Author Topic: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?  (Read 6641 times)

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Offline BucklingSpring

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Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 13:03:10 »
Hello to all nice Geekhack folks :-)

I used to be a "reasonably" active user here and after buying/trying way too much boards/keys. I kind of went meh then switched to something else. Pun intended.

So what did I miss?
Any new interesting/promising keyboard tech out there?
Did Matias finally release it's 60% board? (Rhetorical cheap shot. I couldn't resist peaking at the Vendor forum)

Happy 2022 all!
In memory of smallfry 1996-2013
Boards I own, click ->
More
Ducky x2 (9008G2 Pro PBT/MX Green and Mini MX Red), Matias x2 (QP and Mini QP Dampened ALPS), Topre RealForce x4 (87U 55g/Digilog case, 103U-UW & 104UG High-Profile x2), Filco Majestouch x2 (TKL MX Blue & V2 AI 104 MX Blue), IBM-M x2 (BS & RD), Unicomp-M x5 (BS black on black x2, BS Ivory x2, QT Ultra-Classic), Deck x4 (Legend MX Black & MX Clear, Hassium & Francium w/ MX Brown), DAS III (MX Blue), KBT Pure Pro 60% (MX Red), NMB-RT8256CW+ x2 (black space invader), XArmor U9BL-S (MX Brown) given for free to someone I hate, CM X2 (Trigger/MX Green + Storm TKL/NovaTouch), TVS GOLD (MX Blue) and a many many more (NMB, DELL, MS, ATT, KeyTronic, Etc...)

Offline HungerMechanic

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #1 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 13:19:32 »
Nothing much happened in the past few years. It's been a pretty quiet time.

Most of the old regulars are fading away, I'm not sure we'll be seeing many new boards or components in the next while.

Oh wait, that was the parallel universe.

Offline BucklingSpring

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #2 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 13:38:43 »
Quote
Nothing much happened in the past few years. It's been a pretty quiet time.

Hmmm. Any love for the Niz Plum/Abko electro-capacitive switches?
In memory of smallfry 1996-2013
Boards I own, click ->
More
Ducky x2 (9008G2 Pro PBT/MX Green and Mini MX Red), Matias x2 (QP and Mini QP Dampened ALPS), Topre RealForce x4 (87U 55g/Digilog case, 103U-UW & 104UG High-Profile x2), Filco Majestouch x2 (TKL MX Blue & V2 AI 104 MX Blue), IBM-M x2 (BS & RD), Unicomp-M x5 (BS black on black x2, BS Ivory x2, QT Ultra-Classic), Deck x4 (Legend MX Black & MX Clear, Hassium & Francium w/ MX Brown), DAS III (MX Blue), KBT Pure Pro 60% (MX Red), NMB-RT8256CW+ x2 (black space invader), XArmor U9BL-S (MX Brown) given for free to someone I hate, CM X2 (Trigger/MX Green + Storm TKL/NovaTouch), TVS GOLD (MX Blue) and a many many more (NMB, DELL, MS, ATT, KeyTronic, Etc...)

Offline HungerMechanic

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #3 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 13:50:35 »
Ok... seriously, keyboard customization exploded in the past 4 years.

The pandemic didn't even slow it down.

There's been a Precambrian Explosion of new switches. Most of them linear. MX tactiles still suck, but less. Kailh hasn't innovated much on BOX clickies since 2018.

But thanks to Durock and friends, the situation with linears has become very competitive, with different levels of quality available at all price tiers. Silent heavy tactiles are good now, with Zealio V2 and U4 Boba presenting valid choices. More variety in normal heavy tactiles.

Light tactiles are still starved of designs, but there have been improvements: Everglide Jade V2, Durock Light Tactile and variants, SP Star Meteor Orange, and the upcoming KTT Mallow, for instance. TTC has a whole bunch of Brown and Ergo-Clear-inspired switches. Medium tactiles are fairly abundant, now.

Cherry f$%#ed up its housings. Reports of the new Hyperglides say that there may be interference with Cherry(!) profile, and other issues. Although the early batches were at least good in feel.

