Hi there,
some questions about the behavior of friendica with respect of preserving the content of posts from other servers and other #fediVerse platforms.
There are several options in #friendica to mark posts. There is staring a post or an answer, there is interacting with it like giving a thumbs up or done (like\dislike) and answering, saving to a folder and sharing or resharing a post. Answers can't be stared but saved to a folder, shared and reshared.
What happens when a post or an answer is deleted y the owner of that post or answer?
There are posts from other instances that still are preserved over here even tho they don't exist anymore on the originating server.
What happens if answers are deleted by the owner of the answer? Also, somehow answers to answers are related and they do disappear at least when an answer is deleted locally on this server. Is the same true if an answer is deleted by the originating profile?
Also, have there been changes on the behavior on these aspects in friendica or are their discussion about changing some of those aspects?
Matthew Exon
•"There are posts from other instances that still are preserved over here even tho they don't exist anymore on the originating server."
At least one way this can happen is if a local user requests a post by pasting the URL in the search bar, but no local user follows the remote user. When the remote user deletes their post, they send a delete message to their followers, but not to every server that ever queried the post. So, the local server keeps the message. This is a bad thing, of course.
So in principle, remote deletes are supposed to behave the same as local deletes. But in practice, sometimes the local server just doesn't know that they're deleted.
veroandi_br
•@Matthew Exon @utopiArte
Another case may exist. I often see posts on Friendica that have been deleted on Mastodon. This happens frequently with the current spam waves, but also with posts from people I follow. Sometimes people post things and then decide to delete them. Since my instance doesn't download comments, I sometimes click to read the post in the original instance to see the reactions. But the post no longer exists there, except in my instance.
I also created and deleted a test Friendica account, but it still exists on one Mastodon instance.
I don't know if it's a problem in Friendica or Mastodon, I need to say that sometimes, deleted photos on Pixelfed are not deleted in Mastodon. It's not every time though.
utopiArte
•Not asking about this because I consider it a problem but because there are posts and answeres I definitely want to preserve. Actually that's one of the reasons to use friendica and host your own server.
@veroandi_br
@Matthew Exon
Ji Fu (Domestic Terrorist)
•utopiArte
•@Ji Fu
That was my impression too.
At the same time this most likely acts on cleaning out the local data base as a measure of maintaining it as small as possible\necessary. Probably something different is if a delete this item! command is received by the friendica server. And of course that by default is a different circumstance. That's a point were we enter the discussion about "the right to be forgotten". And that's a truly interesting one. Also it comes to mind that their should or could be different criteria if we are talking about a public post or a restricted one. If I remember well, in diaspora for example PM's are not deleted remotely, in other words, if you delete on your side, that doesn't mean that it is deleted on the other side.
In the case of public posts in my opinion their should be the option of preserving it on a remote server. Ultimately archive.org does just that.
At l
... show more@Ji Fu
That was my impression too.
At the same time this most likely acts on cleaning out the local data base as a measure of maintaining it as small as possible\necessary. Probably something different is if a delete this item! command is received by the friendica server. And of course that by default is a different circumstance. That's a point were we enter the discussion about "the right to be forgotten". And that's a truly interesting one. Also it comes to mind that their should or could be different criteria if we are talking about a public post or a restricted one. If I remember well, in diaspora for example PM's are not deleted remotely, in other words, if you delete on your side, that doesn't mean that it is deleted on the other side.
In the case of public posts in my opinion their should be the option of preserving it on a remote server. Ultimately archive.org does just that.
At least till recently on this server there was a public post preserved I consider important and valuable, referring to a public talk on the main stage of a CCC congress event. The originating profile doesn't exist anymore, but I guess that it just deleted itself without using some kind of "send delete all posts" command. Their for that toot was preserved over here.
Than there is the detail that friendica deletes or purges somehow all answers to deleted answers. And that is really a pity and quite destructive as a lot of interesting content that took time and effort to create is simply erased. The reference to an antlady post in this thread here is a good example for that.
Actually that's part of the settings by the profile if I'm not wrong. The admin only can enable the existence of those options but does not set limitations of the time frame.
Than there is the option of "storing to a folder", as of now I have no idea what that actually does or where to find those folders.
Ji Fu (Domestic Terrorist)
•@utopiArte saving to a folder is a way to categorize posts you want to look at again.
