User talk:Marco Krohn

Kein Probleme! Tschuess, Nevilley 22:19 Mar 22, 2003 (UTC)

Sorry that was so short - I meant to say, thanks for the email. I am glad you didn't mind my helping with Hanover - I hoped it did not look like I was interfering too much. I guessed that you were German from the "would/should" thing :) ... I can never get my head around that in German! Are you from round there? Do you know Bad Muender am Deister by any chance?? Nevilley 09:11 Mar 24, 2003 (UTC)

Hi Nevilley, no I am glad for any help, especially in the beginning :-) Also, since I am non-native speaker, I feel much better when someone looks at the stuff I am writing and corrects my mistakes. This also helps me improving my English--thanks. And yes, your guess about me being from Germany is right, though I wasn't the one who did the "would/should" thing (at least I don't think so). I live in Hanover which is quite close to the Deister. I also know "Bad Münder", but am not sure if I've ever been there since my memory for places and locations is very weak... probably I've been there at least once. mkrohn 21:56 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)

I had assumed that, given that it's a German city, "Hannover" would be the default spelling of "Hanover". But, since the one-'n' spelling is where the Wiki page is at, that's certainly the way to go. Just wondering then, who does spell it "Hanover"? (besides English speakers, of course, or are we the only ones?) -- JohnOwens 22:26 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)

Being from Hanover I was pretty confused to see it with one 'n'. I don't know the exact reasons, but I rechecked it in four different dictionaries (see talk:Hanover, and probably the following text sums it up very nice:
"Similar issues arise with spelling. The German city Hanover has this spelling in English, and Germans who know English use it when writing English. It is important in English history, because it is where the present English royal family comes from. However, the German spelling is Hannover. Many Americans learn the word from German contacts and therefore use the German spelling. There is no unique correct answer." (from usenet, alt.california)
But please don't ask me, why the English decided to call it "Hanover" ;-) -- mkrohn 22:38 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)
Why did the English call it "Hanover"? ;-) -- JohnOwens 22:44 Mar 25, 2003 (UTC)

Hi, Marco. I was just being sarcastic because of all the complaints about how "Americacentric" Wikipedia is. Sorry to take it out on you.  :) -- Zoe

No problem, being new I was just a bit confused :-)

Hi Marco, thanks for the river Weser map. Would you mind correcting "Bremenhaven" to "Bremerhaven" and "Hamelin" to "Hameln" - provided that these are considered correct here, that is ;) - Thank you. Kosebamse 18:56 Mar 28, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks. "Bremenhaven" is surely the wrong spelling, but "Hamelin" should be o.k., at least if we talk about the English version. See here: Hamelin. Or do you want that for the German version? (in this case also Hanover needs to be corrected). -- mkrohn 19:26 Mar 28, 2003 (UTC)


Ah well, better leave the English forms in the English Wikipedia. Otherwise you will ignite endless disputes about forms of place names. Who would have thought that Hameln has an English name, by the way? Happy editing and thanks for your contributions, Kosebamse 19:48 Mar 28, 2003 (UTC)
Well, there is that rather famous poem of Browning's, "the Pied Piper of Hamelin", based on the old folk tale - although Browning was known to lift and adapt words himself (with one rather notorious and unfortunate neologism for "nun's headgear"!). But if you want to see an early discussion of how the English language works with names from other cultures, read the early parts of Defoe's "Robinson Crusoe" in which he explains how a German name "Kreuzer" (or was it "Kreutzer"?) became "Crusoe". PML.

Hi Marco, Just a note to say I have reembedded the Mugabe picture again. I think Mav, whom I have a hell of a lot of respect for, is fundamentally wrong on the picture issue. His method of placing pictures produces images that take up full columns even when they don't need to, which has the effect of editorialising by making the picture seem so important it has to be seen. Normal graphic design embeds images in text because (a) it is the standard look used by all encylopædias, books, magazines, etc (I have laid out a few advertorials for political candidates and images are always embedded. If they aren't they look decided amateurish, as if the graphic artist didn't know how to do a fundamental requirement in image use) (b) if they are not embedded the image can dominate a page, making it seem exceptionally important, whereas in reality images are used for illustration not editorialisation; (c) if a text box size isn't specified, they can affect text wraps and 'shift', particularly when viewed with certain browsers. The results can all too often be an embarrassing mess, not a professionally laid out page.

I've added in images on quite a few pages on wiki. I have always found that the page doesn't work unless it is well laid out, with strict limits set on the image, its location, its relationship to text. For example, I put images on Michael Collins (Irish leader) and an enormous number of images on Papal Tiara. I think on a visual level, the effect is to create a well laid out page that Encyclopædia Brittanica or any major publication could use in its current form. I don't think Mav's method works, gives a page locked in stability or creates a professionally laid out page. Hence my reversion of your change. I think the picture works far better and is browser friendly 'locked in' to the text rather than in freeflow, and it ensures the image, where its size does not warrant one full column, isn't overly dominant, producing editorialisation rather than illustration. Take care. STÓD/ÉÍRE 20:37 Mar 30, 2003 (UTC)

