Quote from: n0nce on November 06, 2021, 05:36:58 PM

Quote from: DaveF on November 06, 2021, 12:20:11 PM

Guess it's just what other nodes we are connected to and how much is in the channels.

Yeah, it depends a ton about who you're connecting to and also the size of those channels. To maximize routing and profits, some people actually manually monitor their channels. Some recommendations I picked up:

* Don't create channel between 2 already connected nodes. (e.g. check via LN explorers)
* If a channel isn't routing anything for a long time, close it.
* If a channel starts to get used much, but only in one direction, rebalance it so it continues being used.
* Look for nodes with much usage, but no 1-hop connection and connect them through you.
* Adapt fees up / down in the channels that are used much, like sometimes your fees are just too high; sometimes users keep paying if you increase them since you're the only route to some location.

This is just off the top of my mind, not sure if I can find the original 'list' anymore. We may just create a new thread for that. I don't feel qualified for it myself though, since I was never a big routing node myself.

With regards to 'LN node experience', I will post in here in the future when I find the time to write down all my experiences and make a concise but informative post of it.

Just a few thoughts:

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* Don't create channel between 2 already connected nodes. (e.g. check via LN explorers)

While this might be true with some of the biggest nodes, sometimes opening a channel between 2 connected nodes can help with rebalancing. You are creating a triangle that can possibly rebalance within one or two hops.

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* If a channel isn't routing anything for a long time, close it.

Sometimes a channel doesn`t route, because liquidity is on the wrong side, or you need another channel with one of other node´s partners to see sats flowing through it. If liquididity stays on your side for too long, try to rebalance another channel with that liquidity and watch if the node pushes back those sats.

When other nodes are opening a channel to mine, I try to rebalance that channel for a reasonable fee and put my fee about 50-100% higher. Let`s say I pay 200ppm for the rebalance. I would start with a fee of 400ppm and go slowly (about 1-2 times a day) down in like 10ppm steps until a routing takes place. If a node doesn´t route anything for a few months, I pull all the liquidity to my side and close the channel.