> FAQ : Mermaid news

We have a common FAQ page here. It should answer most of your questions.

It’s a new way to get news. Currently, our moms, who watch TV all day long, call us whenever something major happens. Then we search it over the internet and read about it. It sucks but beats opening the browser every 5 minutes and checking news.

Here’s what we did. We put the news on a p2p network. No servers. No infrastructure. No moderation.

Anyone can create a news network, anyone can join it, and everyone can push news into it.

Whenever there is a news-item published by any broadcaster on the network, it gets automatically pushed into your receiver, and notification pops up.

No more chasing news.

Ok, there are 2 softwares. One is a broadcaster and one is a receiver. If you want to start a news network, start your broadcaster. You’ll be prompted for a network-id and password and your user-name. You can just pick a network-id and network-password of your choice. Say if you’re starting a network on fashion, you could have a network-id like “Cute girls in mini-skirts” and then the password. Your user-id can be anything.

Watch the videos here.

Now once you’ve created the network, other people can join that network by supplying an invitation string or the network id and password in their broadcasters and receivers.

Please note, for people who need to broadcast, must have the network-id/password. For the readers, an invitation string is enough. How you send them the invitations or network-details is up to you. We recommend pigeons. We have videos here, have a look.

If you just start your viewer, you’ll just be ‘getting’ news. You can also start your reporter, put in the network’s id and password and start broadcasting. Yes, multiple people can report on the same network.We have a video here, have a look.

No, it’s publish and forget. The news item will travel to all the receivers instantaneously.