When people ask an "honest question," in general they are explicitly stating they'd like an honest answer (in this case, is there an API) and not a charged and

When people ask an "honest question," in general they are explicitly stating they'd like an honest answer (in this case, is there an API) and not a charged and irrelevant commentary that snarkily begins with the words "honest question." Don't mean to pick on you in particular, but this drives me nuts on HN. The parent probably really just wanted to know if there was an API and figured fostering discussion would be nicer than simply googling for the answer. I did not get the impression the parent was making a comment about Microsoft with any political valence attached; there are genuine technical and taste reasons to wonder if you can swap out a search engine or a browser on a computer for a given task.