Still no Cherry Ergo Clears, and their Clear tooling continues to deteriorate. But there are many factory Ergo Clears now.

Zeal is coming out with an ALPS-inspired 3-in-1 clicky design based off some hybrid MX / ALPS switch.

There are many new keycap manufacturers who finally, as of 2020 or 2021 or so have been able to provide what you might call 'decent' or 'basic' sets at affordable prices. Many of them are straight-up clones of GMK and other popular designs.

GMK tooling fell off a cliff by the end of 2019. Reports of bent spacebars, the kind you would find in a cheap 2017 AliExpress PBT set. Lettering consistency being critiqued. But good vendors have provided replacement spacebars and other keys for certain sets. Others don't. GMK also switched to the worst trays ever. Cheap keycaps typically offer significantly better packaging than GMK now.

EnjoyPBT had some bad runs [spacebars in particular] but fixed their tooling for a while and sets like Grayscale and Spectrum were great. Starting to outmatch GMK on spacebars at times. CRP still only produces cream+beige sets, but their spacebars are king now.

JTK still hasn't caught up to GMK 'quality' as far as I know, but that's a moving target and we'll see how it goes when Royal Alpha comes out.

We stopped getting good, cheap Cherry stabilizers for some reason. But other manufacturers are picking up the slack. The current standard seems to be Durock V2. Zeal stabilizers are good, but may not be price-competitive in the U.S. market. Something called "C3" makes decent stabilizers in the latest revisions. Avoid V1 of anything, and go for a V3 if it exists.

More new boards than anyone can count. Still, no-one produces full-size kits and very few 1800-inspired ones. Lots of exclusive $500+ GBs to get in on, if that's your thing. COVID delayed a number of boards. If you ordered an HMKB [SKB sequel] 2 years ago, it should be arriving soon.

Entry-level boards are becoming very competitive, and offer much more than in the past. TADA68 is gone, replaced by the much-superior KBD67 Lite, which offers a religiously-transformative level of quality for $110. IKKI68 Aurora is also providing low mid-level quality at entry-level pricing. [Don't go to the aftermarket]. You can get a really decent south-facing LED hotswap keyboard sent to your door for $60 now.

Hotswap is now 5-pin. Kailh is allegedly working on new hotswap sockets that will last for many more swaps.

Factory politics and drama continue, largely behind the scenes.

Cherry released "Viola" low-budget switches, and nobody cared.

The experience of using a factory, store-bought keyboard is not something that is discussed here much, anymore.


You'll notice that this is all happening in the MX world. There's so much being GBed and manufactured now, but 99% of it is MX-compatible. GB model may decline in significance, at least for keycaps, since GMK is backlogged by 2+ years. And there was an ABS shortage that affected general keycap production.

I purchased and reviewed somewhat an ABKO Niz Plum 45 G K395P back in 2019 or so. It's a good keyboard, but I hear Niz is backsliding in quality since the pandemic. The "New 2021 Niz Switches" are apparently less smooth and more scratchy-sounding than the "New 2019 Niz Switches." I'm grateful I bought my ABKO when I did.

It feels as if, while MX continues to grow, Niz is just barely holding on. There was a period of silence during the pandemic, as if they were significantly disrupted by it. Then, they came out with the new 2021 stuff, but some aspects are questionable if you ask me. I like that they have doubleshot PBT keycaps now, but the design and manufacture resembles a $15 AliExpress set I once bought. Glad I didn't buy that 2021 full-size, even though I wanted to at the time.

Topre availability also seems to be declining somewhat, but they are switching to a new generation, so that might be it. New generation is okay, not that divisive, if you liked R2 you could probably live with R3. Some people like R3 better. Still highly-priced, and difficult to sample.

Varmilo and some others have tried to get into the EC game, but Varmilo's switches at least seem to be even more linear than Niz. I haven't heard of much innovation or components in the EC world, although the BKE domes offer tremendous customization potential and their 30-35 G ultralight domes are very interesting to me. [Good luck sampling them, though.]

So EC seems to be just hanging-on, with not much innovation. Matias shifts between usable quality and chhhhaaattttteeerrrr. A few ALPS-compatible keycap sets were produced, largely by SP (who is getting a second-wind because of market niches and GMK backlog.)

Some promising non-MX designs are on the drawing board or sample production, things like contactless designs and Hall Effect and other old-style linears. I don't follow buckling spring, but UNICOMP released a TKL, so there's that.

Chryos has personally caused the prices of all your favourite non-MX antiques to go up 800% in price.

Offline pixelpusher

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #4 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 14:00:11 »
As far as truly "new,"  I would say optical switch technology is the biggest new thing.  It still hasn't been widely adopted, and is available on fullsize boards by a few companies.  However, Input Club's analog project "Keystone" will probably ship within a year, with hopes of the technology being opened to the rest of the keyboard community. 

The biggest change is hotswap, affordable custom keyboards, and millions of new people joining the community.  I think these all probably go hand in hand.

The greatest influx of hobbyists can be seen on reddit in r/mechanicalkeyboards and r/mechmarket

A close second would probably be the myriad of discord servers devoted to this and that niche mech group, specific makers, specific vendors.  I think I'm in at least 80 discord servers.  It's quite the mess.

Also, Geekhack is now owned by Drop (Formerly Massdrop).  There are a few other active enthusiast communities. One of which I frequent as often if not more than Geekhack is Keebtalk.

Geekhack plays a big part in serving as a central repository for Interest Checks and Group Buys that people run from various outlets.  With the influx of hundreds of new vendor sites, millions of Reddit usuers, thousands of Discord servers, and sometimes even Instagram, Geekhack has played a good role of tethering all the swirling data.

Welcome back  :thumb:
« Last Edit: Sun, 09 January 2022, 14:12:24 by pixelpusher »

Offline suicidal_orange

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #5 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 14:01:20 »
Welcome back :)

Most of the old regulars are fading away
Sadly this bit is all too real.  Other than everything HungerMechanic wrote (I learned stuff reading it!) from my perspective I wrote this for another returner not long ago which says it all:
Sadly the community you once knew is all but dead, the site is now riddled with useless newbies who are only here to circle jerk insults and buy stuff.
Just stick to off topic and it's not so bad :thumb:
120/100g linear Zealio R1  
GMK Hyperfuse
'Split everything' perfection  
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SA Hack'd by Geeks     
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Offline HungerMechanic

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #6 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 14:33:11 »
Welcome back :)

Most of the old regulars are fading away
Sadly this bit is all too real.



Yes. If wanted to do a proper "opposites day," [opposite of truth] I should have said that no new people are entering the hobby.

The part about the old community on GH hardly existing anymore is in fact true, and was sticking in my head when I wrote about changes. The old guard in general, at GH and Deskthority, are a smaller proportion of keyboard modding than in the past, I guess you could say. For various reasons.

Offline BucklingSpring

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #7 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 14:38:28 »
Waow. That amazing.

@HungerMechanic that's awesome! Thank you so much for that hell of a nice recap man... I loved every pieces of it.

@pixelpusher, very nice complement! I wouldn't say I'm back. But I was certainly curious.

"Chryos has personally caused the prices of all your favourite non-MX antiques to go up 800% in price"
Maybe it's a good time to get rid of my useless board collection. I still have most of the ones in the signature.
Apparently the N64 cartridges are also going for ridiculous prices. I have probably 10 of the top 20 including the elusive Clay Fighter. All with well preserved boxes and manuals.

Crazy times.

I sold few toys for significantly more than what I originally paid for. The most unexpected was my low mileage 2011 Toyota Tundra that I was only using during the hunting season and to move around during snow storms. Paid 21K in 2015 and sold it for 27K late last year (we have a pickup shortage in my Area).

