English

Well, the way I see it, there will always be some people offended if you do anything, because:
A. there are too many nuances of too many people to anticipate all the things that might push somebody's button
B. people will always assume the worst of your motivations unless they already consider you a friend (this is not my low opinion about the Ryzom community, this is a psychological fact about all humans; you can look it up)

And that's why intention is the only usable criterion for griefing that I can see. Yes, in theory, this means someone could grief and then get away with it by claiming they really had the best of intentions. But I'd rather some get away with griefing in this way, then that we're constantly on a witch-hunt looking for any actions that we might interpret as griefing.

And in practice I think getting away with griefing in this way this rarely happens anyways because:
A. People who use RP as an excuse to grief tend to not be real RPers, they even tend to look down on RP, so their knowledge of RP is like a mainstream-media-journalist's knowledge of videogames, and their ploy is thus paperthin to an actual RPer.
B. Claiming they really had the best of intentions would mean admitting they made a mistake by not anticipating how people would take it. And most people would rather admit they were griefing than admit they made a mistake. :P

So if you do end up griefing someone, then if you do apologise and admit you made a mistake, and if it's clear that you're a real RPer (ie: you don't talk trash about RP all the time except when you use it to justify your actions), then all should be fine. The people who'll still accuse you of griefing are the ones who will always assume the worst of your motivations no matter what you do, so that nothing you say or do would please them anyways,

/applause

Well said!