Meshtastic uses RSSI to determine who should rebroadcast a message.

it does this by making the node wait longer the stronger the receives singles strength is. then not rebroadcast if you heard someone else rebroadcast it before you.

IF you assume that RSSI is a measure of distance, then what you want is to not rebroadcast if you hear a rebroadcast with a stronger signal.

If it's weaker than the rebroadcast is on the opposite side of origin that you, so your coverage doesn't overlap with the rebroadcast that much.

• That it was rebroadcast by a weak transmitter which case is didn't reach many nodes. In which case ether you are weak transmitter and won't reach many nodes either so your rebroadcasting won't have much effect; or you are better transmitter and will cover a broader area than the rebroadcast you hear.
• That you are in the middle between the origin and the reboardcaster; so one should probably put a minimum received signal strength for using this rule to decide to rebroadcast. Thou ideals if they are both close by it wouldn't have rebroadcasted