System for handling event messages for file collaboration

A system and method for facilitating client software access to messages, such as event messages, generated in a networked computing environment, such as a file-collaboration system. An example method uses a message bus and accompanying Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to allow collaborators to employ client software to interface with highly scalable and organized message bus records, maintained via an underlying distributed database. The APIs and associated interface allow client software; not limited to collaboration software clients; to efficiently publish to, subscribe to, and obtain information about event records of the message bus. An embodiment allows selective load balancing and deferral of event message processing; efficient message offset handling and data center failover functionality, and so on.