Hi. I checked again, and think that Mav is not the one to blame here, he has really not changed anything concerning to the embedding. I have changed "border:.1px" to "border:1px" because my browser (konqueror) does not show a border in the subpixel range (no embedding) and I thought you entered the ".1" by mistake. Also setting the width to 270px is wrong, because the image size really is 300px and this gives a strange layout to the page. Someone already has corrected the image size, if it is not rendered perfectly on your browser, then I am afraid you have to blame your browser for that. About the right size for the border: "1px" is fine for me (this is how you did it for Michael Collins (Irish leader)). This page renders fine here (konqueror cvs). The pope images are all without frame, probably because you set the border to ".1px". I now tried a different setting, namely "1pt" for the Robert Mugabe site. It renders fine here and I would like to hear if you also see the box. BTW what is wrong if we set this to 1px? Is the line to thick? Best regards, Marco. mkrohn 22:07 Mar 30, 2003 (UTC)

Hi Marco, I used to use 1px but I found if it reduced it to .1px because I found that visually it looked better for many images not to have a visual border, particularly where the the image itself is clearly bordered. Mozilla seems to see a line anyway. Explorer seemed to look better in many instances with the line there but so thin it was invisible to the naked eye. Sometimes things look one way on one browser and different on another (notably mozilla). What I usually do is go into a page I have laid out in a number of browsers to make sure it is OK. I had not yet had the chance to go into Mugabe in mozilla to see if the width needed changing. If 270 looked wrong, I would have changed it, done a show preview and kept changing until the box matched the image. The thing about using width is that where I don't use it, I just can't get an image to go to a specific spot on a page. Even relatively small images become centralised and end up making the page look odd. I put a full explanation on the talk:Mugabe page for Brion, so you might find a more detailed explanation there. Best of luck, STÓD/ÉÍRE 23:12 Mar 30, 2003 (UTC)



Sorry, I just saw your message. At this point I think that image is fundamentally flawed and should be replaced with one that only shows Mugabe (at a width of between 200-300 px). Cropping off Annon would be very bad because then we are left with Mugabe in front on the UN flag! :-) We could still have this image further down though (in which case the somewhat hard to see face detail isn't as much of a problem since a better image of Mugabe's face would already have been shown further up on the page). For now, I'll try to do a better conversion. --mav

Thanks for your solution mav, it is much better now! -- mkrohn 12:07 Mar 31, 2003 (UTC)

Thanks mate for the recommendation for safari. It is excellent and best of all, NO MORE COURIER FONT!!! If it is compatible with your system try it out, it has a lovely clean feel to it that makes Netscape look like something from the dinosaur age. STÓD/ÉÍRE 00:15 Apr 2, 2003 (UTC)


I removed the Qt toolkit discussion from votes for deletion. The policy is to leave the discussion on the page if there's a dispute or countering arguments, but that wasn't the case for this page. -- Notheruser 04:20 Apr 3, 2003 (UTC)


I've just seen your changes to my style of pic insertion on SR-71 Blackbird and B-52 Stratofortress. This was a surprise since I've had plenty of compliments on my work with illustrations. I did not expect someone to change my style without being kind enough to discuss it with me. I know, of course, that Wikipedia is open but there are certain courtesies we should still keep to.

Of course, if your style is official Wikipedia (and I don’t know of any official policy) then I must give way and let you change all 103 pics I have put in Wikipedia!

I don’t dislike your style, but, as I have spent long hours slowly developing and improving my HTML to have the look of my pics just how I want them to look, I wonder why I need to be altered? I wonder how many problems your picture framing could cause with different browsers (I use IE5) whereas I have never had any problems raised by anybody with my non-framed pictures. Looking forward to your comments -- Adrian Pingstone 15:13 Apr 4, 2003 (UTC)

First of all my apologies for not discussing this with you. I am quite new to wikipedia and therefore make some mistakes, thanks for pointing out and kindly informing me about this. Also please note that I am non-native speaker, I therefore hope to not sound too impolite. Below is a list of changes and some comments:
  • Replaced the image code you used with the code as described on Wikipedia:Boilerplate_text. I honestly don't know the exact difference, but the code is at least easier to understand and somehow official.
  • Removed new lines before the first paragraph -- otherwise image and first paragraph are not on the same level.
  • Sidenote: you used italic for the subtitle, I do this as well, but there is (unfortunately) no policy for this.
  • Added "small" for the subtitles, this seems to be standard, but there is also no policy for that.
  • Replaced HTML code by Wikicode (according to Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style)
  • The headlines should start with "==" not with "===", I changed that also in accordance with Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style, "Headline style".
  • "General Characteristics" -> "General characteristics", see above
  • Added a border to the images. This was wrong I'll remove them now. Unfortunately there is (again) no policy for that, I took the idea from Michael Collins (Irish leader).
I hope you accept my apologies concerning the border and not asking you before. Are other changes o.k. for you? -- mkrohn 20:04 Apr 4, 2003 (UTC)
Hi! Marco, from Adrian. Thank you for your kind (and well expressed) reply to my concerns over your changes to my pictures.
I live in Bristol, England but I have been to Germany to go to meetings at the Deutsche Airbus (as it was then) plants in Bremen and Hamburg for meetings, when I was working for British Aerospace. I love Bremen, especially Becks beer!
  • I would be happy if you could leave my code unchanged, on my other pictures. I understand it, it works well and I've had no complaints (yet!)
  • I very much like your small italics so I will slowly change all my other pics to that.
  • I had nothing to do with the text of those two articles so do as you wish there.
  • I am pleased you have removed the frame, I think it makes the page look a little "heavy".
Thanks for your help, I learn a little more each day! -- Adrian Pingstone 21:11 Apr 4, 2003 (UTC)
Marco, see my comments on Talk:Duesberg hypothesis Revolver

Hey there - it looks like you thought I was trying to delete the Main Page - no wonder you thought I was looney - please take another look!The Fellowship of the Troll 02:08, 14 Jan 2004 (UTC)