Re: Question for #ActivityPub implementors: has there been any research on how to best handle deletions (accounts and/or posts)?

Hi @renchap@oisaur.com! Discussion regarding this resurfaces from time to time, and it mostly centres around how noisy the deletion process is, as you've alluded to in your post.

I wrote up a small update regarding how NodeBB handles deletes via ActivityPub, perhaps it may help.

End of the day ensuring that a deletion is fully propagated is probably futile. I personally believe that all instances should handle remote actor data like a cache, and clear it regularly. That means if account data is stale and a re-fetch results in a Tombstone or 410 Gone, then the account should be scrubbed.