No worries at all. I don't think the HN thread from three weeks ago made it to the front page (I happened to see it while browsing on /newest). I figured someone would notice and ask about this, so I'm happy to have the chance to explain.

Hey Matt,

I'm sorry to reach out to you directly on a public forum like this, but my company's website encountered a major negative SEO attack last month and we were hit with a manual penalty by Google today. I thought you might be interested to hear about what happened, and I of course I would like to resolve it as I do my best to always keep my company's SEO efforts within Google's guidelines. Please reach out via email to me at [email protected] if we can help each other fix this! Thanks again for everything you do to help make the web a better place, and in advance I understand if you're too busy to respond.

Best regards,

Mike B.

Don't apologize to just Matt, you're pseudo-apology and better-sent-as-an-email question pissed me off. Why would you take up three extra lines with a BS platitude and a signature? Please keep a personal request for assistance to better-suited channels.

Just downvote and move along, why the hostility.

https://plus.google.com/+MattCutts might work better.