Everybody switch MLS uploads to BeaconDB

[jidanni]

Everybody should turn off MLS uploads in Preferences.

Else the app will waste much time and data plan, only to give a failure message at the end.

[EchedelleLR]

I am unsure if you have kept updated (I know your message is a week older than that announcement) https://github.com/zamojski/TowerCollector/issues/223 but BeaconDB exists as an alternative and TowerCollector already allows using custom MLS service.

Instead of encouraging no contributing, I would encourage changing the MLS service to BeaconDB using the app settings designed for that purpose.

[jidanni]

OK, I found the instructions, https://beacondb.net/ .

Actually in Tower Collector Preferences there are two MLS related preferences, and it is not clear if we should switch the first one off.

Also in the final upload dialog, it is also not clear exactly which checkboxes should be checked.

And I did the most liberal combination of the above, and indeed it seems the upload went OK, but then there were still confusing error messages.

And any final success message says that we uploaded to MLS, but it didn't say exactly which MLS. The original one or the one that we custom set.

[breversa]

Will Tower Collector be updated to contribute to BeaconDB instead of MLS without user input (for those using the default setting, of course)? :)

I see no added value to:

1. Keep MLS as it's retired
2. NOT switch to a working alternative

[lucasmz-dev]

beacondb.net will most likely appreciate more awareness and contributors, giving it a little spotlight would be nice to make users aware, MLS is useless now, beacondb.net is meant to be much more resistant than MLS was, as there's supposed to be public dumps that are redacted for privacy that aren't just for cell networks but also Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

Having a way to send data previously only sent to OpenCelliD would also be interesting

[zamojski]

I can change the default address to point to BeaconDB however I need to consult a few things with the owner.