Message Purging Modes

Archivian has two ways of finding messages to purge: using the collection of messages it has seen and captured, or asking Discord what messages exist in a channel.

Reliable mode (default)

Archivian asks Discord for candidate messages, then filters them. Recommended if you’re not in a rush, or if you use “max messages”.

Pros

• Asking Discord guarantees you get every message that can and will be targeted for purging.
• It works on messages sent even before Archivian was added, or that it didn’t see for any reason (downtime, missing permissions, etc.).

Cons

• Asking Discord for messages is slow. Beyond ~1,000 messages it has to repeat the request multiple times, so the time adds up.
• It can only target one channel at a time, so the “all channels” option won’t work.

Fast mode

Archivian queries its own storage for messages it has seen, filtering at the same time. Recommended if you need to purge a lot of messages (~500+) or need it done fast.

Pros

• Finding candidate messages is extremely fast.
• It can find messages across all channels at once, so you can target multiple channels — or all of them.

Cons

• It won’t find messages Archivian never saw — e.g. during downtime, from before Archivian was added, or when it lacked permission to see them.