I'm sure anyone that keeps the shoutbox open in an extra tab notices that the shoutbox sometimes doesn't actually refresh at all times, it seems. For instance, sometimes I'd return, refresh the page, and find a few shouts that weren't shown before-hand. Any idea what's up with that? Is it SEN or is it my internets? (I doubt my internets, but not ruling out the possibility)

It's been like that since I joined. Used to be worse.

Also been like this for a long time for me, I just didn't think of bringing it up 'till today.

I think it works on some type of periodic system, and isn't actually checking for new shouts. I don't use auto refresh anymore because I just refresh the whole page to simultaneously see any new posts.

Well, it does check for new shouts, but it does so periodically. It runs an AJAX call at specified time intervals, just like anything on the web that "instantly" updates.

The problem could be either with the JavaScript that runs the AJAX call, or with the server-side code that queries the database after receiving the AJAX call. If the former, I should be able to provide a fix. If the latter, I'd guess it's a database caching error, but remember that I actually don't know a thing about server-side code.

Artanis, does your browser display any indication of a JavaScript error whenever this happens? I.e. entries in Firefox's Error Console, or the yellow warning icon in IE's statusbar? If so, please post the error details here. If it's a JS problem, I may be able to code a fix for Devlin to apply.