On Mon, Apr 20, 2015 at 12:04:24AM +0200, Moritz Bartl wrote:
Thanks George!
On 04/09/2015 08:58 PM, George Kadianakis wrote:
- We really really need a better name for this feature. I decided to go with "Direct Onion Services" which is the one [...]
Why not simply "onion service"?
Because we have already started using "onion service" to cover what we previously called "hidden services" until we realized that, among other things, that term is misleadingly narrow concerning the benefits such services provide. Cf. e.g., "Genuine Onion" http://www.nrl.navy.mil/itd/chacs/syverson-genuine-onion-simple-fast-flexibl...
My latest thinking about the terminology is that we should call them something like "client side onion service" (CSOS, suggested pronunciation C-sauce). All these terms seem to have limitations of one form or another, and this is no exception. This is long when compared to "hidden service" but "CSOS" is not longer to say the "HS". See the comments about pronouncability earlier in this thread. We could go with "client protecting onion service" but that doesn't differentiate it from ordinary onion services, which also protect clients. "Client only onion service" or "client oriented onion service" does that (either would be COOS, which is nicely one syllable---rhymes with 'loose'). We could use "clientside onion service" or "COS", which could be pronounced see-oh-ess or simply cuz. This would be as pronounceable as COOS but isn't as direct in connotation IMO.)
An advantage of using 'side' in the name is that this can generalize to the obviously complementary server side onion service (SSOS), both of which are onesided onion services (OSOS). Note that Tor2Web effectively converts ordinary two-sided onion services to SSOS. Most of this probably won't see much use unless someone writes a bunch of papers about them or some serverside use takes off. But I think the one we're talking primarily about, CSOS or COS, would. COOS would also complement "server oriented/only onion service" (SOOS, in honor of Theo Geisel ;>) but the one sided generalization becomes something like "one side only onion service" (OSOOS). Fortunately, as I said, I don't think we actually need such a term for regular use.
Of these I currently think COOS comes closest to conveying what we want and balancing out the various goals. And I lean towards the 'oriented' rather than 'only' de-acronymization.
aloha, Paul