Enable DirReqStatistics and ExtraInfoStatistics in 0.2.2.x?
As part of legacy/trac#3338 (moved), we learned that about 20% of the relays by capacity are reporting directory request statistics.
When that fraction drops towards 10%, we get crazy spikes in our user statistics that ruin our graphs and make our users and funders confused.
Karsten suggested that getting the fraction of reporting capacity up to 33% or 50% would make the numbers more accurate and more stable.
Tor 0.2.3.x relays report the stats automatically. Tor 0.2.2.x relays only do it if you add two lines to your torrc:
DirReqStatistics 1
ExtraInfoStatistics 1
I was just looking over the torstatus pages and drafting mails to the fast relays that don't have dirreq lines in their extrainfo descriptors, when I realized that was a losing battle.
How about we just change the defaults in an upcoming 0.2.2.x stable release?
We've got plenty of cases of 0.2.2 relays running just fine with these config options. And if we don't change the defaults, I'm going to waste a bunch of time contacting all the stable relay operators and getting them to muck with their torrc manually. And if it turns out to be a bad idea to have it on, it might be even worse (for us and for the network) to contact them all again and try to get them each to manually back out.