Well, in all fairness (and I do think that the original conspiracy theory is inane, and reflects someone with an axe to grind rather than a rational assessment

Well, in all fairness (and I do think that the original conspiracy theory is inane, and reflects someone with an axe to grind rather than a rational assessment of the situation) - the actual hype cycle would look more like: o Write up a great story that makes a product sound amazing o Get lots of people to use it, wait in line o Dropbox values the application based on user engagement stats. I don't think there is any evidence that Ryan Lawler (the author of the TechCrunch Mailbox Stories) was incented or directed in any way to write them. Indeed, here on HN, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5389748 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5389748, he states that he and Arrington/Siegler don't even have any type of special relationship. He's not even sure that Arrington even knows who he is. With all that said - I just checked, and I've finally (after a month?) made it to the front of the line, so I'm off to chase Inbox Zero!