How would I respectfully disagree with a peer?


This is probably related to [How would I respectfully disagree with a
superior?](https://japanese.stackexchange.com/questions/1154/how-woulrd-i-
respectfully-disagree-with-a-superior) however the context is a tech forum
where the thread starter is asking for someone technically advanced to help,
and the culture is more concerned about solving problems than politeness. Is a
plain ~違います appropriate in this context?




Someone well-versed in internet Japanese may need to correct me, but...

You can always soften a straight 違います with saying something like

> 違うと思うんですが  
>  違うと思うんですけど

You can also present a fact, which disproves the claim of your technically
advanced helper. There may be no need to say explicitly "you were wrong".

This is not only true for Japanese, but trying to confirm the correctness of
the claim in some situation that does not apply to you doesn't give the
message "you are wrong", which by itself is not very helpful. You could try

> 一般的にそうかもしれませんが、私の場合は……  
>  That may be so in general, but in my situation...

That said, 違います is a lot better than 違う and, although probably unnecessary,
may be perfectly acceptable in that particular tech forum, in particular if
you are on the end of the technically advanced helper.

If that is the case, there is also the expression

> それはそれでいいんですけど……  
>  That's fine, but...




Someone well-versed in internet Japanese may need to correct me, but...

You can always soften a straight 違います with saying something like

> 違うと思うんですが  
>  違うと思うんですけど

You can also present a fact, which disproves the claim of your technically
advanced helper. There may be no need to say explicitly "you were wrong".

This is not only true for Japanese, but trying to confirm the correctness of
the claim in some situation that does not apply to you doesn't give the
message "you are wrong", which by itself is not very helpful. You could try

> 一般的にそうかもしれませんが、私の場合は……  
>  That may be so in general, but in my situation...

That said, 違います is a lot better than 違う and, although probably unnecessary,
may be perfectly acceptable in that particular tech forum, in particular if
you are on the end of the technically advanced helper.

If that is the case, there is also the expression

> それはそれでいいんですけど……  
>  That's fine, but...

