my inatyear: Suffix URL with id to bust the Discord unfurl cache.

inatcog/commands/user.py

@@ -31,7 +31,7 @@
 from ..embeds.inat import INatEmbeds
 from ..interfaces import MixinMeta
 from ..projects import UserProject
-from ..utils import get_valid_user_config
+from ..utils import cache_busting_id, get_valid_user_config
 
 
 class CommandsUser(INatEmbeds, MixinMeta):
@@ -1061,7 +1061,7 @@ async def user_inatyear(self, ctx, user: str = "me", year: int = None):
             return
 
         await ctx.send(
-            f"https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/{stats_year}/{inat_user.login}"
+            f"https://www.inaturalist.org/stats/{stats_year}/{inat_user.login}?{cache_busting_id()}"
         )
 
     @commands.command()

inatcog/utils.py

@@ -2,6 +2,7 @@
 import asyncio
 from contextlib import asynccontextmanager
 import functools
+from time import time
 from typing import Optional, Union
 
 import discord
@@ -19,6 +20,22 @@
 COG_HAS_USER_DEFAULTS = ["home"]
 
 
+def cache_busting_id():
+    """A unique id suitable to bust Discord's cache of a URL unfurl.
+
+    Append this string to any URL that Discord previews as an embed (an "unfurl" in
+    Discord parlance) to bust the cache.
+
+    The Discord URL unfurl is reported here to be cached "up to 30 minutes":
+
+      - https://github.com/discord/discord-api-docs/issues/1663#issuecomment-632970964
+
+    Since that would be 4 digits, we're generous and generate IDs from 0 through 9999,
+    so should work to bust their cache for roughly 2.78 hours.
+    """
+    return str(int(time() % 10000)).zfill(4)
+
+
 def use_client(coro_or_command):
     is_command = isinstance(coro_or_command, commands.Command)
     if not is_command and not asyncio.iscoroutinefunction(coro_or_command):