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oeed's profile picture

Forum Statistics Bot?

Started by oeed, 12 May 2014 - 09:00 AM
oeed #1
Posted 12 May 2014 - 11:00 AM
I was thinking the other day of making a bot that would occasionally (probably every 15 minutes, as that's how often IP.Board refreshes) check the forums for who's online and what they're viewing.

I'd then put this data on a publicly accessible website so people can see what the peek times are, what the most popular topics are, etc.

Now, would this breaking some forum rule/breach some privacy issue? The server load would be minimal, it'd just be a CRON job which loads the main page and possibly the profile page of the online users. If there is an API (probably isn't though) I'll use that.

I haven't spent a great deal of time researching in to this, but I though it'd be best to make sure it's ok first than to spend hours on it only to find that it's not allowed.
apemanzilla #2
Posted 12 May 2014 - 11:25 PM
I think this would be interesting :3
Agoldfish #3
Posted 13 May 2014 - 12:40 AM
As will I.
oeed #4
Posted 13 May 2014 - 12:44 AM
Yea, I'm wanting to make a web statistics engine for Unleashed (a statistics based coding competition) so it's a good way to test it out.
awsmazinggenius #5
Posted 13 May 2014 - 05:22 AM
I think this would be fun. Would be nice to have an admin OK it.
oeed #6
Posted 13 May 2014 - 11:16 AM
While it's not at all necassary, there is an API option in IP.Board from what I've read. However, admins are required to generate the API keys. It'd still work fine just stripping content out, but it you think it'd reduce server impact here's some more info.

http://www.invisionpower.com/support/guides/_/advanced-and-developers/api-methods/xml-rpc-api-r62
viluon #7
Posted 13 May 2014 - 01:19 PM
I support this idea, peek times are crucial for the project I am working on now
oeed #8
Posted 14 May 2014 - 01:24 PM
Lyqyd, any comments?
TheOddByte #9
Posted 14 May 2014 - 08:22 PM
Lyqyd, any comments?
It would be wise to PM him if he doesn't reply to this topic any time soon.
As you can see you already have alot of forum users approving, me aswell :D/>
awsmazinggenius #10
Posted 15 May 2014 - 12:01 AM
I have a feeling that a mod/admin may have already seen it, and is just contacting Dan for his OK, as it is his site. This is all just speculation, though.
oeed #11
Posted 15 May 2014 - 12:55 AM
I have a feeling that a mod/admin may have already seen it, and is just contacting Dan for his OK, as it is his site. This is all just speculation, though.

Yea, I'm pretty sure Lyqyd's seen it. I feel that pressuring him isn't the way to do it though, I'll just wait.
Edited on 14 May 2014 - 10:55 PM
Lyqyd #12
Posted 15 May 2014 - 01:01 AM
Yeah, I saw it when you first posted it. It's really one of those things that's dan's call in the end. I don't foresee any particular issues with 15-minute interval scraping of a page or two, but I'm not really wanting to hand out permission to do that. If you can get a hold of dan, he can give you a firm answer either way. His server, not mine! :)/>
apemanzilla #13
Posted 15 May 2014 - 05:02 PM
If you end up doing this, could you also make a REST API for it so I can make an in-game client that shows the data? :3