When I built the Short Link Creator, the easy decision was letting anyone mint a link — no account, no gate, just POST and get a URL back. The harder decision was everything that comes after: stats and deletion. I didn't want creation locked down, but I also didn't want a stranger who stumbled onto a short URL to be able to read its analytics or delete it. So the API returns a one-time manage secret alongside the link, and that secret is the entire boundary between "owner" and "everyone else." No roles, no sessions, no admin panel — just a capability that exists only in the hands of whoever created the link. What surprised me: users didn't find the secret annoying, they found it clarifying. It made the boundary explicit instead of implicit. When something is gated, people understand why it's gated. When everything is public by default, nothing feels protected — including the things you care about. That's the lesson I keep applying when shipp...