2785: Marble Run

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Marble Run

Title text: I have so many plans. It would incorporate a Galton board, a Ranque-Hilsch marble vortex tube, and a compartment lined with pinball bouncers with a camera-and-servo Maxwell's Demon that separated the balls into fast and slow sides.

Explanation

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Transcript

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Discussion

Sorry if this is a mess (it's my first time editing). ProgrammerG (talk) 22:02, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

It's honestly much better than anything I could have done. Trogdor147 (talk) 22:04, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Hey, it's all good. Not sure what you wrote (as opposed to anyone else that then pounced upon it, before I first saw it), but we have our own Rube Goldbergesque way of bashing it all into a (largely) mutually-approved shape. I think I spot some further changes I'd like to make, so I'm going to dive back in in a moment, but it has to start somewhere!

...the only big picky thing I'd say (to whoever did this, here or elsewhere recently), is that its fairly standard to note use the [URL link text] format when you can use the hand {{w}}-template to write {{w|Wiki article title|link text}}, instead, and often this lets you miss the "|link text" part out because the Wiki article title is the link text you want. I mean someone who died whilst creating a template to make this more streamlined, ought to have their work put to good use... ;) 162.158.74.21 23:36, 5 June 2023 (UTC)

Added Citation-needed for pacincko inspiration. I mean, I think the order of appearance is even wrong for that to be possible.RandalSchwartz (talk) 00:04, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

Hold it. Is this an actual citation needed, or a sarcastic one? If it's a sarcastic one, keep it as is, but I don't think it is. If it is an actual one, then use this tag.^{[actual citation needed]} Trogdor147 (talk) 02:58, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

I read it as an ACN instance (thought as much myself, but hadn't then done basic checks), and the above statement reinforces the feeling.

• Use {{Citation needed}} for "this is so obvious, it'd be funny to say it isn't" situations. And sparingly! ...like, you don't even need one in every single article, never mind several in a single paragraph, because it then just becomes a "who can put a CN in every article/paragraph first" competition, rather than a considered bit of humour (which others might consider is better elsewhere/not there because of their own ideas about that, of course). There are exceptions where maybe over-use is the point (self-referentially in the Wikipedian Protestor article, arguaby), and long and complicated comic descriptions might have many opportunities across a large number of sub-sections for which choice CNing can pop up in a wide sample of their mini-explanations. Although you will find that it's perfectly possible to go too far and thus a later editor decides that none of them deserve to remain, even the genuinely well placed one(s).
• Use {{Actual citation needed}} for genuine 'proper' use of tag, as per elsewhere. Again, sparingly. If you know it's a wrong fact, best to factualise it (or contextualise it, where there's vital nuance that you're aware of) whenever you can. "Begging the question" (an ambiguous phrase, but either use of it) should be considered a stop-gap. Perhaps you intend to return and phrase your doubts properly when you have confirmed your objections/suspicions (or, otherwise, can remove it).

And also put it after the punctuation. e.g. following any comma,{{like here}} and not displacing the punctuation{{like here}}. (Although it can be tricky for some cases.{{here is fine}} But it probably needs a rewrite, anyway, if you're left with a tricky question of placement.{{like here?}}){{or here?}} ...but if you're not trying to shoehorn the tags in, beyond reasonable use, if you can't decided how it looks best then perhaps that means that it also has no point being there, which just reinforces my earlier suggestion on constraint.

YMMV, but then (OtherPeople's)MMV too. So things tend to settle down to the compromise consensus where it just works nicely enough for everyone. 172.70.86.153 09:58, 7 June 2023 (UTC)

I don't know why, but I feel like the phrase "maybe go off a few jumps" has been used by Randall (or somewhere) before, but I can't find anywhere except here/in the original cartoon and it's bugging me that it seems so familiar but there's no evidence of it in the 30-ish seconds of searching I've done so far. 172.71.30.77 16:35, 7 June 2023 (UTC)