[FFmpeg-user] libavcodec documentation and usage

[Phil Turmel]

Hi James,

On 07/16/2013 09:02 AM, James Board wrote:
>>>> Please do not high jack threads, Carl Eugen
> 
>>> What thread did I hijack?
>>
>> http://thread.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.ffmpeg.user/46634
>> http://www.google.com/search?q=thread+hijacking
>>
>> Carl Eugen
> 
> I still don't understand.  How did I 'hijack' that thread?  My email had a 
> completely different subject line, and it was a completely new topic.

When you used "reply" to start an email to this list, your email client
inserted codes for "In-Reply-To:" and "References:" that point to that
email.  Changing the subject doesn't removes those codes.  So your email
has codes that say that it belongs to the topic "how to debug when
running ffplay", but you were talking about something else.

Many people are ignorant of this activity because they are using an
email client that creates these codes (per standard) but do not display
messages in threads accordingly.  You can guess what email client is the
biggest offender.

If you want to be a good citizen on mailing lists (not just this one),
you need to compose a new message to the list, not use reply.  If you
just want to avoid typing the list address, many clients allow you to
right-click on the address and choose "Compose Message To" or something
similar.

People like Carl who provide a great deal of help on mailing lists like
this are especially sensitive to this issue as they tend to rely on
modern mail clients that use the standard codes to organize the
different simultaneous conversations where they are involved.  Such
people usually ignore conversations they don't have expertise in (I do
this on the linux lists where I can help).  Telling you not to hijack is
a mutual benefit--you don't want your message accidentally missed
because it's buried inside a different thread.

Hope this helps,

Phil