Once you have at least once folder saved you'll see them listed on the left side of your NETWORK feed under the heading SAVED FOLDERS
You should be able to get to them directly with https://tupambae.org/filed
I frequently use them for stuff I want to reference later, like articles that are too long to read right now, or recipes, (maybe I should make one for memes I want to reshare later rather than downloading them and then uploading them to my MEMES photo album).
I actually have my bookmark for friendica set to my folder
... show more@utopiArte saving to a folder is a way to categorize posts you want to look at again.
Once you have at least once folder saved you'll see them listed on the left side of your NETWORK feed under the heading SAVED FOLDERS
You should be able to get to them directly with https://tupambae.org/filed
I frequently use them for stuff I want to reference later, like articles that are too long to read right now, or recipes, (maybe I should make one for memes I want to reshare later rather than downloading them and then uploading them to my MEMES photo album).
I actually have my bookmark for friendica set to my folder https://libranet.de/filed?file=You%20really%20should%20look%20at%20this%20later so that when I load the first thing in my face is the folders (that's teh only way I have found to actually READ the stuff in my STUFF TO READ LATER folder, otherwise its the OOO SHINY instead, and the deep stuff is never read, but I digress)>
You can have one post in multiple folders, like if its a Star Trek receipe, I want to read later I might put it in all three of those folders so no mater which one I pick that post will show
Ji Fu (Domestic Terrorist)
•@utopiArte
yeah that's to put the agency in the power of the OP. So if they wrote something, and then a bunch of comments where added that made them feel dumb, they can delete not only their posts but all of the others.
In a polycentric system there is no way to guarantee that its all gone, particularly as there are other platforms that work differently. On NOSTR for example some relays will remove, ignore, or even highlight notes that have been requested to be deleted. so assume that any you put on Friendica is there forever.
On the other end of the spectrum, since someone else can choose to disappear stuff you need to take agency to keep it long term. Whether that be the old copy/paste to a text file that lives on your computer, requesting particular pages are archived through one of the dozens of platforms that does that, , or
... show more@utopiArte
yeah that's to put the agency in the power of the OP. So if they wrote something, and then a bunch of comments where added that made them feel dumb, they can delete not only their posts but all of the others.
In a polycentric system there is no way to guarantee that its all gone, particularly as there are other platforms that work differently. On NOSTR for example some relays will remove, ignore, or even highlight notes that have been requested to be deleted. so assume that any you put on Friendica is there forever.
On the other end of the spectrum, since someone else can choose to disappear stuff you need to take agency to keep it long term. Whether that be the old copy/paste to a text file that lives on your computer, requesting particular pages are archived through one of the dozens of platforms that does that, , or quoting a post rather than commenting it. Deleting the OP won't, if i understand correctly, remove your quote, like it will your reply.
There are lots of different users with lots of different goals and we're all just finding a way to address the ones we care about. Isn't free software great!
utopiArte
•@Ji Fu
thx for that.
never realized (in like 14 years of use) that the left column of the network page is different to the one of the profile page. I always only checked the one of the profile.
The deleted toot doesn't show up in saved folders neither. The image of a folder in the "save to folder" option made me relate that option to literally saving (a copy) of a post to a specific independent location.
Considering today's state of the art reality, best thing to create a backup copy of some public post and it's conversation would be to create an archive.org page, do a quote-reshare, and paste the archive link as part of the quote-reshare content. Well, and place all that in some backup folder or list as a backup category.
Ji Fu (Domestic Terrorist)
•Ji Fu (Domestic Terrorist)
•@utopiArte
I could see that. I was thinking it's more like a tag, at least the way we use the tag on LibraryThing, but in general social media parlance tag already means words linked by putting a pound sign at the front of it. Maybe Friendica could create some sort of an archive option so that the a copy is stored locally I don't have an idea to go about doing that. Probably a feature I'd want to turn off if I admired a public instance, storage is already one of the biggest hurdles to self-hosting and supporting archiving could greatly increase the amount of space used, but it might be a great tool for a single-user instance.
Ji Fu (Domestic Terrorist)
•@utopiArte
Yeah, this certainly sounds like proof of a poor web design. I too have frequently "lost" many things that show in the left of the NETWORK feed. (I spent several minutes trying to find how you actually get to the think I just have bookmarked in order to respond to you last night). Do you have any ideas how this could be done differently? I keep looking for them in this drop down menu
utopiArte
•@Ji Fu (Domestic Terrorist)
Yes, no, .. not really.
At the same time in general terms this is about becoming aware of an option, a functionality and than become reminded in the "good manner" so those things drip into the knowledge\long time memory.
