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Community Feed

The Community Feed allows you to share received AIS messages with the AIS-catcher community.

AIS-catcher -X [sharing_key]

On the CLI, -X enables sharing. If you provide a sharing key, the station is linked to your account; if omitted, sharing is anonymous.

In JSON configuration, Community Feed settings are configured via the root-level keys sharing and sharing_key (they are not part of an output array like udp).

Live community map in the viewer

When the Visual Web Control is running, the community map is no longer drawn as an overlay on the local map. Opening the community map pops up a pane connected to aiscatcher.org/livemap. Pan and zoom are kept in sync in both directions, and vessels seen by the local receiver are pushed to the community view in real time.

The community-feed icon in the header indicates the current sharing state at a glance:

  • Red — sharing is off (no data leaves the station)
  • Orange — sharing is on, anonymously (no sharing_key set)
  • Green — sharing is on and the station is identified by a sharing_key

Summary Settings

Setting (JSON key / CLI setting name) Type Default Description
sharing boolean false Enable community feed sharing (CLI equivalent: -X)
sharing_key string - Optional sharing key to associate your station with aiscatcher.org (CLI: -X <key>)
sharing_zone string - Optional zone tag included with shared messages