I said it could be an accident in the original post.

And try doing business with small businesses and then tell me what market share you perceive GMail as having.

You did say that, but it felt like a disclaimer rather than something you genuinely considered to be a possibility.

I think, right or wrong, you'd probably get a better result if the rage in your text was clearly directed at the consequences rather than the motives - if nothing else because, as you say, the motives don't actually change the consequences and it's the consequences you, I, and everybody else who likes having their own email setup has to suffer.

(to be clear, I'm not commenting on whether or not you should have been downvoted, only on my best guess as to how to get across the same information without it happening)

So andybak, congratulations on clinging to a sweet sounding one-liner, but let's think a little more about it. So anytime something bad happens to a person (their wallet or phone is stolen, or their family dog is killed), and the victim believes the perpetrator acted maliciously, would you tell them that "smacks of conspiracy thinking" (whatever that means to you)?

Another educational moment for you would be to look up the word "conspiracy" to learn what it means. I understand that you were hoping to use it as a dismissive term, but you would have been better off using a universally dismissive term like "crazy", as there are a lot of rational people that understand the factual meaning of "conspiracy" and don't interpret it in the same way you do.

I actually used the term "conspiracy thinking" and I would regard this as a noun phrase with a meaning distinct from "conspiracy".

Weird. My comment must have been in close enough proximity to andybak's comment that "they" must have downvoted me when they meant to downvote him.

No, marco, you're just being "corrected." Iron sharpens iron, duh.

Although I'm not certain what you're implying by "corrected", I hadn't ever heard that phrase about iron before. Thanks, I like it.

You and I had similar difficulty yesterday vis-a-vis arbitrary downvoting. I was referring to a comment made at me regarding how HN comments are for correcting people who are wrong, and accompanying that is downvotes. Except for when "correction" has nothing to do with the downvote, or none is offered.

It doesn't matter. The conversation at HN is toxic. I've bitched enough. I was just reaching out for commiseration.