There are other reasons for requesting the same API more often than only 5 times per hour, for example when developing client software and testing it. Your API should just be able to take such usage without a problem, after all its mostly only reading and not writing, so it should not put any noticeable stress on your servers.

A few suggestions: If you ever decide to make an API V2 then please consider the following:

 * remove all the redundant different representations of the same number (value, display, display_short), only use value_int. There is a lot of totally redundant data in these structures, if you remove it all it would probably cut down bandwidth by 2/3 and your server would not need to waste time with string formatting.
 * gzip all data
 * allow orders to carry a user defined ID number, so I can generate my own order-id *before* submitting it to mtgox. Then when requesting "private/orders" or inside the private:user_order message each order would have two IDs, my own and the official mtgox oid. Then I could use my own ID for all my internal bookkeeping in my own database during the entire lifetime of the order and use the mtgx id only for commands that I send to mtgox.
 * please provide historical OHLCV data of various time frames, they don't all need to have the entire history, just 100 bars each would be enough already, this would remove the need for many people (including me) to request huge amounts trading history if one just quickly want to plot a graph where for example each 15 minutes or 4 hours or an entire week of trading is consolidated into only 5 numbers.

And finally: Is there a thread or a section on this forum specifically for mtgox feature requests/problems/questions/etc?

PS: the websocket server is working again, did you fix it or does it go off and on on its own every Friday? Maybe its the cleaning lady who needs a wall socket for the vacuum cleaner every Friday, maybe you should just lock the door to that room to avoid these problems?