Emailed a researcher whose paper I'd been reading, a genuine, specific technical question, nothing weird. Got a two-sentence reply that answered basically nothing and felt like it was written to make me stop emailing rather than to help. Fair enough, probably gets a hundred of these. Still stung a little. Figured it out myself eventually, the hard way, which took longer but I understand it better now than a quick answer would have given me anyway. Silver lining, sort of.