[tor-project] ebanam's monthly status report and user support report for November 2023

[ebanam]

Hello everyone!

During the hackweek, I worked on reviewing and updating documentation as
part of the project to clean up and improve entries on our Support
Portal[0]. For Tor Browser, I worked on user support post-release(s) and
handled a couple of bug reports of Tor Browser not working with Windows
7[1], issues with 'New Identity' in Tor Browser[2] and Tor circuit not shown
when the bridge line doesn't contain the fingerprint[3], respectively.

I worked with users in regions where Tor is censored, assisting with using
pluggable transports, investigating Tor logs and collecting some general
user feedback and handled some more tickets in light of our ongoing
year-end campaign; questions including but not limited to downloading
and installing Tor Browser, about letterboxing in Tor Browser,
contributing and volunteering and reports of websites blocking Tor
traffic.

Following is a thorough breakdown of tickets our user support team
handled in November:

# Frontdesk (email support channel)

* 630(↓) RT tickets created
* 710(↓) RT tickets resolved

Tickets by numbers:

1. 285(↑) RT tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese speaking users.
2. 189(↑) RT tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
3. 6(↓) RT tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
4. 5 RT tickets: reports of websites blocking Tor traffic.
5. 4 RT tickets: reports of apps on iOS App Store masquerading as Tor Browser.
6. 2 RT tickets: questions on how to download and install Tor Browser.
7. 2(↓) RT tickets: Tor Browser 13 does not work with Windows 7[1]
8. 2 RT tickets: Issue with 'New Identity' on Tor browser[2]
9. 2 RT tickets: The circuit display is not shown when the
bridge line doesn't contain the node fingerprint[3]

Highlighting some other topics we received a single RT ticket for:

10. Help setting up onion service
11. What does 'onionize' in the search bar on about:tor mean?
12. Question about volunteering and contributing
13. Question about letterboxing in Tor Browser[4]
14. Help with using bridges with little-t-tor.
15. Tor Browser crashes when extensions popups are opened with Wayland enabled[5]
16. Instructions to refresh Tor Browser signing key[6]
17. Can I access video conferencing platforms over Tor Browser?


# Telegram, WhatsApp and Signal Support channel

*  559(↓) tickets resolved

Breakdown:

* 532(↓) tickets on Telegram
* 19(↓) tickets on WhatsApp
* 8(↓) tickets on Signal

Tickets by numbers:

1. 327(↓) tickets: circumventing censorship in Russian speaking countries.
2. 47(↑) tickets: private bridge requests from Chinese speaking users.
3. 42(↑) tickets: circumventing censorship with Tor in Farsi.
4. 3(↑) tickets: "Proxy Server Refused Connection" bug not related to the bootstrapping or
using it as a default browser on Tor Browser Android[7]
5. 3 tickets: Queries about the correct Tor app to download for iOS (Onion Browser + Orbot)
6. 2 tickets: Queries about onionsites not available (these particular onion sites are offline)

Highlighting some other topics we received a single ticket for:

7. Help with setting up onion service.
8. Help with GetTor bot on Telegram.
9. Question about some images not visible on Tor Browser (because of HTML5 canvas fingerprinting
is blocked in Tor Browser)
10. Question about Letterboxing in Tor Browser
11. Help with setting up Tor Project's Debian package repository on Debian-based linux[8]


# Highlights from the Tor Forum

1. "(Tor Browser) V13.0.1 Locked Settings and Startup Homepage"[9]
2. Explain what "onionize" in the new Tor Browser homepage does[10]
3. Static Firefox theme and can it affect browser fingerprint?[11]

Thanks!
e.

Note: (↑), (↓) and (-) are indicating if the number of tickets we
received for these topics have been increasing, decreasing or have been
the same from the previous month respectively.

[0]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/community/hackweek/-/issues/17
[1]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42179
[2]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42244
[3]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42180
[4]: https://support.torproject.org/tbb/maximized-torbrowser-window/
[5]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/42306
[6]: https://support.torproject.org/tbb/how-to-verify-signature/
[7]: https://gitlab.torproject.org/tpo/applications/tor-browser/-/issues/41289
[8]: https://support.torproject.org/apt/tor-deb-repo/
[9]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/v13-0-1-locked-settings-and-startup-homepage/10138
[10]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/onionize-site-explanation/10352
[11]: https://forum.torproject.org/t/static-theme-browser-fingerprints-question/10252