invalidating avatars that don't exist on HN

application.rb

@@ -83,8 +83,9 @@
   case params[:format]
   when :json, 'json'
     ret = {:success => (!@stream.nil? && !@activity.nil?)}
-    ret[:stream_id] = @stream ? @stream.sid : params[:stream_id]
-    ret[:id] = @stream.id if @stream
+    ret[:stream_id] = @stream.sid 
+    ret[:id] = @stream.id 
+    ret[:status] = @stream.status
     ret[:activity] = @activity || []
     jsonp ret
   else

lib/avatar.rb

@@ -6,6 +6,7 @@ class Avatar
   key :since, Integer 
   key :watch, Boolean
   key :nwx, Integer, :default => 0
+  key :valid, Boolean, :default => true
 
   has_many :postings
   has_many :comments

lib/discussion.rb

@@ -24,7 +24,11 @@ def process_page
     tracked_pid = nil
     uppers = {}
 
-    @doc.search("td.default").each_with_index do |cmt, ix| 
+    entries = @doc.search("td.default")
+    if entries.empty? and @doc.inner_html =~ /no such user/i
+      @avatar.set(:valid => false)
+    end
+    entries.each_with_index do |cmt, ix| 
       text = cmt.search("span.comment/font").inner_html
       info = cmt.search("div/span.comhead")
       html = info.inner_html

lib/hacker_news.rb

@@ -33,6 +33,10 @@ def self.stats
   def refresh_watchlist
     thread = Discussion.new(CMT_URL)
     Avatar.watched.each do |user|
+      if not user.valid 
+        # suspend streams that watch this user and mark them invalid
+        # That should automatically decrement avatar.nwx
+      end
       thread.user = user
       thread.crawl
     end

lib/stream.rb

@@ -13,6 +13,7 @@ class Stream
   key :config, Hash
   key :_type, String
   key :cache, Hash    # cache config in effect
+  key :status, String, :default => "Active"
 
   def self.activity(sid)
     me = Stream.where(:sid => sid).load