delete and redraft feature

[plaidman]

Some other apps include a "delete and redraft" feature in case you want to change your post visibility. I frequently forget to change my replies to unlisted, so this would be nice not to have to copy/paste my post content.

[VyrCossont]

Delete and redraft is necessary if you want to change the tags that a post uses, since editing a post's hashtags doesn't change which tag timelines a post shows up in, at least on Mastodon: mastodon/mastodon#25537

Delete and redraft would also make Phanpy much more usable with GotoSocial instances, which don't currently support editing posts (it's on the GtS roadmap), and with other Mastodon-API-compatible instance servers that don't implement the full API.

UX-wise, I'd like to see it as another context menu option under Edit.

Implementation-wise, the post deletion API returns the deleted post's original text source, specifically for this feature.

[cheeaun]

From my perspective, 'Delete and redraft' was a technical workaround. I see this as a confusing feature (I was confused myself in the beginning) for users as this doesn't exist in any other platforms (outside of Mastodon?).

UX-wise, I'd like to see it as another context menu option under Edit.

If I understand this, you mean I can "hide" this under 'Edit'? The UI copy could still mention 'Edit', but the underlying functionality is 'delete and redraft'? 🤔

Reasons that I could think of right now to not proceed with this yet:

1. Delete and redraft orphanizes the replies. I assume post ID changes and replies under it will be pointing to deleted post.
2. There's currently no plans to support any old Mastodon features (e.g. Filters V1 is one of them).

[VyrCossont]

@cheeaun to clarify, I mean Delete & Redraft could be another context menu option displayed immediately after Edit at the same level. It could be displayed in place of Edit but that only makes sense for instance software flavors/versions known to not support Edit.

You're correct that delete and redraft orphans the replies, but it's also the only way to change a post's visibility or hashtags, regardless of Mastodon version. Editing a post cannot do either. One way to deal with the orphan problem is for Phanpy to show a confirmation dialog if the post already has replies. In many cases, the poster will notice they have the wrong visibility or hashtags immediately after posting, and there won't be any replies to worry about.