Your perception of "in kind" is certainly not what I would consider "in kind". It looks to me much more directed at the other person.

I don't find jdporters original reply that eloquent, but it certainly is not a direct insult. I consider your post a direct insult.

Your consideration of the post did not contain an action (edit or delete). I don't see who closed the consideration and when, but if a consideration receives enough "keep" votes, it gets removed from the node.

I think a better way forward would be for jdporter to edit his post and direct it towards a more constructive critique of your original post. For example, I could see that suggesting to introduce an unapproved machine into a network is not really sound advice to somebody who wants to keep being gainfully employed.