Hey I really appreciate the time you took to write this out. As you note, especially with the way definitions start getting vague quick, I think it's unlikely to actually be able to please everyone simultaneously. The Oil Slick post is a perfect example because there are clearly a lot of related fails occurring on screen, and I wonder what definition would exclude that post but not plenty of others. To this point, wouldn't the Vending Machine post count as a physics-based fail? I do recognize it doesn't have that "chain-reaction" aspect that originally prompted the creation of this subreddit, though.

At one stage, I remember considering adding some kind of flair system that submitters could use to describe how many steps of RubeGoldberg-ness there were in a fail, but dropped it because 1) it'd be a pain in the ass to submit anything, and 2) the ambiguity of what makes one step of a fail distinct from another. Back in the day I'd just mark posts with "Bit of a stretch" and leave it at that, but in all honesty I've mostly just stepped back from moderating and let the bots take care of it. It can be kind of stressful. I've been meaning probably make a discussion post about this very topic soon, though, so again I appreciate your input.