this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2024
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Lemmy

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Everything about Lemmy; bugs, gripes, praises, and advocacy.

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This should be a pretty basic feature, just not having a private message be there anymore. But for some reason that does not work here?

I tried searching for this. I found a year old open issue on GitHub and some reddit users complaining about this very issue.

Talking with some people in the comments here, it seems like some people don't understand that one might not want a message to be in their face. Or the idea that just because something could be recovered doesn't mean we should treat it as an absolute

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago

You can mark them read, at which point they won't appear with the default "unread" filter on.

If they're offensive, you can block the user, which will make them disappear completely until you deliberately unblock them.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Lemmy is FOSS and still alpha software. The raw truth is either you ask nicely and hopes someone implements what you're asking or code it yourself.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I didn't even think of that. I'd have to find the time but I could make that feature for myself.

Thank you!

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (3 children)

In my understanding, deleting (and moderation) are pretty much unsolved mysteries on this platform.

For example, last I heard, an administrator has to drop into a command line to delete media from removed posts, otherwise they'd still be accessible if the URL was known. (Think illegal material.)

Filtering is similarly done at the client end, so that's fun.

Note that I'm not associated with the source code, only as a user and am repeating things I've observed, read, or have been told. YMMV.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

For example, last I heard, an administrator has to drop into a command line to delete media from removed posts, otherwise they’d still be accessible if the URL was known. (Think illegal material.)

that's not true anymore, there's a dashboard built into the website now

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Your instance still has to update, that feature appeared in 0.19.4

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago

I was, but with it being a mostly media heavy update, I wanted to put it off a bit. I'll look into it soon and maybe 0.19.5 as well. We may use image proxying in the future. This comment is mostly talking about new moderating tools. https://join-lemmy.org/news/2024-06-07_-Lemmy_Release_v0.19.4-_Image_Proxying_and_Federation_improvements

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Perhaps it's worth joining an EU instance in case this creeps me out too much. I'd like to be able to use my right to be forgotten

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 months ago (2 children)

Good luck with that. Once the post federates out, the host instance can request for deletion, but any federated instances that receives the content doesn’t necessarily have to follow that request. They could easily modify their instance to not delete, they may reactivate the content from moderation log, they might have backup strategies that involves retaining data (for their own local legal reasons), etc etc.

It’s probably best to assume any content that you post on Lemmy are out of your control and will live for much longer than you’d expect.

This is not limited to just Lemmy but any federated systems. So regardless centralized corporation behind the service, or an open federated system; one way or another, whatever you post out there, its no longer yours to control.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago

This is not limited to just Lemmy but any federated systems.

Not just federated systems, things like the Wayback Machine exist too, web crawlers, people can save websites too (every web browser has a save option), or you can self host an archiving crawler if you want to backup a certain website, data hoarders exist.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I do always assume any content I put out is out there forever.

This argument "other people do it wrong, and it can't be guaranteed perfect" is not a good excuse to be negligent with people's data.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (2 children)

I don’t care for the argument one way or another; I’m not an EU resident and the whole thing is irrelevant to me as an individual.

I’m merely pointing out neither the Fediverse/Lemmy/etc. nor Reddit as a platform cares for EU’s privacy concerns, and people should be well informed when entering either platforms, so they’re not doing so with the false sense of security that they’d be able to exercise those government granted rights effectively.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago

Thanks for pointing it out.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

Congrats, I already said I agreed with that. Still doesn't excuse negligence, and we shouldn't allow that behaviour completely unchecked

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

oh wow, this platform really is not well put together. Let's hope that with the attention it's getting there might be some investment in better planning of the features on here

tbf, I'd still rather be here than reddit

[–] [email protected] 6 points 2 months ago (1 children)

When you send an email to someone, how can you delete it once they have it?

It's a similar issue here.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Except this isn't email, is it? This platform isn't copying all content to all other instances.

And even then, still not an excuse to be negligent.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 months ago (1 children)

If you send personal data to a mailing list with hundreds of members, can you ask them to delete that email?

Email receivers get a copy of the email, in a similar fashion to Lemmy.

Also, the latest Lemmy version allows for local communities, where content does not federate

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 months ago

This isn't about a mailing list with hundreds of members, this is about a dm. And not wanting to see it.

Is that so complicated?

(even emails let you delete m on your end)

[–] [email protected] 5 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

this platform really is not well put together

investment in better planning

Do people not realise that a software application does not just pop into existence with every conceivable feature implemented on day one?

Each dev only has so much effort they can put in, and being volunteers they have every right to prioritise working on whatever parts they care about most.