Re: Time Warner bad / VPS recommendations

[Mitar <mmitar@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi!

On Thu, Feb 5, 2009 at 11:19 PM, Ted Smith <teddks@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> TorProject has a paypal donations account that people (like those people
> who cannot run a node, but wish to contribute) can send donations to.
> Those donations, in turn, are requested by node operators who run
> high-bandwidth, permissive-exit-policy (I'd think no more restrictive
> than the default) nodes at cost to themselves. Additionally, TorProject
> could host a list of node operators that either don't qualify for the
> above request process or need more than it can offer to allow users to
> donate directly to node operators.

I do not see a reason why we would introduce middle-men. This could
also have a potential of changing a focus from building an open and
free network not operated by any entity to a focus on collecting
donations. Donations should just be a mean not a goal and adding an
organizational/administrative burden tends to induct the later.

> Another possibility (albeit much more extreme) is to allow a "donation
> link" metadata item for Tor nodes. This removes any dependency on the
> Tor Project handling funds.

This could be a good idea. Adding a possibility of putting a
"donation" buttons on a main Tor project page so that visitors could
decide to which node they would like to donate (and to scatter those
donations between nodes). (Maybe add some statistics and such.)

But I would like to see those donations only like some kind of an
award/bonus for running a node. I do not really see it as a reason for
running a node. Nor that they would suffice for covering the costs.
Nodes should not be dependent on donations.

> Even if the funds are somewhat diminutive, I think this would provide a
> bit of incentive to start running a node and to keep running a node in
> the face of censorship.

I doubt so. I do not see how this would influence your ISP which are
the most often the reason why people (have to) shut them down. And
also in most cases running a Tor node does not increase bandwidth
expenses as people are running them on their "free" (unused)
bandwidth.

I was not so much thinking about donations from "random" people. Those
are/would be nice. But I see there a possibility of people which would
like to run a node to get together and cooperate. So those people
directly, without middle-men, without dependency on "random"
donations. Like: I can donate 5 EUR/month for a Tor node. But this is
not enough. So who else would like to join? And if there would be 20
people who would agree on such commitment then we/they would be able
to rise a node together. But they would work together directly and
they would be those who would donate.

So maybe we could make a wiki page or something where people would
ensign for such a cooperation. And when there would be enough people
they could work out the details (where, which ISP, which hardware...)
and put a new node online.


Mitar