Are game achievements really yours? Or the property of the companies who made the games? If the achievements really are the players then shouldn’t they at least have the privilege of removing themselves from the achievements? Say you go to delete a game you don’t like, Imagine there’s an option remove all your achievement records as well as deleting the game. In Canada and in the UK there are digital privacy policy rights, Shouldn’t that apply to the achievements one earns? For me it’s the permanency of the thing, I understand everyone is different, some like achievements, some refused to acknowledge achievements And I just want more leeway with the item I’ve purchased make it feel like the achievements are mine, Is that so wrong to want more control over the games we buy?

Now I ain’t saying get rid of achievements, I don’t want to pick fights with achievement hunters! I’m saying add a digital privacy policy term when it comes account or game deletion, yes some sites be it console or PC have the right to hide games, but what about deleting or uninstalling a game you could add ‘delete all achievements’ as well? I guess you could say this is more for those perfectionists, just a thought.

But with mods disabling achievements and Cheat Engine (memory editing on PC), Modded firmware on consoles (rare, risky, bannable), Save file editors, Trainer programs, the data for game developers is faulty when it comes to achievements, isn’t it? I’m not asking to get rid of achievements, I’m asking to add a policy to delete one’s achievement history, the data is already faulty as I see it.

Can you say the same for consoles? PlayStation, Xbox etc. I have yet to see a mod that enables achievements on consoles, but that’s a discussion for another post. This thought is of achievements, should we have the option to delete achievement history? From those who care about achievements (Achievement Hunters), to those who don’t even acknowledge achievements (Modders), and I who is concerned with achievement permanence.

Definitely an age thing, I remember a time video games didn’t have achievements, you played the game 'cause you liked the game, game companies kept track by virtue of their sails, now these days it’s how long a player plays, what achievements have been unlocked etc. I keep thinking that it’s OCD, the permanence of the thing, something I can’t change, but maybe you’re right, maybe it’s old age.

I’m not asking to get rid of achievements, I’m asking for a compromise, I’m just questioning the importance of achievements, there are devices and or cheats to unlock all achievements and those who use mods and don’t care for what achievements they have, that’s not reliable developer data. Like my post states I see many sides of this discussion, pro achievements, neutral to achievements, and I guess in my case questioning of achievements. One’s either pro or neutral two game achievements, in truth I have yet to hear anyone who wants achievements GONE, or at the very least an option to clear or delete one’s achievement history, it’s the permanency of the thing for me you see.

Well I’ve cleared everything off my Reddit account but I can’t bring myself to delete it, it’s not a 100% deletion, Reddit keeps the username, I don’t want Reddit to claim anything functional or not, I want it to be like I was never there, the mistake of me even being on Reddit, maybe one day when usernames are no longer such a permanence, where a person could leave their account entirely with nothing to look back on.

AI chat MC (Microsoft Copilot) guided me here, I have many dreams for online accounts alternative paths no longer needing usernames so a person can leave delete their account and someday return using their own name if they want as my Lemmy profile states I fight for digital rights, the permanence of accounts feels unnecessary uncomfortable. Lemmy itself needs a better way to delete unnecessary posts and comments but you’re right it’s a far better leap from Reddit strict dictatorial moderations, regret not using MC in that post perhaps it would have simply gotten rejected and not gotten me banned and muted, needless to say the first place MC requested I send it, did not like me, alas I cannot delete my mistakes on Lemmy, yet at least I am not silenced, so far.

You cannot help with this I’m sorry to say, I just need a place to vent about Reddit’s asinine algorithms I use AI chat (Microsoft Copilot) freely and proudly to censor my own words and make me acceptable on platforms but the rare moment I used my own words this happened my post rejected band and muted, now unless you can change the way Reddit operates you can’t help me. I’d sooner trust an AI than I would another human emcee in particular so when it told me to go on to Lemmy Fuck AI, to complain about Reddit’s AI, while using AI! Yet still I trusted MC to the point where some people began pointing out the irony, “AI is what it is, it is what it will be” but Reddit’s AI is old, outdated and Reddit it itself cannot do criticism, even feedback, it’s like North Korea.

I’m trying to understand the current behavior as clearly as possible, which is why I asked for clarification. The replies from others in the thread have helped fill in the gaps about how deletion works across different servers.

My goal isn’t to argue about federation limits — it’s to understand whether the user‑side deletion experience can be improved, even if perfect deletion across all nodes isn’t possible. That’s the part I’m trying to explore here.

The solution: A three‑layer deletion model This is the only model that satisfies both Lemmy’s architecture and user expectations.

Layer 1 — Local hard deletion (guaranteed) When a user deletes a post/comment:

the content is wiped from their home server

the object can remain as a placeholder to preserve thread structure

media files are fully removed

This part is already possible.

Layer 2 — Federated delete signal (best‑effort) When deletion happens, the home server sends a message:

“This content is deleted — purge your copy.”

Servers that respect federation will:

delete their cached copy

update the thread

remove the content from search

Servers that don’t care will ignore it — but that’s already true today.

This is the missing piece Lemmy needs to implement.

Layer 3 — User‑initiated purge request (optional escalation) Admins already have a purge tool that:

deletes content locally

sends a federated purge request

is accepted by most servers

Expose this to users in a controlled way:

rate‑limited

confirmation required

optional admin approval

This gives users real deletion power without enabling abuse.

Thanks for the detailed explanation — this helps clarify a lot. I understand that federation makes guaranteed deletion impossible, but knowing that admins can purge content and send out a federated delete request is exactly the kind of mechanism I was hoping existed.

From a user perspective, having some version of that available — even if it can’t guarantee 100% deletion everywhere — would still be meaningful. A user‑initiated delete request that other servers can respect would give people more control over their own content without undermining federation.

Editing before deleting is a good workaround, but it still feels like something that could eventually be built into the platform in a more direct way. I appreciate the insight; it’s good to know this isn’t a dead end technically.