[tor-relays] Using ContactInfo to publish additional relay properties in a standardized way (opt-in)

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Sun Oct 15 06:09:40 UTC 2017


>     ExtraInfo documents are also one possibility for communicating
> OutboundBindAddress values, as well.

While publising OBA's may be wanted by censoring firewall pedants,
it's not productive for relay operators who wish, as is
their right, to offer tor users the chance to use exit
IP's that are *not* listed in the consensus for easy
scraping by such pedants, such that users might have
more of a chance to participate freely reading materials
on the internet, communicating on forums etc,
where such pedants have otherwise blocked access.

Operators that OBA, NAT, VPN, or provide VPN
termination IP's on their nodes, have my support
as they offering additional censorship resistant
services of that kind, even if only marginal due
to exit testing, it's still benefit against lazy censors.

Other than that, many times suggested has
been ways for relays and primarily third parties
subscribable services to calculate, denote, and
promulgate for user consumption various "extra"
properties of relays, such as Web of Trust (WoT),
diversity, other metrics. If not in "Contact", a second,
community defined and wikified field could be adopted.
Or made purely third party lookup subscription or patch
if all such other is refused in tor directly.

Thanks Nusenu, and for all your various work.


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