These things are matters of degree in any case, and "what are you even talking about" is clear cut.
> Don't be snarky. Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
The original comment had equally strong phrasing on what amounts to an informed opinion:
> I'm so sad to see Mozilla move forward with this massive attack on user privacy.
The insinuation that this is an attack on user privacy is a bit of an escalation in description. In truth much of the following information describes a potential threat to user privacy, for it to be an attack one would have to provide evidence of intent.
> Firefox DoH is snake oil, plain and simple.
I would argue this statement could be construed as snarky (at least that is how I interpreted it).
Generally speaking, I don't consider myself an expert, but I do think I have a more informed opinion than most (and no doubt many HN readers have even better informed opinions than my own). And while I do see the merits behind the points raised in the original comment, I do think it could have been presented better.
Now what is a swipe about this or breaking a guidline. It did give the impression ( to me at least) as if I was being picked on. But I think in reality you probably misunderstood the tone and intent. Of course this is just my opinion, what you say is the law here and I intend to abide.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&qu...
In this case the phrase was one that commonly communicates dismissiveness, which is why I interpreted you the way I did. If you read the guidelines it's clear that (to take your example) such a reply can be shortened to "Oranges do not have a blue inside".
However: no harm done! I appreciate your reply and your intention.
My statement was strongly worded, but it is my informed opinion as a subject matter expert: As someone who worked in ISP networking for over a decade, worked at Mozilla, and work on network protocol, I feel that I'm entitled to have a strongly stated opinion and I believe I substantiated it in my post. I'm also happy to have a polite discussion justifying it further.
See my comment above about specific things that (I personally think) could have been phrased a bit better; I am not saying you're comment was unhelpful or deserves reprimand. Just wanted to point out to the comment(er) that both comments had aspects that could have been phrased a bit better and chastising one is not as helpful to improving discourse as providing complete feedback in the interest of being fair.
Disclaimer: I deleted a previous comment because on re-reading I think I meandered a bit and thought I could do better.
Two wrongs don't make a right, but I would suggest trying to avoid the appearance of personal bias when calling out guidelines infractions on a comment without also calling out infractions within the context equally.