Bot/script to redact all messages in a room, or after a certain time

[non-Jedi]

Request from @cjd:matrix.org https://matrix.to/#/!XqBunHwQIXUiqCaoxq:matrix.org/$15058273983283238XGSvD:matrix.org

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People want:

• Self destructing messages
• Redact everything on demand

~ turt2live

[richvdh]

the usecase is apparently "Private chat and I want to remove it when my partner and I are done chatting"

I'm dubious about whether this is the best way to achieve that end

[MurzNN]

Additionally will be good to also remove old files from room storage.

[MurzNN]

Another useful command will be "Destroy room" that delete (redact) all messages, remove all files, kick all members from room, set room to "Invite only" and do one last thing - kick himself from room.

[ordinarygulp]

This would be very good, if something was talked about that has privacy concerns, or if we want to remove very old history.

[ghost]

Any news on this ? As a user caring about data occupation on server cost (environment/energy) for files that are not useful anymore or history that can easily be deleted from server, really looking forward to this !

[notsatvrn]

I need this for my Riot group. Any updates on this?

[ptman]

Doesn't message retention take care of this?

[commonism]

I added redacting own messages in rooms functionality to the archiver bot.

https://github.com/russelldavies/matrix-archive/compare/master...commonism:redact

[xanoni]

I added redacting own messages in rooms functionality to the archiver bot.

russelldavies/[email protected]:redact

This is great. You should add an option that allows users to define whether all messages should be deleted, or just messages older than X hours / days. After that is done, just running the script regularly (e.g., via cron in batch mode) would emulate disappearing messages.

[MurzNN]

I added redacting own messages in rooms functionality to the archiver bot.

russelldavies/[email protected]:redact

@commonism Is this not merged to main branch yet? Did you create a PR with this feature? Cuz I still can't see the --redact command in main repo.

[Mikaela]

I am missing this as m.room.retention breaks rooms of all users from homeserver x leave, https://github.com/matrix-org/synapse/issues/11448, which has became unacceptable and I have two options:

• ACL ban * and stop using Matrix.
• ACL allow only Synapse homeservers I have accounts on to workaround m.room.retention

My preferred solution would be a bot that I can run without selfhosting Synapse. I have this feature on Telegram, Signal, WhatsApp, IRC (Ergo CHATHISTORY) and XMPP (MUC MAM expiry).