I dunno if this is a fair reading of the situation. - Microsoft is famously a company that has engaged in anti-competitive practices in the past - I think the

I dunno if this is a fair reading of the situation. - Microsoft is famously a company that has engaged in anti-competitive practices in the past - I think the norm of trying to directly contact a party and ask them to fix something before contacting authorities is a common one at more personal scales, and it's not unreasonable to apply more broadly. - they're not reaching out to a "random" CEO, they're reaching out to the CEO of a company which has put forward these anti-competitive terms, which they find objectionable (possibly illegal? see my question above) - bionhoward doesn't necessarily seem 'surprised' at not having gotten their desired response. The phrasing in "but im a nobody so hey, what do i know?", "tried a billion ways to remedy by contacting them directly", "I meekly suggest" all can be read as someone who _recognizes_ that they're a single person being ignored by giant companies (and by other HN commentators). The fact that you're likely to be ignored doesn't mean that you shouldn't try, if you have some deontic view of "should". I think that post could be read as a very casual, perhaps slightly rant-y style, of someone objecting to anti-competitive practices by some big tech organizations, and trying to do the "right" things (of requesting them to change, and then raising the issue with relevant authorities), and being understandably unhappy with the brokenness of the system.