Poll: Do you use the "introducer" feature?

[Arneko]

The only oddity I’ve found with the introducer is when I deleted a device from each of my other ST notes it kept re-appearing because all my devices were introducers to one another.

I found this to be quite an annoyance as well. The workaround would be to just have one introducer (per cluster)…

I keep it off now, and whenever I add a new device, I turn it on (on every device) just as long as it needs.

[Rewt0r (Michael Jephcote)]

Used this since last year, it was a must with a 15+ cluster. Shame it didn’t remove nodes from other devices as well.

[Skoop]

Are there any instructions for use?

[rumpelsepp (Stefan Tatschner)]

Just enable the flag on a device node.

[iceberg]

Use it on almost all my nodes.

Only a few machines are within my daily reach, having the others set to ‘introducer’ saves time & travel.

[jpjp]

I don’t use it because I couldn’t find any good documentation on what it does

[combro2k]

Ofcourse its usefull if you have multiple computers like me.

[calmh (Jakob Borg)]

I don’t use it because I couldn’t find any good documentation on what it does

We should fix that.

[Skoop]

Yep. Instructions for use.

[adamrabbit]

It seemed useful at first but I had to turn it off to delete a share that kept being re-added before I could delete it across all devices

[NickPyz]

+1 for the documentation request.

In a specific use case, we are exchanging business documents with 3rd parties under a Non-Disclosure Agreement. Without fully understanding how introducer works, I won’t use it at all - to avoid the Law of Unintended Consequences … (such as mistakenly leaking a secret).

[urza]

Yes, absolutely! Introducer is my home server, all other devices just connects to the introducer and done. Would be very painful otherwise, for more than couple devices.

Another thing is when I started sharing some folders with friends (I have couple “myName-hisName” folders), I also just connect to their “server” set it as introducer and our shared folder is on all devices as well. Only downside is that there is now so many devices that I get lost in it and would probably not recognize an attacker… (Lets say there is 5 friends and they each have 5 devices, that is 25 devices + mines)

[bigbear2nd (Bob Hope)]

There was a description once here:

[v0.9.18] Introducer Nodes

I want to use the example of @calmh and illustrate it. @calmh please feel free to use any pictures and correct me if i am wrong. Lets assume that Alice already has connections to Charlie (trusted as introducer and trustes Alice as introducer) and Eve (not trusted as an introducer, doesnt trust Alice as an introducer). They are all sharing only one folder. [image] This means that Charlie will add Eve, but is not added back: [image] – Now Bob, an otherwise blank node, is added to Alice. B…

But it seems as if the pictures are not working any more due to the discourse.syncthing.net to forum.syncthing.net change.

[cinghiopinghio]

Yes! It’s a really handy feature. With caveats.

At the beginning I used it in most nodes for most neighbours and ended up in a strange situation: when two linked nodes (say A and B) are mutually marked as introducer and you want to remove from your cluster a third node C, you end up with C showing up every time you delete it in A or B.

Workarounds:

• Don’t use couple of nodes which are mutually introducer;
• stop ST; remove node C from all introducer nodes; restart ST;

[zukoo]

Yes! Supper useful one for me.

I wish it could come with the option to deprecate nodes when deleted on an introducer as well.

[lordloh]

Why is this a poll?

Hope you guys are not planing to drop support. I love it.

[calmh (Jakob Borg)]

Basically I was wondering if anyone actually used it, as I myself don’t and considered it somewhat of a kludge. I’m delighted to see all the answers, and surprised that it is as widely used as it is. This gives guidance that we should probably give some priority to sorting out the remaining kinks - i.e. docs, the flow for actually removing a device, and so on.

If the poll had been 95% “tried it, didn’t like it” I might have considered scrapping it.

[lfam (lf)]

Another thing is when I started sharing some folders with friends (I have couple “myName-hisName” folders), I also just connect to their “server” set it as introducer and our shared folder is on all devices as well. Only downside is that there is now so many devices that I get lost in it and would probably not recognize an attacker… (Lets say there is 5 friends and they each have 5 devices, that is 25 devices + mines)

This is definitely not something I want to do, but it’s interesting. What if your friend adds their friend as an introducer? I assume those 3rd party nodes get propagated back to you. I guess that you really have to trust your friend.