https://www.hackerfactor.com/blog/index.php?/categories/19-Tor
Why would people buy NFTs, or donate at all, if tor has so many problems?
Tor Project Inc censors all its mailing lists, blog comments, forums, bug trackers, and probably even cleans its social media feeds. When you delete and censor the "bad / truth / alternative POVs", no one can see them, and thus people have nothing to think but what the propaganda and sales teams are indoctrinating them to. The advertising collateral Tor provided with the NFT sale didn't disclose the any of these things to the potential appraisers and buyers trying to evaluate and price the NFT, let alone that it wasn't actually the first onion.
How does it control the media exactly?
Was that said? But ok... Privacy is a cute fash techno topic the media drools over, yet ever see TPI talking about these tough issues at all to the media?... No. Media prints what it hears. That's how. And when that $$$ and staff are helping or running some of the larger conferences in the space, sponsoring and traveling their own people around the planet on that $$$... influence is present there too.
I thought the US Gov abandoned tor, is that not the case?
Look at Tor website corporate filings... still raking in millions from government entities and hardly govt-clean orgs. Still working with employees of government, board of directors ties to govt work, funds, and revolving-door, etc. Even recent head Tor Shari Steele husband NSA DOD Bill Vass. https://bvass.wordpress.com/tag/electronic-frontier-foundation/ And earlier, hired CIA agent DaveC too... https://lists.cpunks.org/pipermail/cypherpunks/2021-October/091554.html
You were able to speak out.
They clicked the wrong button on their censorship dashboard. Search cypherpunks list if you want to see peoples uncensored posts. More will come.
"...even the NSA was quoted well over 10+ years ago saying that the NSA could exploit tor." Could you provide a link so I can share?
search: "Tor Stinks" NSA presentation / slide deck https://www.theguardian.com/world/interactive/2013/oct/04/tor-stinks-nsa-pre...
Theoretically, if the tor project was producing bad code,
No opinion on the code itself. Other than features they're removing from people.
it would ... even be forked.
A fork away from Tor Project Incorporated, by people who have nothing to do with Tor or its people, is worth exploring. Also, entirely new projects should start making new independent overlay network designs. Competition drives advancement.
What, if anything, is holding up the OSS process exactly?
Besides funders [sponsoring [busy]work], the Tor Project Inc and its minions control what Tor does, and the DA's are chosen by, and effectively made up of and sworn to them too. The larger OSS world is free to do whatever it wants with tor, it uses BSD-3 license.
I was under the impression that in a distributed system, "Traffic Analysis" through a Sybil attack was always possible. Is there an alternative?
Possibility always there, a question of costs, odds, analysis, opportunity, etc. People have suggested various ways of reducing the risk, and than the methods Tor Project have lately begun trying. Check cypherpunks, anonbib, other projects... some of them are there. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zmvt7yFTtt8 People are free to think and do what they want.