Have you ever wondered what happens to all those posts that you compulsively publish every day on social media? Well, it adds up day after day, like your beer cans. And one day, it may come back years later to embarrass you. The politicians of this country know something about this.

In short, at a time when the debate rages between deleting your Twitter/X account or migrating to Bluesky, a more fundamental question arises: why keep our publications on social networks indefinitely? After all, these platforms are designed to share our thoughts in the moment – ​​a hot reaction to the news, an opinion on the latest blockbuster, a passing rant and our opinions, our interests and our personality evolve naturally over time. Personally, there are so many assholes sniffing at me on the networks that it's been a long time since I only kept 3 months max of tweets and deleted the rest. For this I use TweetDelete that you may know.

And for Bluesky, how do we do it? Well that’s where it comes in. Skeeter-Deletera Python script that will allow you to clean up and maintain a certain digital hygiene. Its principle is extremely effective: it first downloads a complete archive of your Bluesky posts (including images and media), then automatically deletes them according to your criteria. For example, you can schedule the deletion of all posts older than 48 hours, or those that exceed a certain level of virality – an interesting approach at a time when “going viral” is no longer necessarily desirable, potentially attracting a unwanted attention and heated debates.

The really clever thing about this tool is that it allows you to preserve certain posts by “liking” them. A bit like putting a star on your favorite messages to save them from digital oblivion. And even if your posts are publicly deleted, you still have access to a complete private archive.

To set up this self-cleaning system, here are the steps to follow:

  1. Clone the project's GitHub repository
  2. Install the required Python dependencies (consider installing libmagic!)
  3. Configure your Bluesky credentials in environment variables
  4. Define your deletion criteria with the available options: -l to set a repost limit, -s to define the maximum age of posts in days, -d to protect posts containing certain domains, -y to completely automate the process

The script even offers advanced features such as configuring a fixed cursor to optimize the recovery of likes or a verbose mode to follow operations in detail.

But be careful: THIS CODE IS VERY DESTRUCTIVE. So take the time to understand how it works before launching it, and do tests on a secondary account if possible. Once a post is deleted, there is no going back.

This approach todigital ephemerality still raises essential questions about our online presence. Social networks encourage us to constantly react, to comment on the latest news, to share our feelings, but these posts taken out of context years later can be misinterpreted or no longer reflect who we have become. So, I still find it more natural that our online exchanges are ephemeral, a bit like our conversations in real life?

To completely automate the process, here is an example batch script:

#!/bin/bash

# Définition des variables d'environnement pour Bluesky
export BLUESKY_USERNAME="votre_nom"
export BLUESKY_PASSWORD="votre_mot_de_passe"

# Exécution du script Python avec les paramètres
# -s 2 : age en jours
# -l 100 : limite à 100 reposts
# -y : confirmation automatique
python skeeter-deleter.py -s 2 -l 100 -y

Of course, this solution is not perfect and the code requires knowledge of Python and authentication by identifiers is not ideal (we are waiting for OAuth support). But Skeeter-Deleter offers a refreshing approach to managing our online presence, inviting us to take back control of our data while preserving our important memories.

So, ready to do some spring cleaning in your Bluesky posts?

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