]],
 which is almost a perfect ''y''=''x'' line. Presumably, if we made the
 same graph again today, there would be a lot of points beneath the line
 (more requests than responses, because some responses fail).

--
Ticket URL: <https://trac.torproject.org/projects/tor/ticket/21014#comment:13>
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