@LeifB73 I haven’t looked in depth but there may be something built into Mastodon to allow purging of old data. I administer nitech.social and there are definitely options for removing cached media from other instances. So if you post an image, my instance will get a copy of it for a while, but it can be cleared. Then if I view your post again, the image would be refetched.
@seanddotmedotuk @LeifB73 it’s a bit like that, but there are several large cabinets with tape reels on them and they all move along at the same speed. They start up, spin fast, then slow down, and start again, repeating the process, while lights flash.
@mo @LeifB73 I now have the vision of an image being requested and an old magnetic tape reel springing into action.