I think the vast majority of people like what p2pool is about but either don't want to bother with learning how to set it up, or can't, and don't realize that there are a ton of p2pools out there, which are p2pool nodes that allow other miners to join them.
I think that you're misunderstanding me. For the purposes of this thread, a p2pool proxy does exactly what you're doing - act as a front-end to p2pool to lower the barrier of entry to p2pool for miners (either the hashrate barrier or the knowledge barrier).
A p2pool node is for p2pool miners to mine more efficiently.
Since you're a proxy, I won't be removing you from the list.
I don't see where his node is a proxy (as you define it). I clicked over to his web site and it looks just like a node to me. He certainly doesn't seem to be reducing the hash rate barrier, because it explicitly says that miners get coinbase transactions and get paid if they have one share in the share chain.
As far as the knowledge barrier, I'm not sure what you mean by that. Every public p2pool node reduces the knowledge barrier in the sense that people can use it without having to install and configure their own p2pool node and bitcoin node.
Well, I'm not a p2pool miner, or a p2pool proxy miner. I'll leave this up to the community to hash out; once there's a consensus I'll update the OP.
You have to give a clear definition.
Is a p2pool node with a fancy web site considered a proxy or is some added functionality required?
From the wiki definition of a proxy server, I think that any p2pool node that is accessible for anyone to join
fits the definition of a proxy server.
As far as "every public p2pool node reduces the knowledge barrier in the sense that people can use it without having to install and configure their own p2pool node and bitcoin node." I argue that most people don't know that, and by clicking on most nodes, should they even know to look for them, the user will see something that does not make any sense to them and will move on.
The problem I see with many of them is exactly what your griping about be a fancy website.
I think that is what p2pool lacks.
Most people look into mining have a hard enough time getting the miner to work, let alone setting up a full bitcoin node and p2pool node.
When they search for bitcoin pools, they may come across p2pool, see that it's the only one that is PPLNS, Solo Mining.
The sound of solo mining might just scare them away, because they want a guaranteed return on their investment.
However for those that look further, find that it's a pool where you solo mine with other solo miners, and their interested.
But trying to figure out how to get it all working looks way too confusing, or they simply don't have the hardware needed to run their own node.
At this point, they look no further and go to a big centralized pool, because it is easy.
However a few, may look a little deeper and find the sites i listed earlier that tell you other p2pool nodes that are online.
Even then, if a person were to click on one of the ip addresses, they would probably still be confused and not understand how to join or anything else.
That is why I decided to make a website for my p2pool pool that helped gather information together and make it easy to understand what p2pool is as well as make it as user friendly as possible for anyone to join who didn't have the previous know how.
I vote, let p2poolserver.us stay under the proxy list, and think other p2pool operators should be able to list theirs as they wish.
Of course it's up to the community and organofcorti makes the decision based on that
I hope the community let's me stay, because I want p2pool to stay in the game, and I'm trying to help that out by making it easier for people who don't understand what it is, to give it a try.
Hopefully, they'll decided to run their own pool some day
