disappearing nodes

[jeff]

Geoffrey Goodell wrote:
> I recently made the observation that despite the fact that new nodes
> join the Tor network at a reasonable rate, other nodes disappear from
> the Tor network as well, such that the total number of Tor nodes in the
> system remains relatively constant.
> 
> I have also noticed in particular that while the number of nodes in
> Germany seems to be increasing over time, the number of nodes in the
> United States seems to be decreasing over time.  While a few months ago
> there were roughly eighty US nodes, now there are fewer than sixty.
> 
> My question, particularly (but not exclusively) to American Tor node
> operators is: what factors have influenced your decision to remain a
> participant in the Tor network?  If you have shut down your node, then
> why have you done so?

I was pushing some huge bandwidth with tor, which was fine. But then 
another project needed /lots/ of bandwidth (like 25Mbit), so to stay 
under my monthly quota (which I think i'm going to blow past anyway), I 
turned off tor. When the other site's traffic goes down again, I'll 
re-enable it. :)

I have also gotten two complaints from people on the 'net about users 
that abused tor via my node. This wasn't why I shut it down (in neither 
case did the people request that I do either), but it has made me 
consider turning off being an exit node.

And...tor has crashed a couple times without me noticing for a day or 
two. I haven't written any script to automagickally restart it.

-Jeff