I meant to respond to this directly, sorry for the late response. I think that there should be an option for both long-term retaining of data and index-ability by search engines.

For fedi to be a replacement of certain microblogging 'dot-cons' I think it needs to provide the above as options, via admin approval. I feel that instructing people to setup a #microblogging site is counter-productive, does fedi a disservice, and raises barriers for people to engage with there community, both local and global. I understand that maybe not all user will be granted such privileges (I am thinking shitposters, frequent image posters, and for-profits that don't donate) but there should be an option for storage and for search engine index-ability (understanding that all servers are fallible and to backup your data for extreme cases of server going offline).

It should however be up to the admin to grant such privileges, we also don't want bad-faith actors having that capability for /obvious/ reasons, but it is needed in GNUSocial, in the long-term.

Also to @administrator #fediverse #fediMeta #gnuSocial