Bit 🐳 Ish on Nostr: This is easy to understand if you understand relays. Quick primer: You connect with ...

This is easy to understand if you understand relays. Quick primer:

You connect with other ppl on nostr via relays. When I post a note, that note is sent to all the relays I'm connected to. Those relays then sends that note to all the other ppl also connected to those relays.

Ppl can further boost or broadcast my note which then sends it to all the relays they are connected to, sending the note far and wide.

If a relay does not honor the delete request, that note will remain and continue to propagate thru the network.

Similarly if the note gets sent to a relay I'm not connected to, the delete request won't reach those other relays and remain alive on the network. I wouldn't be able to see it since I'm not connected to the relays serving those notes, but I wouldnt see it but others might. That is, until that note makes it's way back around to one of the relays I am connected to.

Therefore delete is possible but not guaranteed.

Hope that helps?

quoting
nevent1q…xqk0

Can you delete on Nostr?

Yes! Does it work 100% of the time? No! But I'll say it works 99% of the time. That last 1% is what keeps us from having a true delete.

Why do people say that you can't delete here?

Deletes are delete requests sent to relays. The vast majority of relays honor these requests. Content can still exist in local caches and caching servers though.

It's hard to fully and truly delete all traces of content, therefore we say content can't be deleted on Nostr because there is no central authority to coordinate and force these changes and requests.

I hope this makes sense.

I will delete this note in an hour to demonstrate.