These are preliminary notes for changes to Gan Jing World.

A DIFFERENT WEBSITE NAME

• Since this website is for Western audiences and it isn’t thematically Chinese, it should carry a completely Western name.  So, the name “Gan Jing World” has to be changed.
  • The name is too long.
    • The domain name should be 7 or fewer letters.
  • The website’s goal is not enough.
    • A website cannot be founded on content moderation, as that is not enough of a goal for a practitioner-run project. That is simply a matter of preventing or removing video uploads.

DON’T FOLLOW YOUTUBE OR YOUTUBE CLONES

• The first rule at Gan Jing World is that this website has to be significantly different from YouTube and clones like Rumble and it should follow a different evolutionary path. 
  • I suggest that this should be on a plaque in Gan Jing World offices, that this website will not be a clone of either website. 

Example:

• The way that YouTube determines feeds for users is mindless while also driven by machine learning. Gan Jing World practitioners should take note of the deficiencies in YouTube discuss them.
  • If you search for a specific video on YouTube and click on it and watch it, even if it is a one-off video you are looking for, it will fill the feed with that topic, as if it can’t know.
  • You have no control over what YouTube puts in the video feed and this is wrong.
    • If you just want to hide a specific video from showing up in your feeds, it won’t let you do that without affecting the its overall preferences for you.
    • Underneath the videos, the problem with “like” and “dislike” buttons being factors in determining the user’s feed is that a user might enjoy a video after watching it and want to express approval, but the user also might not be expressing a want for more videos of that topic in the feed.  In the opposite situation, the user might dislike a video but it might just be that specific video that wasn’t good instead of the user wanting to see less of that category of video. YouTube doesn’t make a distinction on this.  For this reason, buttons for “See more like this” and “See less like this” of a video should be separated from “Like” and “Dislike”.

TAILOR THE WEBSITE AND APP SO THAT EPOCH TIMES AND NTD REPORTERS CAN POST TO IT REGULARLY FROM THEIR PHONES. GIVE ALL EPOCH TIMES AND NTD REPORTERS FREE ACCOUNTS AND WORK CLOSELY TO MAKE THE WEBSITE SOMETHING THEY WANT TO USE.

SET UP CONTESTS FOR SPECIFIC SILENT VIDEO COMPILATIONS, WHICH ARE EASIER FOR PEOPLE TO PRODUCE THAN THOSE WITH AUDIO.

PROVIDE AN ONLINE VIDEO EDITOR THAT IS SIMPLE, THAT ANYONE CAN USE EVEN IF THEY ARE NOT USING GANJING WORLD

File Types

Videos that are actually just audio files without video should carry a significantly different thumbnail container and appearance, unlike YouTube.  They should also be searchable as a separate data type, unlike what YouTube allows. The search page should be advanced, unlike YouTube, but not hard to use.

Other file types should be uploadable, like PowerPoint (.PPT) and PDF (.PDF) as accessory files for videos.

• Downrank videos that talk about current affairs (news) except for NTD and Epoch Times, which will have their own sections. This should not be a current affairs website for organizations outside of NTD and Epoch Times.
  • We are not here to serve news videos from ordinary human society in the final period.
• Cross-list all NTD and Epoch Times video productions and efforts. Have a live feed page for NTD.
• All videos carrying a video thumbnail with clickbait poses and expressions will be downranked for search listings and pages. The same for channels that use clickbait titles. We don’t want any of the junk or trends on YouTube.

Have a page dedicated to helping people buy video equipment, know how to shoot, know how to set up audio, use video editing.

As a primary feature, users should be able to enter keywords separated by commas for the kinds of videos they want to see on the front page.   The box might be called “Starting Topics” in which they enter keywords of specific things they like (specific movie titles, band names, hobbies) and then the algorithm fetches videos from the general topics. 

They can also type in genres and categories of things that are interesting to them, which allows for topics that won’t fit in a premade list of options. Doing this is opposite of how the video websites and social media generally work today; they just observe the user’s activity and then fetch posts and videos outside of the user’s control.  Though sometimes they allow the users to specify general categories, these categories are usually fixed and too general. They do not allow users to enter keywords or names specific to their own interests (e.g. specific band names or movie titles) that affect the feeds, fetching related content.

The front page should not present random videos.  Sections should be generated that are consistent and carry a theme. To begin with, the algorithm should fetch videos based on the user’s IP location.