Hosting location for the Onion Services Ecosystem Documentation

Motivation

As mentioned in the previous issue about getting domains for some Onion Services projects, we're looking for

• Shorter URLs for some Onion Services related projects, pointing to their GitLab Pages.
• Aggregate Onion Services documentation in a single, searchable place.

That made us create the Onion Services Ecosystem Documentation, but it still has a not very friendly URL.

Tasks

• Organization:
  • Ping some people to get feedback (ahf, gaba, micah?).
  • Determine a better canonical URL location for the Onion Services Ecosystem Documentation:
    • Project/repository name: tpo/onion-services/ecosystem.
    • Canonical URL: https://onionservices.torproject.org (previously: https://community.torproject.org/onion-services/ecosystem).
  • Rename the project from portal to ecosystem.
• Implementation:
  • Proceed with the CI/deployment changes to make the Onion Services Ecosystem Documentation accessible through the new URL:
    • Update CI config to use the static shim deploying to the static component. No need, since we'll use the existing deployment from tpo/web/community.
    • Update CI config to use a setup similiar to the Community Policies (!6 (merged)).
    • Update web/community CI config to include the Ecosystem Docs (tpo/web/community!349 (merged)).
  • Ask TPA to help with setting up this deployment. There was no need initially, since we used the existing deployment from tpo/web/community. But then we decided to go with a separate site, whose setup is tracked at tpo/tpa/team#41687 (closed).
  • Update references in Onion Services projects, pointing to the new official/canonical documentation location (like on README.md files etc).
  • Create .htaccess-like redirects from the old location to the new location (if applicable).
  • Once the portal is deployed, update the "Onionize any website" link in the Community Portal, pointing to the official Onionspray documentation URL within the Onion Services Ecosystem Portal (tpo/web/community#337 (closed)). Moved to #11 (closed).
  • Link the Onion Services Ecosystem Documentation in the Onion Services section of the Community Portal. Moved to #11 (closed).
  • Add banner in the community portal, at the Onion Services page. Moved to #11 (closed).
  • Figure out an update workflow. This was sorted out once we decided to go with a separate domain.
• Bonus:
  • Consider to release the portal as part of the Onion Services 20th Years Anniversary (2024 edition). Moved to #11 (closed).
  • Onion Services endpoint and Onion-Location set (if not already available). Moved to #11 (closed).
• Advertise:
  • Ask comms whether they're interested in reviewing this before a broader announcement. Moved to #11 (closed).
  • Maybe do a blog post and a wider announcement? Moved to #11 (closed).

Time estimation

• Complexity: small (1 day)
• Uncertainty: low (x1.1)
• Reference (adapted)

/cc @gus

marked this issue as related to onion-support#202 (closed)

added time estimate of 9h

changed due date to March 28, 2024

added Documentation Doing Onion Services Q1 labels

assigned to @rhatto

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mentioned in issue onion-support#202 (closed)

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Possible locations

Which (sub)domain? Possibilities:

0. Sub-site at the existing Community Portal

Candidates:

• community.torproject.org/onion-services/ecosystem
• community.torproject.org/onion-services/docs
• community.torproject.org/onion-services/explore
• community.torproject.org/onion-services/dive

Pros:

• Easier to integrate, similar with what was done with the Community Policies.
• Keep community documentation under the same umbrella.

Cons:

• Mix Lektor with Onion MkDocs.
• URLs will stay long and hard to memorize, but we can promote the shorter "community.torproject.org/onion-services" and tell people that they will find everything there.

1. It's own subdomain

Candidates:

• onionservices.torproject.org
• onion-services.torproject.org

Pros:

• It's self-explanatory.
• Tend to produce shorter URLs.

Cons:

• May increase the number of Tor websites.
• May involve more work to setup.

2. At other umbrealla subdomains

Candidates:

• docs.torproject.org/onionservices
• docs.torproject.org/onion-services

Pros:

• May fit in an upcoming unified documentation portal.

Cons:

• We have no idea whether we'll have such central doc website in the future, and if we do, we probably won't want it to be made of many independent subsites.

Notes

• We came with other options during a brainstorm, but I ruled out some candidates which implied in splitting the docs into separate subsites (as this would break a common search functionality).
• Also ruled out some specific names such as "tools' that would not cover all topics.

I have presented the portal demo to the Onion Services Working Group and @ahf thinks it makes sense to have it under the community.tpo umbrella.

So we may narrow down candidates to things like:

• community.torproject.org/onion-services/ecosystem
• community.torproject.org/onion-services/docs
• community.torproject.org/onion-services/explore
• community.torproject.org/onion-services/dive

@gus, what you think of community.torproject.org/onion-services/ecosystem?

Ok, I'll stick to the following for now:

• Project/repository name: tpo/onion-services/ecosystem.
• Canonical URL: https://community.torproject.org/onion-services/ecosystem.

Relation with the upcoming Dev Portal

• I have discussed with Gus (during our 1:1 at 2024-02-21) the relation with this portaldocumentation with the upcoming Development Portal, and whether we would need to have a migration plan for when it arrives.

• Also, in the past, some work was done to build a content tree for the Onion Services sub-section at the Dev Portal.

• But we concluded that the Dev Portal is oriented to development, while this portal have a broader scope and is focused on the wider community (users, operators etc).

• Anyway, I have reserved a section to hold development documentation while the Dev Portal is not available. When that happens, we may consider to migrate only this section there, or to create redirections whenever needed.

marked this issue as related to onion-support#170 (closed)

changed the description

changed the description

added UX label

added Next label and removed Doing label

marked this issue as related to tpo/web/community#337 (closed)

mentioned in merge request tpo/web/community!336 (merged)

added Needs Review label and removed Next label

changed the description