Certain message types are not deletable

[dynamicbark]

Description

Some message types are not deletable.

This includes:

• Automod alerts
• User was removed from thread

I haven't gone through and checked all of them, but these are the ones that I commonly run into.

Steps to Reproduce

Trigger an automod alert, try to delete the message it created.

Expected Behavior

You should be able to delete the automod alert message like any other message type. (Message pinned, user joined, etc.)

Current Behavior

The API disallows it.

Screenshots/Videos

No response

Client and System Information

n/a -- discord.js v14.14.1

[RedDaedalus]

This is intended behavior, and documented in the "Deletable" field on the docs.

[Mati199330]

Ok

[jhgg]

We should consider changing this behavior.

[jhgg]

The behavior has been changed and internally I've made it so that when a new message type is made, it is implicitly deletable (this used to have to be an explicit thing devs would set.)

Now, this has been inverted to a set of "undeletable" message types, which I'm reproducing below (with code comments and all so people understand the rationale.

    UNDELETABLE = {
        # These deal with GDM recipients being added/removed,
        # we should not allow these to be deleted, since they
        # deal joining/leaving a GDM, which should arguably have
        # an audit trail.
        _.RECIPIENT_ADD,
        _.RECIPIENT_REMOVE,
        # This deals with calls, and should not be deletable, as it
        # would potentially orphan the call (since the starter message,
        # is what triggers being able to join said call.)
        _.CALL,
        # These deal with changing a GDM name/icon, and arguably should have
        # an audit trail, and thus shouldn not be deletable.
        _.CHANNEL_NAME_CHANGE,
        _.CHANNEL_ICON_CHANGE,
        # This is the first message in a thread, and it's a pointer to a normal message.
        # As such, this message should not be deletable.
        _.THREAD_STARTER_MESSAGE,
    }

As such, this means that the following message types are now allowed to be deleted:

• GUILD_DISCOVERY_DISQUALIFIED = 14
• GUILD_DISCOVERY_REQUALIFIED = 15
• GUILD_DISCOVERY_GRACE_PERIOD_INITIAL_WARNING = 16
• GUILD_DISCOVERY_GRACE_PERIOD_FINAL_WARNING = 17

Additionally, the following yet-to-be documented message types also are now able to be deleted:

• GUILD_INCIDENT_ALERT_MODE_ENABLED = 36
• GUILD_INCIDENT_ALERT_MODE_DISABLED = 37
• GUILD_INCIDENT_REPORT_RAID = 38
• GUILD_INCIDENT_REPORT_FALSE_ALARM = 39
• PURCHASE_NOTIFICATION = 44

---

"User was removed from thread" notification unfortunately re-uses the RECIPIENT_REMOVE message type, and thus cannot be deleted at this time because it shouldn't be deletable in GDMs. Unfortunately, making a message type conditionally deletable based on channel type is a larger arc of work, so this isn't going to happen at this time.

[dynamicbark]

I would like to note that CHANNEL_NAME_CHANGE for GDMs is also reused with threads, thus it cannot be deleted. Hoping one day deleting based on channel type will become a thing like you said, but it's not going to happen at this time.

[UnOmEnE]

I've recently become an admin of a Discord server and JUST ran into this issue. I'd like to add that the inability to delete system notices from threads also applies to pinned message notifications. Very annoying...

[AlmostSuspense]

that’s not true, the pinned message system message is deletable