https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/86172

This dirty, dirty hack brought to you by the fact that the JS messages API only accepts a user object (which means, it only accepts the current user) or "male" or "female" as its arguments to GENDER. I should really be able to pass in the username of _any_ user on the site, like I can on the PHP side.

Fun fact: This will introduce an asynchronous leg to the message parser on the client side.

Potential solution: Have an *optional* argument to the message parser that will be an update callback. Once the API returns the data we need to parse the message, we cache it and callback with the final message contents. Before then we pass back "unspecified" messages. They'll be updated within seconds. The problem with this is that it becomes the responsibility of the user to run the update - they're no longer just dealing with strings.

Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement