[FFmpeg-user] libavcodec documentation and usage

[Phil Turmel]

I should know better, but:

On 07/16/2013 10:01 AM, Phil Rhodes wrote:
>> 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.
> 
> There are additional headers in some mailing-list emails that your
> email program probably doesn't show you, which identify the thread.
> If you post to the list by replying to a message from another thread,
> these headers can sometimes be duplicated into the new email, meaning
> you appear - to people whose email programs support all this - to
> "alter the subject" of a thread partway down.

The headers in question are *not* mailing list headers.  They appear in
all email replies from every desktop email client out there, and all the
major webmail clients, whether to a mailing list or not.  Both James'
mail client and *your* mail client are generating these headers.

> These special "threading" headers are not all that widely supported,
> especially on the webmail providers such as Yahoo that a lot of
> people use, so again, there's no reason you should be expected to
> know about them.

That's simply not true.  These headers are extremely widely supported,
and have been from the days of Eudora and Outlook 1.0.  The exceptions
are a handful of old webmail packages for self-hosted mail servers that
fail to generate these headers.  Such mails always appear to start a new
thread, never to hijack a thread.

Some long-standing contributors may be short when attempting to educate
newcomers, but the posting rules for these mailings lists are published
(with explanations) in the very first paragraph on ffmpeg's contact page.

You've been around long enough to know better, Phil.  You may disagree
with how the ffmpeg runs things, but it is not up to you or I.

Regards,

Phil

{I know, I shouldn't feed the troll.  But leaving that without a
rebuttal would be bad for newcomers.}