custom forum programming?

I have an idea for a service that would require some custom programming. I'd need an interface on a site that would track people's logins on participating forums and also record how long they stayed on said forum. The idea I have in mind would include all major forum software packages, maybe through use of frames...

Would such a thing be technically possible, and who/what company would be capable of pulling it off?

 

Sounds like an interesting niche for a forum, may be successful..

Honestly, I am sure it can be done technically though it'll be VERY time consuming. vBulletin would probably be the best bet in making the idea happen, I think.

 

I could do it if someone provided me vB and IPB licenses to test with.

It wouldn't be cheap, though, especially if it was getting implemented on a lot of forums, as eventually you are tracking quite a lot of information - you would eventually need a dedicated server for it.

 

I should probably expand on it.

The basic idea is you create a php image bug that passes certain information whenever the page is loaded - inserting the bug is nothing more than a template modification, presumably possible in all forums.

Recording the data is superficially easy, you track usernames or a hash of them, and possibly details provided by a local javascript script / the integration itself, advanced features and so on.

Both of those tasks are simple.

The difficult part is extracting useful information from the data.

 

Random, I decided to code a simple example.

http://elliquiy.com/faketracker.php?u=hellothar&a=snooping <- produces a perfectly standard 1x1 gif. Note that it can sanitize and track data, which gets output to

http://elliquiy.com/pics/tlog.txt (note, I have txt files cached so you will need to shift+reload to see updates)

Obviously, in a forum scenario you would want to use a hash to make sure you were tracking data legitimately, etc. etc.

 

The second link brings me to your "no hotlinking" imagine.

 

...hahaha.

Fixed >_>

 

I see I've snooped.

 

The action would be embedded into the link, and the time, action, username and site would be embedded into a hash : )

From there though it's always about getting the data back.

 

Vekseid, can I send you a PM with more details of my idea so you can tell me if it's do-able/about how much such a thing would cost?

 

I believe there's a mod for this out on vB. I'll check into it tonight.

 

Sure : )

 

Consider yourself pinky-sworn to secrecy, Vekseid!

 

I will swear with two pinkies : )

 

HEY those weren't your pinkies you just swore with!

 

...what did I use then? O_o