[feature] user function: prune old posts

[nikkicoon]

Is your feature request related to a problem ?

I'd have to adjust mastopurge to a degree to be able to periodically batch delete posts from gts. It would be nicer to have this feature integrated.

Describe the solution you'd like.

• in the admin/user panel, the user can set a boolean option for auto-deleting posts
• auto-deleting posts can be defined with either what to exclude or what to include in a age/range (pinned posts, favorited posts, media posts, etc)

Describe alternatives you've considered.

None

Additional context.

No response

[nikkicoon]

As an intermediate solution and since the only Mastodon API specific tool I tried was too old for the API, what methods do exist at the moment to delete more than 1 posts at a time and federate that deletion?

[tsmethurst]

what methods do exist at the moment to delete more than 1 posts at a time and federate that deletion

Nothing like that exists right now; you can only delete one post at a time currently. You could probably script something up using the API to iterate through your old posts and delete them, but eventually we should indeed just add this as a feature to GtS so everyone can use it :)

(Sorry for the huge delay in replying btw, didn't see this comment.)

[decentral1se]

Subscribed, thank you for opening @nikkicoon! V happy to see that this will land as a built-in feature at some point 🦩 I think I will try write up a script soon-ish to do some purging.

EDIT: Update is that I ran into #1135 and #2196 and got distracted and gave up. Another run at it coming One Day Soon ™️

[filipesmedeiros]

what methods do exist at the moment to delete more than 1 posts at a time and federate that deletion

Nothing like that exists right now; you can only delete one post at a time currently. You could probably script something up using the API to iterate through your old posts and delete them, but eventually we should indeed just add this as a feature to GtS so everyone can use it :)

(Sorry for the huge delay in replying btw, didn't see this comment.)

Thank you for the response! Would you want some help with getting this added? I know nothing about Go, but if it's something that's easy to add, I'd love to help

[marmulak]

I would like to vote for this as well. Mastodon calls this feature "automated post deletion". The reason why I think this is an ideal for GtS is:

1. Privacy - helps users/admins manage their privacy by stopping people from delving too far back into the past
2. Storage - GtS is meant for small servers/instances that may not have resources like limitless storage, so some blanket setting for this will help make the service perpetual

To me, this makes it an essential need of GoToSocial. I would, for example, set posts on my server to delete after 1 year. Maybe a more sophisticated implementation could apply this to all posts except pinned/starred posts.

Recently I have been reading about this feature online, and it seems most people agree that this is best implemented on the server side.

[decentral1se]

blurp might fit your needs in the meantime 🙈

[Karmalakas]

Just spun up a GTS instance and one of the first things I missed is exactly this feature. I want to use my instance for two accounts - one would be normal and the other would be a bot account. I want this bot account posts older than 6 months to be deleted, like it's possible on Mastodon instances 😕

[kouya]

I'm running image bots on mine for a year now. I can give you the python script I made that deletes them via the normal post API if you want. :3 Edit: I'll link it here if there is interest when I get back home again later today.

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On Sat, Nov 2, 2024, at 10:45, Karmalakas wrote: Just spun up a GTS instance and one of the first things I missed is exactly this feature. I want to use my instance for two accounts - one would be normal and the other would be a bot account. I want this bot account posts older than 6 months to be deleted, like it's possible on Mastodon instances 😕 — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#1442 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/ACZJ7EXV3J75TDPIKAPUB53Z6SNK7AVCNFSM6AAAAAAUTIWIFSVHI2DSMVQWIX3LMV43OSLTON2WKQ3PNVWWK3TUHMZDINJSHEZTOMRRGU>. You are receiving this because you are subscribed to this thread.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Karmalakas]

@kouya , thanks 🙂 But I can wait. I mean it's not a must have feature just yet, but IMO it's a must have in a year or so 😄 Also, I'm running GTS on a TrueNAS Scale as a custom app, so I'm not sure how comfortable I'd be adding the script in a container. I'm not that familiar with Linux sysems yet 🙂

[kouya]

Yeah fair enough it needs the sqlite3 command line client to figure out what posts to expire and cron or a systemd timer.

I feel like the botsin space shutdown brought a lot of attention to gts which is really cool. :3

[Karmalakas]

the botsin space shutdown brought a lot of attention to gts

That's exactly why I'm here 😅

[NyaaaWhatsUpDoc]

before the end of the year there's some big internal changes to status processing / storage coming, in the form of status edits and tombstones (so we can maintain threading even when statuses in the chain get deleted). once those are done i plan to work on old status pruning, both old remote and old local ones.