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Lemmy needs real deletion, not just soft‑delete/hiding (lemmy.world)
submitted 8 months ago by to c/support@lemmy.world
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Right now, deleting a post on Lemmy only hides it locally, but doesn’t fully remove it across the fediverse. I understand the technical reasons behind this, but from a user perspective it feels incomplete.

Platforms should give users the ability to fully delete their own content, or at least send a federated deletion request to other instances. This is important for privacy, safety, and user control.

Is full deletion planned, or is there a technical limitation preventing it? I’d like to understand what’s possible and whether this feature is on the roadmap.

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[–] 2 points 8 months ago (1 child)

I am not a programmer, but as I understand how it works, when you access content (user profile, post, etc.) that is not on your server, a request is sent and two things can happen. The request receives a response and the content is updated or it is not received and you see a cached version. I suppose a third option could be added, you get a response and it says that the content is actively deleted, causing the cache to be deleted. Maybe it took a while to clear everywhere, but I don't see why it wouldn't work.

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  • [–] [S] 3 points 8 months ago

    That makes a lot of sense, and it’s exactly the kind of mechanism I was hoping existed or could be added. Even if deletion can’t be instant across every server, having a federated “this content is deleted” response would give users real control instead of just hiding posts locally.

    A system like the one you describe — where a delete request clears caches on other servers — would solve most of the privacy and user‑control concerns people have. It wouldn’t need to be perfect to be meaningful.

    I appreciate the explanation. It’s good to know that this isn’t impossible, just something that needs coordination and implementation across the Fediverse.

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