If you dont use the default LongFast meshtastic is really empty. I switched my node to MediumSlow, since it’s like 86% faster than LongFast. I knew there would not be any in my area, so I subscribed to the msh/US MQTT topic and theres still nobody else. I’m going to leave it like that for a while and see if I hear anything during any kind of band openings or catch any other MQTT nodes trying out that topic. And yes, both uplink and downlink are enabled. I do know that there are some nodes in the Bay Area on msh/US/mqtt-bayme-sh, but I am not near their.
Am I wrong to think that while meshtastic is still in its infancy there are other applications aside from just chatting? For example there is the whole element where you can have devices send useful information to a script that is outside of the internet. For example location data, events, weather even things like ATAK.
Don’t get me wrong it’s great to chat with people but this isn’t meant to replace something like the internet
Yeah, that’s definitely something you can do. Although I have not personally done so.