Public data should stay public, for everyoneI write these notes and own the ideas here. I also use AI to tighten wording and structure so they read more clearly for more people.

I believe public data should stay public. If anyone can open a page and read it without logging in, then anyone should be able to collect it, use it, and build something on top of it, including making money from it. That right shouldn't belong only to the platform that happens to host the page.

A lot of what sits on big platforms wasn't made by them. Prices set by sellers, listings posted by agents, reviews written by customers. The platform hosts it, shows ads next to it, and sells API access to it. Then it calls anyone else who reads the same public pages at scale a threat. Hosting something doesn't make you the only one allowed to learn from it.

Open access is how small teams compete. A price tracker, a research tool, a better search for a niche market: all of them start by reading what's already public. Close that door and only the companies that already hold the data get to build on it. That's not protection, it's a moat.

There are limits, and I hold to them. Public means visible without an account. Personal data is different, even when it's technically visible, and it deserves care. And reading a site should never mean hurting it: fetch at a pace the server can handle, and don't take down the thing you depend on. Inside those lines, public data is shared ground, and everyone should get to build on it.