When you quote a forum post in a vote rationale, or link to it from anywhere off DRepTalk, the quote should still say the same thing next year. Public posts on DRepTalk get a permanent, verifiable version for exactly that: an address whose content cannot change underneath it, so the quote you cited cannot be silently rewritten later. A vote rationale posted through DRepTalk already has its own permanent document, so it does not get a second one, and the same is true of the opening post of a governance action, which is the on-chain text of the action itself.
Getting a citable link
Open the Cite action in a post’s action row, next to Reply and Edit. It opens the post’s version list: a page listing every version of that post, newest first, each with its own permanent address you can copy. Link to one version, and the text behind that address stays exactly what it was when you linked it.
Posts stay quietly editable for a grace window right after posting, and the Cite action does not appear until that window has closed. A post you just wrote will not have it yet: it appears a little later on its own, so there is no need to sit and wait for it.
What the address proves, and what it does not
The address of a version is derived from its own content, which is what makes it tamper evident: if the text behind that address were altered, the address would no longer match it. That is what “verifiable” means here. You, or anyone else, can fetch the text at that address and confirm it is unchanged.
What it does not prove is who wrote it. Author identity on DRepTalk is the account that published the post, the same as any forum, not a cryptographic signature over the text. If that distinction matters for how you plan to use a citation, keep it in mind: the address guarantees the words, not the person behind them.
Editing does not break a citation
If a post is edited after its grace window, the edit does not touch any version that already exists. The version you cited stays available exactly as it was, at the same address. The edit becomes a new version with its own address, and the post’s version list shows every version in order, so a reader can see what changed and when, right alongside the version you originally cited.
When a post is deleted
If a post is later deleted, its versions stop being served: every version address that used to return the text now answers with a Gone response instead. The post’s version list keeps a minimal record that the post existed and was deleted, but that record carries no author identity and none of the original text.
A post can also be withheld from the forum for a time without being deleted, and while it is, its versions answer “not found” rather than Gone. That is the difference to read: Gone is final, while a version that answers “not found” is served again, unchanged and at the same address, if the post returns.
Being unavailable and being erased are two different moments. The versions stop being served the moment the post is deleted. The text itself is kept for 30 days after that, so that abuse can still be dealt with, and is erased once those 30 days have passed, along with every earlier version and the search entry.
For developers
Anything that wants to fetch, verify, or mirror these documents can start at
/.well-known/cip-100.json. It describes the
URL shapes for a single version, a post’s version list, and a thread’s full
manifest, how to verify a document against its address, and what a deletion
looks like to something mirroring the documents. It is a short pointer, not
a full reference.
One distinction worth knowing before you write a parser: the version itself is a CIP-100 governance metadata document. The version list and the thread manifest are not. They are our own JSON-LD, meant for finding and following documents, and validating them against the CIP-100 schema will report them as broken when they are simply a different thing.
A deleted version stops being served straight away, and erasing the bytes behind that address is a separate, later step. The text is kept for 30 days so that abuse can still be dealt with, and is erased after that: the post body, every earlier version of it, its search index entry and the document bytes themselves. Deleting a whole thread erases every post in it the same way, though the thread’s title stays in its address.
Frequently asked questions
How do I cite a post so the quote cannot change?
Use the Cite action on the post. It opens the version list, where each version has its own permanent address. The address is derived from the content itself, so the text behind it can never change.
What happens to a citation when the post is edited?
Nothing. The version you cited stays available exactly as it was, and the edit becomes a new version with its own address. The version list shows both.
What does the hash actually prove?
That the text you are reading is the text published under that address. It does not prove who wrote it: author identity on DRepTalk is the account that published the post, not a cryptographic signature.
What happens if a post is deleted?
Its versions stop being served and the address answers with a Gone response. The version list keeps a record that the post existed and was deleted, without the author’s identity.
Is a deleted post’s text really gone?
The versions stop being served at once. The forum keeps its own copy for 30 days so that abuse can still be dealt with, and erases it after that: the post, every earlier version of it and its search entry.
Why does a citation answer not found instead of Gone?
Gone means the post was deleted and its versions are not coming back. Not found means the post is not available on the forum at the moment, which can change: if it returns, the same address serves the same text again.