#Mastodon & #Fediverse folks: honest beginner question — what motivates the choice to auto-delete posts after a set period

[asanpin@defcon.social]

#Mastodon & #Fediverse folks: honest beginner question — what motivates the choice to auto-delete posts after a set period?
Pure curiosity, not taking sides.

#autodelete

[chris@socialbc.ca]

@asanpin @socialmedia i don't auto-delete mine, but I think there is a general thought that impermanence is something valuable. We shouldn't be required to have a moment by moment recording of our lives. That's not how humanity has evolved.

[ghrasko@mastodon.social]

@chris @asanpin
Very interesting thoughts, that I never considered! Social media has blurred a once-clear boundary: most human communication was ephemeral, while writing was meant to last. Today, casual remarks are archived like publications. Records support accountability, yet it is deeply human to think aloud and revise our views without every half-formed thought permanently attached to us. The challenge is deciding what deserves to be remembered - and what can fade.

[ghrasko@mastodon.social]

@chris @asanpin
By the way, how this auto-deletion works on Mastodon? Is it only for posts or for replies as well? Can you easily decide that a specific post should be fix or ephemeral?

[crispius@mstdn.fname.ca]

@asanpin
Two schools of thought that I’m aware of: (I’m sure there are more)

1) as an anti-abuse strategy to prevent someone from digging up a post from the past and posting it as a ‘gotcha’ or out of context.

2) out of respect for server admins who’s storage is being used up by posted content that is no longer relevant or useful.

[chris@socialbc.ca]

@ghrasko @asanpin Exactly! We're not meant to have every thing we ever blurt out haunt us for all time. We are iterative machines, learning from our mistakes and evolving by trial and error.

As for the process I’m not entirely sure how it works. There looks like a good article at feditips here. Looks like there are a bunch of ways to mark posts for keeping.

Deleting posts automatically in Mastodon after a certain time period | Fedi.Tips – An Unofficial Guide to Mastodon and the Fediverse

An unofficial guide to using Mastodon and the Fediverse

(fedi.tips)

[alison@beige.party]

@crispius My thought was #2 so your host doesn't have to store every image/video you ever posted. If you choose to keep things set up a monthly donation of a couple bux to help offset the cost of space. @asanpin

[emanuelecariati@varese.social]

@asanpin Resources. Every post occupies space. My server has limited space. Deleting posts frees up space thus saving me some money in the process

[edwing@mstdn.moimeme.ca]

@asanpin I auto delete mine for cost management reasons.

Every post costs money to host: database, media (if any),