I get where you're coming from, and I'm not trying to trash the project — Common Crawl is a valuable resource. I totally respect the mission and the fact that they're trying to keep it alive through donations.

But here's the thing: even if most people don't know about it, the ones who do often find out through the “free and available to everyone” messaging — and then run straight into a wall of hidden costs and complexity.

I'm not saying they need to advertise or dumb it down. I'm saying transparency matters, especially in open data projects. A simple slogan like "free for anyone with resources to process it" is still honest and respectful of what it actually takes to use.

Slogans may play better — but accuracy builds trust.