To begin with I guess what friendica needs for newbies would be some kind of easy to understand quite short gif sequence, kinda tictoc snippet that introduces them to all the features and options. A step by step tutorial that somehow includes the previous lesson adding a new one every time the users logs on.
To find the latest interactions and somehow skip the notification routines this profile has set as initial login page:
... show more/network?mention=1.. that's the network posts already personally interacted with tab. Also is quite usefull for the long time memory effect trick. Talking about the
@Ji Fu (Domestic Terrorist)
Yes, no, .. not really.
At the same time in general terms this is about becoming aware of an option, a functionality and than become reminded in the "good manner" so those things drip into the knowledge\long time memory.
To begin with I guess what friendica needs for newbies would be some kind of easy to understand quite short gif sequence, kinda tictoc snippet that introduces them to all the features and options. A step by step tutorial that somehow includes the previous lesson adding a new one every time the users logs on.
To find the latest interactions and somehow skip the notification routines this profile has set as initial login page:
/network?mention=1.. that's the network posts already personally interacted with tab. Also is quite usefull for the long time memory effect trick. Talking about the
/settings/addons/startpageaddon here.You could set that initial page addon as well to:
/network?star=1.., the network stared tab, to find those latest posts.
Than there is the option create own bookmark hashtags, to do later editing or adding answers,as well as the
@remindmebot to schedule reasonable reminders on issues, like digging out some old image or creating a short video for specific content. Kinda todo-list reminder in case of forgetting about an issue.utopiArte
•#bookmark as an #exampleReminder, saved into folder and stared on this server (2024.03):
Kai und der Andere
2025-09-22 19:41:12
bitpickup
•@utopiArte
respective magnet link stared over here on (2024.12).
bitpickup
•Here another #tracingBookmark @utopiArte of another mastodon post that in this case was stared and saved to a folder by this profile on friendica 2024.12:
https://tupambae.com/display/59e215f1-7c31b17240b2f9a5-3aa04bef
bitpickup
•#tracingBookmark mastodon post stared and saved on friendica 2024.12:
https://tupambae.com/display/6a0c8436-1477ff5456086b81-9579d30e
bitpickup
•Looks like the refereed mastodon toot above has been deleted since you posted the example link @utopiArte. The content of the reshare is still available, that probably means that friendica pulled at least the text in as part of the answer (or new post). Apparently on this server that toot itself hasn't been preserved because of staring it.
@Kai und der Andere
utopiArte
•jeSuisatire duckundwech…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
•If I remember well, the first response to the linked toot from @walsonde was by @utopiarte. As of now, that answer doesn't show up, but the answer from this profile onto that answer is still available over here:
https://social.tchncs.de/@jesuisatire/115260606550748136
Same goes for bitpickups answer onto that answer of this profile.
@bitpickup
jeSuisatire duckundwech…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
2025-09-24 18:08:02
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
•Same over here @jesuisatire. Your answer is still available, as well as this answer from this profile over here:
https://troet.cafe/@bitpickup/115268489759644143
@utopiarte's answer is not available, at least as of now no trace of it.
@bitpickup@tupambae.com
mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup
2025-09-26 03:32:50
utopiArte
•@jeSuisatire duckundwech…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
True, looks like that:
@mʕ•ﻌ•ʔm bitPickup @bitpickup
utopiArte
•@bitpickup
Test quote-share of a post that will be edited and than deleted.
Initial text:
@bitpickup
Test quote-share of a post that will be edited and than deleted.
Initial text:
jeSuisatire duckundwech…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
2025-10-12 14:14:43
jeSuisatire duckundwech…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
•bitpickup
•@utopiArte
Quote-reshare of the second toot answer to be deleted. This one is a public answer with a small video:
The initial text reads:
btw
The {share} bbCode together with the link to the quote-reshared toot can't be added in a {code} bbCode to this answer, neither the code nore the quote-reshare shows up in the preview.
@utopiArte
Quote-reshare of the second toot answer to be deleted. This one is a public answer with a small video:
The initial text reads:
btw
The {share} bbCode together with the link to the quote-reshared toot can't be added in a {code} bbCode to this answer, neither the code nore the quote-reshare shows up in the preview.
jeSuisatire duckundwech…ᘛ⁐̤ᕐᐷ
2025-10-12 14:27:12
utopiArte
•Ji Fu (Domestic Terrorist)
•