Comrade Ferret

2025-08-17 16:06:48

ferret@hub.workersofthe.world

Hey #fediblock a conversation got me wondering: Is there an easier way to tell which instances don't respect delete requests than just...deleting a post and seeing who doesn't delete it?

2025-08-17 16:20:40

Nanook

nanook@friendica.eskimo.com

@Comrade Ferret The fediverse has a whole mix of protocols, not all of which are congruent, so even before you get into local system policies you have the issue of protocol incompatibilities. Therefore you might want to think about what you say before you say it because more likely than not it will be as permanent as the fediverse.

2025-08-17 16:22:39

Aurora

rallias@hax.social

@ferret so, two things.

Firstly, most instances that reject deletes indicate such on the about page and, if it's a per-instance rule, and they announce domain blocks, the relevant api call - https://docs.joinmastodon.org/methods/instance/#domain_blocks . Mastodon, unless running something modified I'm not aware of, categorically doesn't have this capability.

Second, just because when you delete a post and it remains on the target instance doesn't necessarily indicate they're wilfully ignoring deletes. Fediverse software in general only propagates deletes to instances it has a reason to believe have the content in the first place, think your followers, anyone who's responded to or reacted to a post, and any relays they may have configured. If I deleted an arbitrary toot on my account, one that you may have loaded manually by copying it's URL into your own instances search box, because you don't follow me and because I don't believe you to share a relay with me that relays all toots, I can't reasonably expect that toot of mine to be removed from your feed.

2025-08-17 16:36:52

Nanook

nanook@friendica.eskimo.com

@Comrade Ferret Mastodon is only ONE player in the fediverse, I have a Mastodon instance (mastodon.eskimo.com) but also a Hubzilla (hubzilla.eskimo.com), and a Friendica (friendica.eskimo.com), and a Pixelfed (pixelfed.eskimo.com), and a Nextcloud (nextcloud.eskimo.com), and a Yacy (yacy.eskimo.com), although there is overlap in the protocols and some speak multiple, Friendica for example is not obligated to obey Mastodon's API or Mastodon Friendica's. It is good to the extent that they do because it is what makes the fediverse work at all, but usually one servers implementation of another's protocol is not 100%. It is good for delete's to function, else how to you limit spammers and the like, but you should not anticipate it to be a guarantee. Sites that fail to honor it, well they are going to get more than their fair share of spam.