How to Delete Orphaned Lists

Sometimes, Moderation Lists can become "orphaned" if the following situation happens:

1. The Moderation List is deleted;

2. The creator has been banned or locked their account.

It is a well-known bug in the Bluesky site that when this happens, the Moderation List remains active, but inaccessible to whoever is subscribed to them. Users should always have the option to stop using Moderation Lists at any time, so follow these steps if you want to remove them.

@moderation-lists.bsky.social thanks wkrick for developing the tool for removing orphaned Moderation Lists.

What you will need

You will need the following:

• Windows Powershell;

• A text editor;

• An App Password.

Downloading and setting the files up

1. Visit the Github page;

2. Click the "Code" button and select "Download Zip";

3. Extract files;

4. Open bsky_delete_orphaned_blocklists.ps1 with a text editor;

5. On the line $user = 'DID_OR_HANDLE_GOES_HERE', inform your Bluesky handle inside the single quotes. Example:

$user = 'example.bsky.social'

6. On the line $app_password = 'xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx', inform your Bluesky App Password inside the single quotes. Do not inform the regular password you use to log in to Bluesky;

7. Save the file;

8. Open bsky_test_blocklists.ps1 with a text editor and repeat step 5;

9. Save the file.

Running the 'Test Blocklists' file

1. Run Windows Powershell in Administrator mode;

2. On the console, type Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted;

3. Then type cd (path where the bsky_test_blocklists.ps1 file is located). For example, if you extracted the ZIP in your Downloads folder, it should be something like:

cd C:\Users\(USER)\Downloads\bluesky-orphaned-blocklists-main\bluesky-orphaned-blocklists-main

4. Type .\bsky_test_blocklists.ps1 to execute the script. Wait until it is done.

This will check if you are subscribed to any Moderation Lists that have become orphaned.

Lists that are labeled Could not find repo: means that the user who created it no longer exists.

Lists that are labeled Could not locate record: means that the user is still active, but the list has been deleted.

Running the 'Delete Orphaned Blocklists' file

1. Run Windows Powershell in Administrator mode;

2. On the console, type Set-ExecutionPolicy unrestricted;

3. Then type cd (path where the bsky_delete_orphaned_blocklists.ps1 file is located). For example, if you extracted the ZIP in your Downloads folder, it should be something like:

cd C:\Users\(USER)\Downloads\bluesky-orphaned-blocklists-main\bluesky-orphaned-blocklists-main

4. Type .\bsky_delete_orphaned_blocklists.ps1 to execute the script. Wait until it is done.

Confirming

After running bsky_delete_orphaned_blocklists.ps1, run bsky_test_blocklists.ps1 again to see if the orphaned lists no longer appear in the test.