[atlas] Possible software probe "farming" on AS47583

> Is there an immediate way to report these probes other than this
> mailing list?  I don't know of one and so I'm here :)


Dear Ben and others,

Each new, connected RIPE Atlas probe provides incremental value to the 
system and its users, but this value decreases with similarity to 
existing probes ("diminishing returns"). At the same time connecting a 
probe and processing results from it has some costs, so we'd like to be 
conscious of the cost/benefit ratio.

Since the potential pool of software probes is almost infinite, in 
response to the highlighted case, we'd like to propose the following 
mid-term approach:

* No user/account should be allowed to run more than X SW probes from 
the same IP (X=3 ?)

* No user/account should be allowed to run more than Y SW probes from 
the same IPv4/24 IPv6/48 (Y=5 ?)

* Regardless of the user/account, no more than Z SW probes should be 
allowed from the same IPv4/24 IPv6/48 (Z=10 ?)

X, Y and Z are defaults, can be changed per account. This is done in 
order to facilitate corner cases and overstepping the limits, if this is 
warranted (given a good explanation). We are also reaching out to the 
current "peak users" to understand their use cases and motivations - the 
above limits can be enforced depending on the responses.

In the longer term we believe a more flexible approach is to base this 
on what has been termed "probe similarity metrics": a new probe that is 
really similar to some existing one has less value to the system, 
therefore after reaching a low enough limit it can be refused, or 
alternatively, simply not gaining credits for its owner. This 
diincentivises creating "probe farms".

Regards,