I had put this project on hold until the new forum upgrade because I figured the method for scraping data would change considerably. I was right - now it doesn't work at all.
Also, I have been questioning the principle and ethics of releasing a product meant to rank forum users or ideas. There are certainly better ways of ranking users than the current forum methods (total Kudos count, total post count...), but in some respects it's not my prerogative to redefine the system.
I'm still casually working on this project, and casually defining the scope (somewhere on the spectrum of "nifty little tool" to "overhaul of the idea/user ranking system") as I go. I have delved headfirst into learning database management and PHP (although I'm questioning if this knowledge may fall outside the scope of this project), which has become a microcosm for my newfound purpose of this project: increasing breadth of development knowledge.
Let me take the opportunity to make fun of myself. Whenever you hear a developer say "this project has become a personal journey of broadening my horizons", that's a euphemism for "Sh*t. This turned out to take up way more time than I expected."
