Positioning
mediagallery.org is the public working model of the Chaos Archive: a gallery that publishes a daily, unsorted stream of original photos, video and audio, with a license and provenance record visible on every item. It exists so that a lab, a data broker or a visitor can grasp the whole concept in one look.
The site proves four things at a glance: the stream is live, the media is original, nothing is curated, and every file has paperwork. If a visitor can check all four in the first minute, the model works.
This brief covers the model only. Buyer contracts, pricing and the storage backend sit behind it and are covered separately.
What the site shows
Visitors see the stream and the paperwork for free. Only the full-volume feed sits behind a key.
| Element | What a visitor sees | Access |
|---|---|---|
| Live stream | Newest items first, no categories, no editorial ordering, a running count of items added today | Public |
| Item page | The file itself, capture date, device, city-level place, license code, content hash, contributor ID | Public |
| Daily manifest preview | The last 7 days as a downloadable JSON file | Public |
| Free sample | A frozen set of about 1,000 items with full records | Public |
| Rights page | The three license tiers, contributor terms, takedown form and the current deletion list | Public |
| Full feed | Daily manifest and pull access to every item | Key required |
- Tech Digest, September 21, 2026: Humanoid Sales Stay Tiny While AI Spending Moves Off the Balance Sheet
- Blue Angels Diamond Banked Toward the Camera, With Half the Frame Left Empty
- Grey Horse Over a Striped Rail, Caught With All Four Hooves in the Air
- Paul Bocuse Crepe Recipe With No Sugar in the Batter, and They Still Brown
- Dates Falling Under the Palm in September, Yellow to Red and Left on the Ground
- Eiffel Tower Tourist Trap: The Red Heart Balloon Photo Hustle at Trocadéro
- Chaos Archive Concept: A Live, Rights-Cleared Media Feed for AI Labs
- Newsom Signs Influencer Disclosure Law, Trump Names AI Czar, Google Stays Quiet on Gemini Hacks
- How to Cover a Tech Event as a Solo Media Publisher
- White House Press Ban, Greenland Security Deal and Houthi Strikes on Riyadh: The News on September 19, 2026
The stream is the hero of the homepage. A grid of raw items with no theme is the visual proof of the “chaos” idea, and the count and timestamps prove it is live. Keep the design plain so the media does the work.
Pages and build
The site runs on WordPress with the Classic editor, so the model builds on that instead of adding a new stack.
Seven pages carry the whole concept:
- Home. The live stream, today’s item count, and one line on what the archive is.
- Item. One template for every file, showing the media and its record.
- Sample. The frozen 1,000-item set.
- Manifest. The 7-day preview and a description of the fields.
- Licenses. Tiers T1, T2 and T3 in plain words.
- Rights. Contributor terms, takedown form and the deletion list.
- Access. How to request a key for the full feed.
Build notes:
- Each item is a Media Library attachment in the normal uploads folder, with custom fields for license code, hash, device, place and contributor ID.
- Put the custom fields, the item template and the manifest route in one small plugin under
wp-content/mu-plugins/, not in the theme’s functions file. - A daily scheduled job writes the manifest and the 7-day preview as static JSON files.
- Hide categories, tags and any topic archive. The stream stays unsorted by design, and WordPress tag archives add little search value anyway.
- Load the first batch in bulk with an importer or WP-CLI rather than by hand.
Data and rights layer
Every item shows the same short record. Most fields fill in automatically at upload, so the paperwork costs no extra time.
| Field | Example | How it is set |
|---|---|---|
| Item ID | MG-2026-09-20-0142 | Automatic |
| Content hash | SHA-256 of the original file | Automatic |
| Capture time and device | 2026-09-20 17:42, phone or camera model | Read from EXIF |
| Place | City level or larger | Manual, coarse on purpose |
| Media type and size | Photo, 4032×3024, 3.1 MB | Automatic |
| License code | T1, T2 or T3 | Set per batch |
| Contributor ID | Owner or signed contributor | Set per batch |
| Consent flags | People, minors, private property, plates, artwork: yes or no | Manual check before publishing |
An item with any consent flag set to yes stays out of the public stream and the manifest until it is cleared or dropped. When a takedown request comes in, the item is removed from the site and its ID goes on the public deletion list the same day, so any buyer can see and honor it.
Content credentials (C2PA) are added where the source device or tooling supports them. Where it does not, the hash and EXIF stand in as capture evidence.
Launch scope and success check
Two weeks is enough to get a credible model live. Scope stays small: one stream, one license tier, one contributor.
- Days 1-3: add the custom fields, item template and manifest route; set the license codes.
- Days 4-7: load about 1,000 of the site’s own photos with hashes and records; publish the sample.
- Days 8-10: write the Licenses, Rights and Access pages; add the takedown form.
- Days 11-14: turn on the daily upload, the daily manifest and the homepage counter; start adding video and audio.
The model passes if a first-time visitor can answer four questions in under a minute: is it live, is it original, is it unsorted, and who owns each file. If any answer takes a second click to find, move it to the homepage.