Terms of Service

Last updated July 1, 2026

Agreement

These Terms govern your use of The Meridian. By using the site you agree to them. Because The Meridian is a demonstration product, these terms are illustrative and describe how a real subscription-media service of this shape would operate.

Fictional-content notice

All editorial content on The Meridian is fictional and evergreen. Articles, bylines, quotations, and datelines are invented for demonstration purposes. Nothing on this site is real news, reporting, or factual claim about real events, and it must not be relied upon as such.

Subscriptions and billing

Subscription checkout on this site runs in demonstration ("free") mode through the hosting platform's placeholder gateway. No payment method is collected and no charge is ever made. A real deployment would process payments through a standard card processor, with the funds settling to the publisher's own account.

The metered paywall

Access to journalism is metered: a fixed number of free articles per rolling window, tracked in your browser. Games are always free and are never counted against the meter.

Accounts

An account is a display name claimed against your browser's visitor identity, used to carry your game streak and saved articles. No password or email is required or stored.

Acceptable use

Don't attempt to disrupt the service or misuse the platform APIs. That's about it.