Oh, I didn't think you were calling them stupid! That's part of what I mean as the culture shock - that Westerners will respond to being told they're doing something stupid as if it was an insult to themselves, and not an insult on what they're doing, disregarding the fact that smart people can do stupid things and vice versa. What the OP was trying to do _is_ stupid, but that doesn't make them a stupid person. They could in fact be a very experienced engineer who has delivered beautiful and capable web apps. I don't believe your intent was to make the OP feel stupid, but perhaps the lack of sugarcoating and straightforwardness of your response makes it seem like that. I don't think you were impolite either, it's just that terse responses usually signal impatience and may get misconstrued as anger, despite the intent being to clearly communicate a simple message.