It seems like this type of email is on the rise:
"<some program in the cygwin distribution> is <describe strange behavior>
since I last updated Cygwin."
<send several messages expressing confusion and consternation>
"Oh, I found the problem. I had previously done <describe unusual and
hard-to-forget thing>. When I reverted that, things started working
fine."
I wonder if that's a sign of anything. It might mean that there is an
increase in people/organizations using cygwin and they are including
stupid instructions to work around real or imagined problems.