I just started using this so I know very little.

From what I gather, there’s a default channel called “LongFast” which every device has from the start. I can see some messages in “LongFast” where I am.

I can see I can create another channel and share it via link, QR, etc.

Do people make such channels and share them publicly, for say local or topical chat groups? E.g. “Canada”, or “Meshtastic Support”, “BurningTesla”, or “Cats”? Is this a thing? Can it be a things?

When I check local groups info, I see links to online comms like Telegram (ew), Discord, Matrix, etc. I don’t see Meshtastic channel links.

    • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
      2·
      24 hours ago

      I’m still setting up my mesh, so just me and a friend at the moment lol.

      Once I get everything planned, the goal is to start a community mesh project for this area.

      • Avid AmoebaOP
        2·
        24 hours ago

        So something like “Local Community Mesh” with local people in it. How would you share the channel with new people who get a Meshtastic device?

        • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
          2·
          24 hours ago

          I definitely wouldn’t force people to join a Discord channel, that’s for sure.

          Forget exactly which community mesh page I was looking at, but basically you create an account on their website, the admin verifies you’re not spam, and then a section becomes available to you that has the mesh channel config info. The community mesh page would also get listed on the Meshtastic Local Groups list.

          So I would setup a website for it, create a registration/membership system, and put the channel info in the “Members Only” section of the site.

          Edit: Ah, yeah: Dayton Mesh

          Configuring your Meshtastic Device for the Dayton Mesh

          In order to access the Dayton Mesh channel information, you may become a member by Creating an Account. Once you are signed in, a new link will appear called Channel Settings. There is no cost, and we do not collect personal information aside from your email . The reason we have decided to go this route for membership is twofold. Primarily, this allows us to protect channel information from scraping while still having all information in one location. Secondarily, we may add user-centric features in the future such as self-reported node locations, member-only event information, user-submitted blog posts about builds, etc. As such, having a membership system from the beginning allows us to more easily implement such features in the future. We use Amazon Cognito for user management.

          • Avid AmoebaOP
            2·
            24 hours ago

            Would you create a public channel that doesn’t need vetting, posting its info publicly somewhere?

            • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
              2·
              23 hours ago

              Would I personally? No. If you’re posting the pre-shared key publicly, then might as well just use the default one.

              • Avid AmoebaOP
                2·
                23 hours ago

                What about topical channels if the mesh grows large, to hundreds or thousands of people? E.g. ask support questions in “Local Support” instead of “LongFast”

                • Admiral Patrick@dubvee.orgEnglish
                  2·
                  23 hours ago

                  I do have my private channels named (with the exception of a single secondary channel called LongFast to be able to interact with the “default”/public mesh), but you can only have 7 (or is it 8?) channels per device; that’s a hard limit of the firmware/protocol.

                  From what I’ve read, I think there’s also an upper limit of around a hundred nodes per mesh.

                  • Avid AmoebaOP
                    2·
                    23 hours ago

                    Interesting. I guess it’s a self-limiting problem. In effect LongFast would be limited by the number of nodes in your vicinity. Even in a large network, messages propagate to 3 hops so you won’t be able to see messages from further away, even if the mesh has thousands more nodes further away.

                    This mesh doesn’t seem to have 100-node limit. It seems to be a device limit where a device can only remember up to 100 nodes and it seems to be removing old ones as it discovers new ones.