Site Question: The Stream

This'll be a very technical post, so don't be alarmed if it makes your head hurt.

As of last night, the site is using a new version of the Stream that is meant to reduce server load and hopefully make conversations easier.  It's still somewhat buggy, but it works better than it used to (at least for me).  Still, if it could be improved, I want to try.

Here's how it works:

You load the page for the first time, and the Console requests the latest stream data.  The Stream returns a fairly simple...