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BGonline.org Forums
Fernando Braconi's Live Tournament BG Play...
Posted By: Timothy Chow In Response To: Fernando Braconi's Live Tournament BG Play... (Stick)
Date: Thursday, 28 July 2011, at 6:01 p.m.
Stick wrote:
I don't think that's exactly right. I distinguish between what I think and what I think other people think, not what I think they should think.
While writing my previous post, I burned quite a bit of time on my clock deciding whether to write "should" or "do" and finally settled on "should" because that's what you originally said:
For how I feel others feel I think they should think the results posted by Fernando are mediocre. (emphasis mine)
However, you did say that your wording in that hastily-written post was not ideal, so let's go with your latest clarification ("do" instead of "should"). Your latest post indicates that, despite your claim that you're just trying to figure out what people do think, you're actually using your own methods of assessing a person's record directly, rather than analyzing what other people are saying. For example, you wrote:
Again this is hard to answer because nobody really has all the facts. I like all the facts
You like all the facts, but surely it's obvious that most people don't care about having all the facts. So for assessing how most people actually think (and not how they should think), you don't need the facts. You just need to assess how people will think based on the limited number of facts that they have at their disposal.
It may seem that I'm being pedantic. However, I believe that being clear and accurate is very important when someone's reputation is potentially on the line. If you think Fernando is a mediocre player, or if you think that his results are mediocre, or if you think that it's ridiculous to assess someone's ability based on such a limited set of results—well, you're entitled to your opinion, and if you make it clear that it's just your opinion, then people may get mad at you but at least you're being straightforward and are not relying on innuendo and insinuation.
But if you claim that you're not actually expressing your own opinion, and just objectively assessing and reporting what other people think of Fernando (not what, in your opinion, they should think but what they do think), while in reality you're inserting your own personal assessments of Fernando's record according to your own personal criteria, then you are not being honest. The net effect is that you are casting aspersions on Fernando under a false veneer of objectivity.
Given your straight-shooting nature and your evident inability to cleanly separate what you think, what you think other people think, and what you think other people should think, I'd advise you to just stick to saying what you yourself think. Otherwise, you're walking a narrow line between opinion and slander.
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