[toyg]

> I was saying my question was unrelated to a stupid decision their former employer made

"Former employers" don't usually make decisions in a vacuum -- chances are that engineers were involved at some point, and if it wasn't OP maybe it was a colleague or even a friend. Engineers are as lazy as anyone else, and telnet is an easy protocol to support. Also "let's not talk about my opinion of X" is just a passive-aggressive way of stating your opinion without accepting a possible critique of it, which in itself is off-putting. If you really didn't want to talk about the subject, you wouldn't have mentioned it right away. The only safe use of "let's not talk about X" is as a way to move on after a topic has been discussed and agreement could not be reached.

> The link was NOT for the benefit of the OP to whom I was asking a question, it was for reader

that might as well be, but 1) both OP and HN readers will likely be familiar with the concept and/or can google it themselves, and 2) playing to the peanut gallery is patronizing in itself.

Note I'm not criticizing your positions, I'm just describing how your tone might come across as patronizing. And that's more than enough meta for a week, I think :)