- Group Buys, as a form of sale/ordering, need to die in a fire. Waiting for 1-2 years for a product you pay today is absurd and it makes this hobby incredibly unrewarding. And it's a scummy practice. We need to actively boycott group buys.
- Split, ergo, sub-60% sizes, dvorak, colemak, ortho and other obscure layouts/setups are absolutely an unnecessary gimmick for most people, obviously except a tiny minority for whom it makes sense. If the good ol' reliable staggered qwerty works for almost all of the people around the world, don't try to sell me a quirky layout as the best thing since sliced bread.
I'm sorry, but this is the thread for unpopular opinions. The above are quite popular opinions if you go by the numbers, just visiting r/mk gives me regular headaches with all the economists and trade experts explaining that GMK should build 5 new factories to accommodate all the people wanting in stock keycaps. Same people who when presented with the opportunity to buy a sealed GMK set at GB prices wince and go buy 30$ keycaps off Amazon because GMK is "overrated" and "overpriced". Not to mention the inevitable horde who is asking "where is windows key" or "how do you use a 40% not enuf keys" whilst typing on their 30% phone keyboard.
People use all sorts of boards, including split, ergo, vertical stagger, 40%, 60%, regular stagger and we love them all. It's why GBs exist - because corporate deemed it unprofitable to manufacture such amazing things and are happy making bank on rubber dome 104s. Please feel free to buy those, also mech prebuilts and keycaps off Aliexpress that are readily available because high end aluminium cases and high end keycaps are stuck with the GB model because people shop on Amazon, want stuff yesterday and sort by price: ascending.
And one more thing: this hobby taught me delayed gratification and overall improved my life. Because this continuous chase for having things before you even pay for them is a scourge. It ruins people and it ruins human interaction, it's all feeding the
instant gratification monkey at the cost of one's mental health and eventually sanity.
And now you're going to cry about us gatekeeping. Spoiler alert: you're gatekeeping yourself, but feel free to be salty. If you really want something, you'll wait for it to happen, doing your best in acquiring it. And when it comes to high end boards that are designed from scratch, with a LOT of work, dedication, blood, sweat and tears you have absolutely no right in deeming what we should like, use or do with our resources.
And if you really really want it, you
build it yourself. And you may learn a thing or two about humbleness, because you learn to design, to build, to program and to ask for help where you can't quite make it. And it is a humbling experience.