[jtode]

I'm more indifferent than hostile, but you don't need to become an admin. You do, however, have to find the instance that's right for you, and that will take effort.

The only thing I would have a problem with them doing with my data is exploiting it; the idea that they delete it after a period is a selling point for me if it's anything.

[lapcat]

> You do, however, have to find the instance that's right for you, and that will take effort.

This is why I said, "I can't recommend joining an instance other than the biggest one, mastodon.social." I learned this through harsh trial and error. You claim that's not the answer, but for most people it is.

> the idea that they delete it after a period is a selling point for me if it's anything

Good for you, but many people disagree vehemently.

On the other hand, as a user, you have no idea whether the admin has enabled the content cache retention period, and if so, how long it is. So even if it's a "selling point" for you, there's no visible option to "buy".

Also, I don't think you're understanding the technical details of the content cache retention period. It's not deleting your data per se; it's deleting posts from other Mastodon instances. Some of those may be DMs that people sent to you. Some of those may be replies written to you. Some may be posts that you replied to. So I'm not sure what exactly you take to be a selling point.