If at some point you want to delete your account and have your posts and comments be gone, you better delete it all manually before you actually delete the account, because that deletion process does not really work as advertised.

For my main account on world (which runs an outdated lemmy version), it seemed like at least the account deletion was federated so that my user page was no longer browsable from other instances, but none of my posts, comments or images had been deleted, not even on the home instance.

The homie @MrKaplan@lemmy.world helped me by manually deleting my stuff, but it seems like that has only worked for the home instance, posts and comments seem to still be readable from other instances (except for some of the images that MrKaplan manually deleted too, but that was only possible up to a date not too far in the past because lemmy used to not associate user uploads with the accounts). So my old posts from the world account can be viewed just fine from other instances:

https://lemm.ee/post/1379925

For other instances that are more up to date the process is even worse imo, while locally things seem to get deleted, federation does not seem to happen at all. For example you can still browse my deleted slrpnk or lemmee accounts from other instances just fine:

https://slrpnk.net/u/achtungdrempels@lemm.ee

https://lemm.ee/u/AchtungDrempels@slrpnk.net

Account deletion in piefed works kinda like the old lemmy system (as on lemmy.world), and nothing gets deleted except the user page (which also seems to get federated), the posts and comments stay up.

Thought this would be interesting to some, if i had known what a mess this would be (obviously expected some federation issues, just not like that), i would have manually deleted everything. I deleted all these accounts in December, maybe this has been addressed somehow in the meantime, personally i’d have trust issues in this process.

  • deegeese@sopuli.xyzEnglish
    313·
    3 days ago

    My point is how could you ever count on deletion when the content is being federated?

    Even if Lemmy devs made account deletion easy and cascade deletes your content, all it takes is one server run by an archivist and that content is never going away.

    It seems inherently unfixable in a federated system, like trying to unsend an email.

    • kat@orbi.campEnglish
      4·
      3 days ago

      Eh, I rather things be deleted from mainstream instance at least. Don’t gotta be all or nothing to improve the current experience.

    • commanderEnglish
      511·
      3 days ago

      My point is he’s not asking for it to be deleted from the entire internet.

      You’re just here to jerk yourself off over “uhm, actually! nothing is ever deleted from the internet!” which also isn’t true.

      • Fizz@lemmy.nzEnglish
        81·
        2 days ago

        Actually he is. He wants his account deletion to delete all his comments and federate that out. However if that were how it works it would be very misleading to users because they would expect their posts to be deleted across the fediverse when that wouldn’t be the case. Some servers would retain that data and not comply with deleting all the comments.

        • bonjour@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
          13·
          2 days ago

          Cheers to the lemmy.nz admin for misleading (very) their users with the futile idea of federation, all across the fediverse, to not just let this funny comment end up in a dead end locally.

            • hendrik@palaver.p3x.deEnglish
              1·
              1 day ago

              I’m not sure what OP meant but I think none of the comments here are nailing it. If we say, we can’t do anything unless it’s 100% certain that all instances comply with the protocol, we might scrap the whole Fediverse idea altogether. Any post or comment or vote or deletion could be tempered with in one way or another. I mean we’re clearly making an effort here to do federation. I don’t really agree with the why and how of the whole discussion. My own point is, the software seems to have some bugs. Rarely, some comments and posts don’t federate to me correctly, and more often than that, deletions don’t federate correctly. Which seems to be one of OP’s problems, but also while dealing with spam or malicious activities.

              On the other hand, everyone who thinks it’s super easy to just delete everything has never had a look at the consequences. Moderators and Admins sometimes need to deal with bad people, there are technical reasons involved. And bad people also misuse features. It’s complicated for several reasons, difficult to get it right and it’s always a balance between opposing legitimate interests.

              But with that said, this doesn’t apply to bugs. Lemmy should at least iron out the software bugs to federate activities to other instances properly.

              • Fizz@lemmy.nzEnglish
                21·
                1 day ago

                No OPs point is not that there are bugs and deletions arent federating properly. OP expects functionality that doesnt exist and does not make sense and believes they are being tricked by this feature not existing.

            • bonjour@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
              11·
              1 day ago

              How again would anybody be mislead if deletions were being federated? Use this answer to answer yourself.