[tor-project] Joydeep's Monthly Status Report for November 2021

[Joydeep Sen Gupta]

Hello everyone!

This is my monthly status report for November, 2021.

The priorities for this month have been to launch and moderate the Tor
Forum (forum.torproject.net), publicize the forum on our traditional
user support channels [1], update Tor Browser manual with the release of
Tor Browser 11 [2] and continue our user support work. 

# Frontdesk

Frontdesk stats:

Timeline : 05 Nov 2021 - 05 Dec 2021
 
Tickets: 
new: 157 
open: 13 
resolved: 185     

Breakdown of number of RT tickets received with respect to operating
system: 

Windows (11,10,8,7) - 19 
macOS -  36 
GNU/Linux - 19
Android- 2

(Note: This includes tickets where the user mentioned the operating
system or it was evident from the issue they were running into and/or
enclosed screenshots.)

Breakdown of tickets (at least 3 RT tickets): 

1. 45 RT Tickets - Known Issues with Tor Browser 11 and 11.0.1 [3]

2. 25 RT Tickets - Tor Browser 11 is incompatible with older versions of
macOS. The version of Firefox ESR (91.3.0) on which Tor Browser 11 is
based requires [4] macOS 10.12 or above and we have received numerous
complains from the users stuck on the unsupported versions of macOS.

3. 9 RT Tickets - Private Bridge requests. 
 
4. 9 RT Tickets - Tor Browser 11 crashes when using Protonmail (and some
other websites). We have Bug 40721 [5] to track this issue but as a
workaround we have been recommending users to either use
old.protonmail.com or Protonmail's onion service.

5. 3 RT Tickets - Reports of fake Tor apps on the App Store. All of the
entries we have received last month are already mentioned in the
Bad/Impersonating Tor Browser wiki entry [6].

# Tor Forum

Most popular topics that have been discussed in the past month (in terms
of views):
    
1. Tor blocked in Russia: how to circumvent censorship [7]. Since
December, some ISPs in Russia have started to block access to Tor. More
information about this on Bug #40050 [8]

2. Relays running an unsupported (EOL) Tor version [9]. Announcement
post that we are going to phase out Tor relays that are running old and
unsupported versions of Tor. 

3. (Tor Browser 11) UI Broke after updating [10]. One of the known
issues with Tor Browser 11 [11], this saw a lot of discussion both on
the forum and frontdesk.

4. Should I install a new add-on or extension in Tor Browser, like
AdBlock Plus or uBlock Origin? [12]. One of the traditional FAQs from
users of the Tor Browser. We also have a Support Portal entry [13]
regarding this (also see the answer to the forum thread). 

5. Only connection via Tor for the entire operating system [14].
Discussion around how one can force all of their OS traffic through Tor. 

If you have any suggestions, questions or want to discuss anything in
detail please feel free to get in touch.

Thanks,

-- Joydeep

[1]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/support/-/issues/40046
[2]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/web/manual/-/issues/112 
[3]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/new-release-tor-browser-11-0-1/656#known-issues-3
[4]: https://www.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/91.3.0/system-requirements/
[5]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40721
[6]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/wikis/Bad_TorBrowsers
[7]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/tor-blocked-in-russia-how-to-circumvent-censorship/982
[8]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/support/-/issues/40050
[9]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/relays-running-an-unsupported-eol-tor-version/63
[10]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/ui-broke-after-updating/535/19
[11]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/40702
[12]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/should-i-install-a-new-add-on-or-extension-in-tor-browser-like-adblock-plus-or-ublock-origin/718/11
[13]: https://support.torproject.org/tbb/tbb-14/ 
[14]: https://forum.torproject.net/t/only-connection-via-tor-for-the-entire-operating-system/295/15