xyem: So it looks like I can just wait and see if this is done in the forum update, then I can extract the data myself. A little indirect and not very timely but it's a little ray of hope, at least. Makes me feel a bit better that they spent the time asking around to try and get it for me, though the lack of any explanation for the "no" from the superior comes across as "because I said so"..
Just to clarify, we've got no _immediate_ plans for a forum update. I definitely wrote that sentence very clumsily, but the basic idea was "when we do work on the forums, I will push to have this functionality added".