Ian Jackson <ijack...@chiark.greenend.org.uk> writes: > Adrian Bunk writes: > > I thought this would would have been less offensive than the normal > > "This is a lie." > > You should never accuse someone of lying unless you are sure that they > know that what they are saying is wrong.
For Adrian (since you acknowledged non-native English language status): Ian is pointing out the distinction between “That is a lie” (asserting the person knowingly intended to communicate a falsehood), versus alternatives like “That is false” or “That is not true” (which carries no implication of the person's intention or state of mind). > If you can prove that someone is deliberately saying untrue things on > Debian lists, that is abuse which should be reported and stopped. If you don't want to support a claim that someone is lying, you can avoid that implication: Just point out that the statement is not true (and then do as you (Adrian) did to show how you know it's not true). I hope that helps! -- \ “Considering the current sad state of our computer programs, | `\ software development is clearly still a black art, and cannot | _o__) yet be called an engineering discipline.” —Bill Clinton | Ben Finney
