When will the “site” field be absent from an “inbox_item”?

Question

According to the documentation on the inbox_item type, the site field "may be absent". Under what circumstances will this occur?

Kevin Montrose · Accepted Answer · 2012-08-13 21:31:38Z

up vote 3 down vote accepted

When the site has been shut down.

This is incredibly rare, but has happened a few times.

answered Aug 13 '12 at 21:31

Kevin Montrose♦
15.8k41946

	OK, that makes sense. Thanks for clarifying! – Alex Lockwood Aug 14 '12 at 0:57
	One last question... when the "site" is down, shouldn't the result be an error of some sort? Why is it that the site field is absent instead? – Alex Lockwood Aug 14 '12 at 13:43
	@Alex - there's an error if you're using the `/users/{id}/inbox` method because the site no longer exists, but if you're using `/inbox` there's no error because you're not querying a specific site. – Kevin Montrose♦ Aug 14 '12 at 16:49

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