Re: [tor-relays] System Time

[Sebastian Urbach <sebastian@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Good Morning,

I really tried very hard to stay calm but at least someone has to say it. I 
think operating relays / bridges can be described as a cutting edge job or 
experience.

It seems that everybody wants to be an node operator these days but sadly 
enough there is absolutely no test or qualification that proves that one 
has at least something like minimum admin skills or other capabilities to 
do the job. Anybody who wants to drive a car needs a license though.

Honestly, its great that it is getting a little bit easier to operate a tor 
node but when there are discussions over a period of days on how to adjust 
a VPS clock or basic lectures about udp / tcp ports, 100 % cpu load and so 
on then there is only so much to say:

If you don't know what you are doing, then be honest to yourself and stop 
doing it !

Neither is this mailing list nor the tor project in general the right place 
to make first steps as an admin. This project needs serious people with 
serious skills in this serious time which are capable to operate reliable, 
stable and when possible of course fast systems. There is a reason why most 
operators are it professionals with years and years of experience in 
operating different systems all over the world.

And further, i strongly disagree with the text Robert wrote today that the 
project should provide more material for newbies because there is already 
more than enough material. And if you feel that this is insufficient then 
thats just proving my point that you and others are way out of your depth 
and i seriously doubt that flooding the relay list with "linux for dummies" 
questions is helping the project with its limited personal and technical 
resources in any way.

I would like to propose a new list which may or may not be called 
"tor-relays-new" or so. New operators should start there for a certain 
period of time and if everything seems to be in order they may be 
transferred to tor-relays. Of course this is just a very rough proposal, 
there may should be other criteria involved, like uptime, received flags 
etc. Im sure that there could be a reasonable list of achievements for new 
relay operators.

I expect a bit of resistance and a bit of a shitstorm right now. Please 
feel free to direct this straight to me and not to the list. I also would 
like a discussion regarding the facts of the matter to take place on this 
list very much.

Keep in mind that i'm just the messenger and probably just saying out loud 
what a lot of people are thinking ...
--
Mit freundlichen Grüssen / Sincerely yours

Sebastian Urbach

------------------------------------
In time of war, the first casualty is
always truth.
------------------------------------
Hiram Warren Johnson (1866-1945)
US Senator, California



Moritz and Jeroen,
Thank you both.

I tried both your ideas but the system is set to prevent the time being 
changed as you thought.
Another plea to the VPS controllers and it was corrected. So the lesson 
there is presume it is the VPS set-up first and foremost.

You both should know that the concise and clear advice like yours is what 
this list needs rather than mysterious jargon and code.
Anyone finding the instructions you gave would also see the complete 
explanation with them.

I don't know how but it would be good to facilitate the search for or 
extract such advice for keen newboys. The subject line isn't always the 
best label as I demonstrated.


Robert


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