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disappearing nodes



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?

Roger and I can think of several possibile reasons why you (Tor node
operators) might allow your nodes to disappear from the system:

1. You lose interest in the Tor project.

2. You become disillusioned with the goals of the Tor project.

3. Tor crashes too often to be useful to you personally.

4. Managing an installation of Tor is too difficult to be worth your
effort.

5. Your ISP threatens to terminate your Internet access contract if you
do not stop running Tor.

6. Blacklisting by Tor-unfriendly Internet resource providers (such as
Wikipedia or Google Groups) is unpalatable to you.

7. Tor crashed while you were not looking, and you forgot about it or
otherwise failed to restart it.

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What are your thoughts?  Which of these possible explanations are most
relevant in your case?  Am I missing some other explanation, perhaps?

Geoff

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