Conversation

Notices

1. Embed this notice
   Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Saturday, 09-May-2026 17:28:58 JST Aral Balkan

   • Mastodon.social Staff

   Actually, here’s what I really think is lacking: a hide post moderation option in Mastodon.

   Instead of deleting posts, moderators should be able to hide posts.

   Posts that are hidden by moderators should keep their place in the timeline but state publicly that they were hidden by moderators.

   (Servers other than the originating server must treat hidden posts as otherwise deleted and remove their local cache of the content. This is no different to the existing social contact for federated deleted.)

   The server should also clearly communicate to the person in question (this can be automated) and they should be able to challenge the decision via regular channels/an appeal. (And, if they don’t like the moderation, they can move to a different server, etc.)

   That would feel much better to me than deleting a post outright and it can be combined with a moderation policy that promises not to delete or edit other people’s posts.

   And it would also allow for an appeal process and the possible reinstatement of a post should it be found that a moderation error had occurred.

   CC @staff @haubles

   #mastodon #moderation #fediverse #postDeletion #postHiding #authorship #censorship #ownership

   • Embed this notice
     A Part of Bee (morix@loci.onl)'s status on Sunday, 10-May-2026 03:37:03 JST A Part of Bee

     in reply to

     • Mastodon.social Staff

     @aral @staff @haubles the ability to replace the served version of a post with a "hidden by moderation" message would likely work, that way there's functionally a placeholder for if it is later unhidden and it can just remanifest back in like an edit almost.

   • Embed this notice
     Paúl Sanz (polkillas@neopaquita.es)'s status on Sunday, 10-May-2026 16:32:41 JST Paúl Sanz

     in reply to

     • Mastodon.social Staff

     @aral This «hide post» is exactly what I was thinking, I think that's a great idea.@staff @haubles

   • Embed this notice
     Aral Balkan (aral@mastodon.ar.al)'s status on Sunday, 10-May-2026 16:55:28 JST Aral Balkan

     in reply to

     • Dan York
     • Mastodon.social Staff

     @danyork @staff @haubles Agreed.

   • Embed this notice
     Dan York (danyork@mastodon.social)'s status on Sunday, 10-May-2026 16:55:29 JST Dan York

     in reply to

     • Mastodon.social Staff

     @aral @staff @haubles I like what you describe as a default option and process.

     I do think, though, that moderators/admins should reserve the right to use deletion for content that is illegal or a massive violation of terms of service. If someone posts CSAM, for instance, I don’t think you as an admin *want that on your server*. That kind of vile stuff needs to be removed, in my opinion. If I operated an instance (I don’t), I would want to do that.