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I intentionally drop all messages from time to time (typically once I get a new device). Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine

I intentionally drop all messages from time to time (typically once I get a new device). Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine? After all, I don’t remember all conversations I had in person as well. I understand that loosing them at an unexpected time can be annoying and a backup is useful, but I personally never had a use for that feature and knowing that it is annoying for someone to keep all my messages around forever is something I consider positive.

toomuchtodo 5y ago
Yes. I keep my iMessages forever, and even back them up (as well as my photo library) as part of my desktop backups. I’m switching my social networks to Telegram after Signal burned up its good will focusing on features they want versus what their users want. Do I care if it’s as secure? No, I prefer the convenience and superior UX iMessages and Telegram offers. Really unfortunate, as it was Signal’s race to lose after their bump in usage and shoutouts from popular folks using it.
- hermanradtke 5y ago
  > I’m switching my social networks to Telegram after Signal burned up its good will focusing on features they want versus what their users want. It seems to me like Signal has been focusing on making their UX closer to Telegrams. This seems to be what many users want?
- stereoradonc 5y ago
  Let me know if you need any help in moving to Telegram! Welcome aboard. Need help with channels/ bots, groups? We've got you covered.
zepearl 5y ago
> Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine? Same here - but maybe if doing Business then somebody might want to keep them (e.g. to keep track of whatever your customers told you in the past? Just a guess...). (btw. I think it's not "loosing" if you don't mean something like "letting them free", but "losing". "losing" vs. "choosing", I kept mixing that up until recently... :P ) What I would like as a feature in Signal is "polls" (e.g. to choose with a few friends to which bar/restaurant to go, when to meet, whatever). But now unluckily I'm back on Whatsapp as even after having abandoned it, within almost 2 years most of my friends refused to install Signal -> in the end, on 31.Dec.2021, I decided to admit that I failed, and I reinstalled Whatsapp :(
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
slickdork 5y ago
I set signal to auto delete messages older than 2 weeks. There is zero reason to keep messages of a personal relation longer than that, for me at least. I am prone to nostalgic romanticizing, and not having access to past messages kind of solves that problem.
- stereoradonc 5y ago
  That option exists for Telegram as well. You can set it up for 3 days to 1 month
- diggernet 5y ago
  I just wish there was a way to lock specific important messages to exempt them from auto delete.
blacksmith_tb 5y ago
I don't generally need to preserve all my messages forever, but I often do refer to recent ones, say from the last few weeks. I have switched devices a couple of times with Signal only to be stuck thinking "oh crap, did I agree to do X on Th or Fri?" The lack of sync for SMS with their desktop client also makes it basically useless to me, I'm sure that's more secure, but I wouldn't mind being to opt-out, especially on a contact-by-contact basis.
abnercoimbre 5y ago
My conference [0] spins up a brand new Matrix server each event. It's the equivalent of having hallway conversations that shouldn't be tracked. Not everything needs to live on forever. [0] https://handmade-seattle.com https://handmade-seattle.com
- emptysongglass 5y ago
  I just think this is incredibly cool. Is there public source code to this?
  - abnercoimbre 5y ago
    Hey sorry I saw this a couple of days late. Glad you think it's cool! It's closed-source at the moment, but I do dive into technical details in newsletters [0] whenever I can. If you prefer RSS [1] we have that too. Cheers. [0] https://media.handmade-seattle.com/subscribe https://media.handmade-seattle.com/subscribe [1] https://media.handmade-seattle.com/rss https://media.handmade-seattle.com/rss
xanaxagoras 5y ago
> Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine? I find text based instant messaging to be shallow and vapid and I have very little interest in them. Texting is best used (for me at least) to coordinate real life plans (I'll be in front of X at Y o'clock) or quick task-oriented notes (Hey babe, can you grab some sliced turkey if you're still at the store). If you want to actually talk to me, call me or let's meet in person. This attachment to one's messaging archive is IMO a symptom of data hoarding. 99.9% of text conversations won't be interesting in the future because they weren't interesting when they were happening. That said I do like enjoy the feature where all of the photos from a given conversation are easily accessible.
- sshine 5y ago
  The first message I got from my girlfriend was a response to me sharing some music with her and asking for a song back. She sent a small video of her cat complaining. If I could have backups of entire conversations, I wouldn’t have to export and save every single video and picture being sent with Signal.
barbazoo 5y ago
Same here, I don't get that insistence on backups at all but I get that others might feel differently. I wouldn't be surprised that this is more prevalent in us techie types than the average user of chat apps.
piaste 5y ago
I recently decided to watch a movie that my ex-girlfriend had recommended to me, and I was able to quietly search for it in the chat history since we're no longer on speaking terms so I couldn't ask her. On the other side, when I broke up with her I also used the chat history to point out some times she had tried to lie to me. That was a bitter satisfaction I could probably have done without.
Barrin92 5y ago
>Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine not only do I think it's fine I think it's actually healthy. I think the ability to search and turn over every word said in the past can produce some pretty neurotic and bad behaviors. There's a fun Black Mirror episode about this in one of the earlier seasons.

