I'm not going to speak to your intentions because I don't know you. But here is my perception. You say that you had no interest in the snake, so why email him in the first place? Also, according to your post, you emailed him just to see if he knew what he was doing. You then tossed an abbreviation that is common to YOU at him expecting him to know what it mans... I'm sure I could toss out a ton of abbreviations that are common knowledge for me because I deal with them daily and you wouldn't have a clue what I was talking about. When he replied with a clarification question, you scoffed at the idea of a snake owner not knowing what RI is. To the majority of the people in the United States, RI doesn't mean respiratory infection. In his eyes, you just asked if his snake had a Rhode Island...