A link straight to the file is untrackable — the recipient fetches bytes from
the file host and we never hear about it. Routing through paytolaugh.com makes
every open a page load that can be counted, and gives somewhere to put a real
player and a preview card.
The code is the first eight hex characters of the project id. Those are already
unique across every project and the space is 4.3 billion, so there is no
mapping table to build or keep in sync — the server resolves by prefix and
checks for ambiguity. 33 characters against 74 for the raw file.
Sharing stays deliberate: the page only resolves a project whose owner has
pressed Share.