toomuchtodo 5y ago

Yes. I keep my iMessages forever, and even back them up (as well as my photo library) as part of my desktop backups. I’m switching my social networks to Telegram after Signal burned up its good will focusing on features they want versus what their users want. Do I care if it’s as secure? No, I prefer the convenience and superior UX iMessages and Telegram offers. Really unfortunate, as it was Signal’s race to lose after their bump in usage and shoutouts from popular folks using it.

hermanradtke 5y ago
> I’m switching my social networks to Telegram after Signal burned up its good will focusing on features they want versus what their users want. It seems to me like Signal has been focusing on making their UX closer to Telegrams. This seems to be what many users want?
stereoradonc 5y ago
Let me know if you need any help in moving to Telegram! Welcome aboard. Need help with channels/ bots, groups? We've got you covered.

zepearl 5y ago

> Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine? Same here - but maybe if doing Business then somebody might want to keep them (e.g. to keep track of whatever your customers told you in the past? Just a guess...). (btw. I think it's not "loosing" if you don't mean something like "letting them free", but "losing". "losing" vs. "choosing", I kept mixing that up until recently... :P ) What I would like as a feature in Signal is "polls" (e.g. to choose with a few friends to which bar/restaurant to go, when to meet, whatever). But now unluckily I'm back on Whatsapp as even after having abandoned it, within almost 2 years most of my friends refused to install Signal -> in the end, on 31.Dec.2021, I decided to admit that I failed, and I reinstalled Whatsapp :(

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

slickdork 5y ago

I set signal to auto delete messages older than 2 weeks. There is zero reason to keep messages of a personal relation longer than that, for me at least. I am prone to nostalgic romanticizing, and not having access to past messages kind of solves that problem.

stereoradonc 5y ago
That option exists for Telegram as well. You can set it up for 3 days to 1 month
diggernet 5y ago
I just wish there was a way to lock specific important messages to exempt them from auto delete.

blacksmith_tb 5y ago

I don't generally need to preserve all my messages forever, but I often do refer to recent ones, say from the last few weeks. I have switched devices a couple of times with Signal only to be stuck thinking "oh crap, did I agree to do X on Th or Fri?" The lack of sync for SMS with their desktop client also makes it basically useless to me, I'm sure that's more secure, but I wouldn't mind being to opt-out, especially on a contact-by-contact basis.

abnercoimbre 5y ago

My conference [0] spins up a brand new Matrix server each event. It's the equivalent of having hallway conversations that shouldn't be tracked. Not everything needs to live on forever. [0] https://handmade-seattle.com https://handmade-seattle.com

emptysongglass 5y ago
I just think this is incredibly cool. Is there public source code to this?
- abnercoimbre 5y ago
  Hey sorry I saw this a couple of days late. Glad you think it's cool! It's closed-source at the moment, but I do dive into technical details in newsletters [0] whenever I can. If you prefer RSS [1] we have that too. Cheers. [0] https://media.handmade-seattle.com/subscribe https://media.handmade-seattle.com/subscribe [1] https://media.handmade-seattle.com/rss https://media.handmade-seattle.com/rss

xanaxagoras 5y ago

> Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine? I find text based instant messaging to be shallow and vapid and I have very little interest in them. Texting is best used (for me at least) to coordinate real life plans (I'll be in front of X at Y o'clock) or quick task-oriented notes (Hey babe, can you grab some sliced turkey if you're still at the store). If you want to actually talk to me, call me or let's meet in person. This attachment to one's messaging archive is IMO a symptom of data hoarding. 99.9% of text conversations won't be interesting in the future because they weren't interesting when they were happening. That said I do like enjoy the feature where all of the photos from a given conversation are easily accessible.

sshine 5y ago
The first message I got from my girlfriend was a response to me sharing some music with her and asking for a song back. She sent a small video of her cat complaining. If I could have backups of entire conversations, I wouldn’t have to export and save every single video and picture being sent with Signal.

barbazoo 5y ago

Same here, I don't get that insistence on backups at all but I get that others might feel differently. I wouldn't be surprised that this is more prevalent in us techie types than the average user of chat apps.

piaste 5y ago

I recently decided to watch a movie that my ex-girlfriend had recommended to me, and I was able to quietly search for it in the chat history since we're no longer on speaking terms so I couldn't ask her. On the other side, when I broke up with her I also used the chat history to point out some times she had tried to lie to me. That was a bitter satisfaction I could probably have done without.

Barrin92 5y ago

>Am I the only one who feels like loosing old conversations is just fine not only do I think it's fine I think it's actually healthy. I think the ability to search and turn over every word said in the past can produce some pretty neurotic and bad behaviors. There's a fun Black Mirror episode about this in one of the earlier seasons.