Calling LoyceV or DdmrDdmr - Page Views

[Hhampuz]

As I know you like to scrape information, build simple tools to display stats etc. I figured you'd be the best to ask.

I'd like to see some statistics of average views per created topic & user. Perhaps total views of all topics created by a user? I can see a bunch of different ways it could be displayed but I've no knowledge of how to get any of that unless I manually do it through a spreadsheet or whatever.

If this is an utterly stupid request then let me know and I'll toss it away  .

EDIT; offering some merit to whoever makes a list/tool .

[DdmrDdmr]

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I’ll have to give it a pass. I’m rather limited in terms of time and scraping capabilities (both in terms of the tools I use, and my lack of deep knowledge of them). That is why I mainly focus on retrieving merit related information, since it is both limited and driven by a clear ID.

I figure @LoyceV can do it, since he already often scrapes all kinds of posts from the board.

I’m not sure why you are focusing on threads opened by a given user. Many people barely open topics of their own, and are much more prone to respond to open topics than initiate one. Even so, the process does not seem extremely complex:

-   First you would need to delimit the users you require somehow (either a list, or on a one by one basis).
-   Perhaps add a timeframe (i.e. topics created in the last x months by the user or so, or all).
-   Define how often it would need to be refreshed (I guess on demand should do).
-   The scraping process needs to go into the user’s profile, enter the “Show the last topic started by this person”, and run through each post on the (paged) list, entering the post itself, and saving  the thread title and “(Read xx views)” that figures at the top of the topic bar, along with the user Id or name.
- Then, through an interface of somesort, provide the stats per user.

Easier said than done though…

[mikeywith]

I’m not sure why you are focusing on threads opened by a given user. Many people barely open topics of their own, and are much more prone to respond to open topics than initiate one. Even so, the process does not seem extremely complex:

That's true, technically monitoring topics themselves is doable, but as far as reposes go, there is no way no to tell how many times it got viewed ( this probably why Hhampuz have not asked for it) and giving the fact that a some reposes to open topics may be read many more times than a new topic, i do not think the results that come of this analysis will determine anything aside from the ability of users to attract views to their own topics.

[TheBeardedBaby]

Just a note here.
The view count is very easy to manipulate. You open a session when you click a link ot being active in some way in the forum, during that session you can open your thread without increase the view count of the thread. After a given time the session expires and you open a new session. Then if you open the thread again in new session, the view count will increase.

So to manipulate the view count is just to install one auto refresh add-on in your browser and put a time delay between the refreshes like 5 seconds or so.
Keep this for a few days and you can increase the view count as much as you like...

So don't rely on a view count if it's not a Unique views - those are IP based and are much more accurate.

[LoyceV]

Perhaps total views of all topics created by a user?

What are you trying to accomplish? Do you need this for selected users (for instance for signature campaign applicants) or for all users? I can't scrape all users for sure, a selected list should be doable.
If it's for campaign applications, I think it can be gamed too. Sending fake visitors to a thread increases the visit count. It can even be done from the same account: adding a new post increases the number of views by 1, after which the post can be deleted to do it again (tested here).

EDIT; offering some merit to whoever makes a list/tool .

I don't work for Merit

-   The scraping process needs to go into the user’s profile, enter the “Show the last topic started by this person”, and run through each post on the (paged) list, entering the post itself, and saving  the thread title and “(Read xx views)” that figures at the top of the topic bar, along with the user Id or name.

This is the annoying part, scraping pages often creates unexpected problems (for me).

[Hhampuz]

Welp, seems I didn't read up on how it all works before making this thread, lol.

I just thought it would be interesting to see which topic starters (users) have gotten the most views over time, like a top 10-100 list or whatever but it is not for any purpose other than enjoyment so I'll lock the thread.

Sorry!