jaz  Mar 9

📊 Fediverse Awareness Check:

When you hit send on a post, your app sends copies of that post to be stored on up to over 40,000 connected servers (hard drives) around the world.

When you delete a post, it sends a request to those servers to delete their copy, but it can't always be guaranteed and your post may remain visible online.

Are you aware of this?

Yes, I understand federation completely
46.1%
I have a hazy or vague understanding
34.2%
Thought I did, but didn't realise about the copies
17.9%
I thought it worked like X or Facebook
1.8%
Poll ended at .
Show threadjaz  Mar 9

Some additional reading:

How do I delete a post? https://fedi.tips/how-do-i-delete-a-post-on-mastodon/

Who can see my posts and replies? https://fedi.tips/who-can-see-my-posts-in-mastodon-how-do-i-send-dms-in-mastodon/

Fediverse never Forgets https://berk.es/2022/12/23/fediverse-never-forgets/

Provide a mechanism for acknowledgements of Delete activities https://github.com/w3c/activitypub/issues/406

Improve UI/UX copy for "Automated Post Deletion" to clarify data persistence https://github.com/mastodon/mastodon/discussions/37955

How do I delete a post on Mastodon? | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

Show threadjaz  Mar 9

Why "Delete" is complicated in the #Fediverse

Unlike X or Facebook where one company owns the only copy of your post, Mastodon and other Social Web apps use the #ActivityPub protocol.

When you post, your server (e.g. toot.wales) sends a copy to some number of servers (e.g. mastodon.social) - anywhere from one to 40,000 depending on a bunch of stuff.

When you delete, your server sends a Delete request to all those same servers.

Show threadjaz  Mar 9

However, your server can't force the other 40,000 servers to actually erase the data.

Most servers honour the request instantly, but if a server is offline, over-capacity, or malicious, that copy may stay on their hard drive, and visible online, indefinitely.

In the decentralised world of the Social Web, "Delete" is a request, not a command.

Show threadaudioflyer79Mar 9
@jaz so why do some people make a point of setting their toots to delete after some period of time?
Show threadjaz  
@audioflyer79 some percent, maybe 100 percent, of those toots will be deleted.
Mar 9 at 5:41pmWeb