Do you believe that requiring a parameter passed to the xml ticker (such as the ";archived=1" I suggested) would be abused in such a way that people would still try fetching the entire list? Requiring that parameter would make so that current external clients wouldn't be grabbing them without knowing (such as framechat) should work well, as long as once the option were introduced it isn't abused.

As for users fetching 100+ archived messages, shouldn't there be a limit on the number of archived messages? I seriously doubt anyone here really needs to be capable of holding so many private messages for future reference. Surely if anyone has such a high number, it's because they archive every single messages they receive, which is just not necessary. Or maybe they are someone popular who gets a /msg every 30 seconds here. Either way, should some limit on how many messages may exist in your message inbox be applied?

Another solution might be to only return the 10-15 recently archived messages. Where every time you hit the server for archived messages, you're just going to get the same 10-15. That way, to get at the others, you'd have to delete those first 10-15 messages (whether you're storing them in the external client first is naturally up to you or the client software). Then, the next hit to the server would produce the next 10-15 most recent archived. This sounds like a viable solution to me.


In reply to Re^3: Archived messages through xml ticker (reason) by Coruscate
in thread Archived messages through xml ticker by Coruscate

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