2. What each stage must sell
From the Meridians Wiki · Public · Maintained · joint
| Stage | The thought to create | The product proof | Primary action |
|---|---|---|---|
| Landing | “The news and sources I care about can become a Domain I understand and play.” | A worked Domain opens into maintained Research, analysis, attributable Will, light Scenario play, developing Episodes, the experimental World sandbox, runtime, and only then plans. | Build a living Domain |
| Registration | “This becomes my maintained expert, not another disposable session.” | One Director account returns to one owned expert and record. | Create Director account |
| Plan | “I can have this watching while I am away.” | Hosted is automatically provisioned with managed AI and research usage included. | Start Hosted |
| Runtime hand-off | “It is ready; I know exactly what to do next.” | Authenticated hand-off opens the same expert with one continuation. | Continue setup |
| Provider readiness | “The runtime can do the work I asked for.” | License tests the Director's keys; Hosted tests its managed provider services. Failures name one recovery action. | Verify runtime |
| Onboarding | “I can see the world Meridians will build before it spends or commits.” | A resumable domain map, accepted context artifacts, visible build tasks, and confirmed maintenance produce one named constellation. | Set up my constellation |
| Grounding | “This read has reasons, not merely confident prose.” | Sources → causal Graph → variable and temporal Reading → Position. | Review the read |
| First Story | “Something meaningful changed; I can see why.” | Consequence first, source and prior view one level deeper. | Inspect or Continue |
| Signal | “I know how the read just moved and why.” | Fresh evidence, the re-priced Reading, rationale, and what shifted the odds. | See the read |
| Caught up | “I am done for now, and Meridians is still working.” | A finite queue, visible next run, and no manufactured urgency. | Leave confidently |
| Return | “My earlier judgment made this expert better.” | Corrections echo into later research, reasoning, language, and Positions. | Refine |
The copy pattern changes with intent:
- Opportunity: provoke a useful thought about the user’s future.
- Reassurance: remove one concrete risk at the moment it becomes relevant.
- Action: present one dominant continuation in the user’s language.
- Consequence: show what the action changes before asking for commitment.
Do not explain the whole product at every boundary.
2.1 Approved landing-page progression
The landing page is now the reference implementation for top-of-funnel sequencing. Each section should answer the question created by the section before it, without teaching the visitor a new product vocabulary prematurely.
| Sequence | Visitor question | Surface answer | Desired movement |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Hero | “What would this make possible for me?” | Follow what matters. Play what follows. Current sources become maintained understanding, then consequential play. | Want to build a living Domain. |
| 2. Worked Domain | “Why is this more useful than a feed?” | Turn the news into context. Keep the context. Evidence stays connected to actors, systems, relationships, commitments, and open questions. | Recognise the value of a maintained Domain before any game layer. |
| 3. Program | “How does it stay current?” | Your Domain keeps up. You keep it yours. Research, Opinion, Merge, and Position maintain continuity instead of restarting cold. | Believe the Domain can remain useful. |
| 4. Will | “How do I shape it?” | Turn judgment into action. The user reviews an attributable correction, commitment, or tool call before it enters the Domain. | See participation as consequential and controlled. |
| 5. Scenario and Episode | “Can other people take part without a long live session?” | Make the critical move. Let the story continue. Scenario supports light asynchronous friend-group turns; Stageplay is developing deeper perspective-shaped Episode roleplay around the same decisions. | Want to invite trusted friends into one consequential situation. |
| 6. Domain analysis | “How do I understand what moved?” | See what changed and what it affects. The Graph connects evidence to System, World, Fate, and perspective-safe consequence. | Trust that play rests on inspectable analysis rather than improvised lore. |
| 7. Product forms | “Must every Domain become a game?” | Start with understanding. Add play when it helps. A maintained Domain can be complete; Scenario and Episode extend it when social or narrative engagement adds value. | See one substrate with optional depths, not a forced promotion ladder. |
| 8. Experimental sandbox | “What happens after a story matures?” | Let a mature branch become a place. World may test tours, continuity, or bounded social activity; persistence, economies, and MMO scale remain open experiments. | Understand the horizon without mistaking it for the present product. |
| 9. Plans | “How do I keep mine alive?” | Run your Domain your way. Hosted keeps the Program running; License is the self-hosted BYOK alternative. | Select Hosted or deliberately choose License. |
This order keeps one product story intact: current sources → maintained Domain → analysis → Will → light social play → deeper Episode roleplay → optional experimental World. Do not place the Program diagram before the worked Domain, lead with multiplayer or World architecture, or ask users to understand internal instance taxonomy before the Domain's standalone utility is clear.