Hi,

this is my very first post to this list. I operate tor exit relays vks24784 and vks24949 and subscribed to Tor Weather Reports. Now, at Sun, September 2, 2012 12:17 am and Thu, September 6, 2012 12:33 am, I received "Node Down" Reports for one of the nodes, 1st report for vks24949, 2nd for vks24784. That said, I noticed that these event resets the respective uptime counters at Atlas web application to "zero" and the node would lose the already earned stable, guard, named, etc. flags for a certain time period.

The problem is that both nodes definitely were online to the best of my knowledge (they are 24/7 actually), see http://tor.host-ed.me/nodes/ and official Atlas logs at https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/AAD948023527A6D33FAA96816E4B5F101A664B... and https://atlas.torproject.org/#details/B41CBB97CF4DCFF724F272F28FD3F0D683C2F1...

I even checked the "uptime" through ssh and there hasn't been any reboots occurring. Also, I'm wondering what actually would happen to guard, stable, named, etc. flags if I'd actually need to reboot the nodes cause of maintenance? I feel it unfortunate to lose these flags (also for the Tor network itself) and would like to ask:

1. What does Tor Weather consider a "Node Down" event? 2. How long does it take to regain the mentioned flags? I.e. does the node start from scratch earning them (so to speak), i.e. does it take as long as initially?

Last thing I'd like to ask in that context: Do these "Node Down" events and/or needed maintenance reboots have any effect on a potential Tor T-Shirt claim? I'd actually really like to make myself a communicative, green Tor advertising column at some point in time ;-)

Thanks!