On Mon, 15 Feb 2021 at 14:48, Phil Rhodes via ffmpeg-user < ffmpeg-user@ffmpeg.org> wrote:
>> On Monday, 15 February 2021, 13:58:30 GMT, Michael Koch < astroelectro...@t-online.de> wrote: >> A few developers (not all!) are actively fighting against any changes in the documentation. It seems >> they are really convinced that the documentation is perfect as it is. > The ffmpeg example is very extreme but I don't really see what can be done about it. It's their project. They can do anything they want. Absolutely true. There is always the suboptimal option of creating parallel documentation. There's a number of options that can coexist and sometimes overlap, off the top of my head: - individual collections of examples and observations (like Michael Koch's PDF or the glossary Mark Filipak was/is thinking of creating; or something like the Arch wiki's examples) - parallels/forks of official facets of documentation (eg "The Unofficial FFmpeg Wiki", ordocumentation) - self-answered questions on QA sites that serve as examples of a particular filter, features, etc There are other options too, but they are all also suboptimal [1]. Will people actually use them? [2] Will they be accurate if they are written and supported by people with an incomplete understanding of the codebase? Would it have enough people on board to fully support the endeavour- that is write it and maintain it? The barrier to entry is low, as all you need is space on a webserver [3]. But considering the fate of most forks, it's worth asking: is it worth it? In some ways, it might be beneficial for all involved (from both FFmpeg and those wanting to improve it POV) as it might obviate certain frustrations on both sides. Different projects have different documentation philosophies. Project A might prefer to be terse at the cost of lacking information for some users; whereas Project B might prefer to be verbose at the cost of potential inaccuracy. I don't endorse a particular action, I don't suggest a particular philosophy is best; this is just food for thought. Take care, Rob [1] : I recall someone setting up a Discord channel for troubleshooting FFmpeg issues a couple of years ago, though an IRC channel already existed. There's very little to stop someone doing something similar with forums, QA software, or whatever. Because while the mailing list works, is searchable, and can be very helpful; it does have a few pain points around top-posting, folks needing reminded to use up-to-date versions of ffmpeg, including full uncut output, not using -hide_banner etc. Heck, every time I mail the list I'm not sure whether to manually break lines at 72 characters or not. [2]: When writing this I went to look something else up, and by chance stumbled upon this comment thread from a day ago: https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/lj4v0w/some_nifty_stuff_ffmpeg_can_do/gnbkbwe (tl;dr - P1: ffmpeg is awesome! P2: it is, tho I wish the docs were better...) [3]: Admittedly you need the funds to rent this space and associated bandwidth and any domains, knowledge of keeping things secure and updated and free of spam, etc _______________________________________________ ffmpeg-user mailing list ffmpeg-user@ffmpeg.org https://ffmpeg.org/mailman/listinfo/ffmpeg-user To unsubscribe, visit link above, or email ffmpeg-user-requ...@ffmpeg.org with subject "unsubscribe".