A neat little Suggestion.

  • Thread starter Thread starter F1man
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Technically possible, but it would be a lot of work, both to code and for the server to run. You're basically trying to hack the way the tag works.
 
I know it would be hard, But it would be the same code that says how many times a topic has been viewed, right?
 
Originally posted by F1man
I know it would be hard, But it would be the same code that says how many times a topic has been viewed, right?

Not really. The database tracks how many times each thread has been viewed, and each time this happens, the code that displays the thread increments the relevant counter inside the database.

The trouble with tracking link-clicking is that you would need to put some form of bounce-page in between the link and the destination, and then have that track the number of times the link had been clicked. That's the easy part.

The hard part is actually displaying the information within the thread. You'd have to scan the thread text for every single link being tracked. Then when you found a match, you'd need to alter the text to insert the tracking statistic.

This would be feasible if you had very few links being tracked, but the more you do it, the longer it will take each post to display. I can't see how that information would be worth the impact it would have on performance.
 
Like Giles has already said, I doubt the extra overhead or work this feature would create would be worth the results. If you are looking for such a service to keep track of the number of times any link is clicked, I would recommend URL'LOG or the many other similar services out there. :)
 
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