Publishing wrote an HTML file into this repository and triggered a full site
deploy on every share. The page is now rendered per request on its own
hostname, so there is nothing to publish: share_link just marks the video
shared and hands back the address.
Preview crawlers do not run JavaScript, so the /v/<code> route — which is the
home page plus a client-side redirect — gives them nothing. The published
/v/<code>.html page carries real og:image, og:video and a real video element in
the served source. Five characters longer, and the difference between a card
someone taps and a bare grey link.
A link straight to the file cannot be counted — the recipient fetches bytes
from the file host and we never hear about it. The short link runs through our
own domain, so every open is a page load, and it is 33 characters against 74.
Sharing from here is the common case — you are looking at the thing you want to
send. Uses the native share sheet where there is one, otherwise copies, and the
link carries a filename so it ends in .mp4 for clients that read the URL rather
than the headers.
A finished video was a dead end from this page: you could watch it or download
it, and the only way back into the shots, cutaways and cut was to know the
script URL. Edit goes to the detail screen, which is now where re-filming and
the cut live.
