Yeah, it could waste some bandwidth, but I'd rather get the users off my back. =] Besides, the shoutboxdisplaypal doesn't send that much data each time so it won't be too bad.
But just adding an auto-refresh isn't so good, because that can easily make it reload while you are typing, which is not a good option. Either the input field should be moved out of the shoutboxdisplay pal and outside the iframe, or there should be some javascript checks that the input box isn't focused before doing a reload.
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