Thank you again for your replies.
In memory of smallfry 1996-2013
Boards I own, click ->
More
Ducky x2 (9008G2 Pro PBT/MX Green and Mini MX Red), Matias x2 (QP and Mini QP Dampened ALPS), Topre RealForce x4 (87U 55g/Digilog case, 103U-UW & 104UG High-Profile x2), Filco Majestouch x2 (TKL MX Blue & V2 AI 104 MX Blue), IBM-M x2 (BS & RD), Unicomp-M x5 (BS black on black x2, BS Ivory x2, QT Ultra-Classic), Deck x4 (Legend MX Black & MX Clear, Hassium & Francium w/ MX Brown), DAS III (MX Blue), KBT Pure Pro 60% (MX Red), NMB-RT8256CW+ x2 (black space invader), XArmor U9BL-S (MX Brown) given for free to someone I hate, CM X2 (Trigger/MX Green + Storm TKL/NovaTouch), TVS GOLD (MX Blue) and a many many more (NMB, DELL, MS, ATT, KeyTronic, Etc...)

Offline BucklingSpring

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #8 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 14:44:19 »
Yes. If wanted to do a proper "opposites day," [opposite of truth] I should have said that no new people are entering the hobby.

The part about the old community on GH hardly existing anymore is in fact true, and was sticking in my head when I wrote about changes. The old guard in general, at GH and Deskthority, are a smaller proportion of keyboard modding than in the past, I guess you could say. For various reasons.

Years are passing and we're not getting any younger. Making room for new generations.
It's good to see that the passion for custom and high end keyboards is still live and kickin.
In memory of smallfry 1996-2013
Boards I own, click ->
More
Ducky x2 (9008G2 Pro PBT/MX Green and Mini MX Red), Matias x2 (QP and Mini QP Dampened ALPS), Topre RealForce x4 (87U 55g/Digilog case, 103U-UW & 104UG High-Profile x2), Filco Majestouch x2 (TKL MX Blue & V2 AI 104 MX Blue), IBM-M x2 (BS & RD), Unicomp-M x5 (BS black on black x2, BS Ivory x2, QT Ultra-Classic), Deck x4 (Legend MX Black & MX Clear, Hassium & Francium w/ MX Brown), DAS III (MX Blue), KBT Pure Pro 60% (MX Red), NMB-RT8256CW+ x2 (black space invader), XArmor U9BL-S (MX Brown) given for free to someone I hate, CM X2 (Trigger/MX Green + Storm TKL/NovaTouch), TVS GOLD (MX Blue) and a many many more (NMB, DELL, MS, ATT, KeyTronic, Etc...)

Offline ddot

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #9 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 15:12:19 »
Welcome back!

I feel like I'm kind of in the same boat.  I never really left (would always pop in from time to time), but kind of tuned out on all the news.  Got the itch to spend money again, so I started paying a little more attention few months ago.  Wow, the amount of new stuff is almost overwhelming.

I still can't quite wrap my head around the number of new switches.  I guess it's nice that there's more choice, but I still feel a bit of nostalgia for when the answer to your favourite switch was a colour.

There are also a crazy number of vendors out there.  I guess it helps to legitimize things, but somehow sending money to long time members of the forum and hoping you'd get something in the mail 9 months later seemed to add something to the community.  And how are we supposed to bond if we don't have the opportunity to collectively get screwed over (cough, Ivan)?

It also really feels like there just aren't the quality threads around here that there use to be.  Spy is just peppered with a never ending list of ICs. 

And thanks HungerMechanic  for that summary.  I learned a few things on there too!

I'll ask one that I haven't figured out yet.  Why does adding an F13 to keycap sets seem to be a popular thing?  I finally figured out why there's 2 Bs (seems Alice style keyboards think we need 2 of them), but I haven't figured out the F13 yet.

Offline HungerMechanic

  • Posts: 1377
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #10 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 15:16:18 »
Waow. That amazing.

@HungerMechanic that's awesome! Thank you so much for that hell of a nice recap man... I loved every pieces of it.


It's a little tongue-in-cheek, but gives an overview of some of the things that happened.

If I had added more, I would have said something similar to pixelpusher: so much of this discussion now takes place on Discord, and GH is a clearinghouse for GBs.

A lot of modding and GBs now occurs in hidden corners of the internet. There are more 'exclusive' small-run GBs for things like keyboard kits that you have to know someone to get into. Many GBs are updated only on Discord. There are several thriving keyboard modding groups there. As things grew, a part of modding shifted into private servers.


Maybe it's a good time to get rid of my useless board collection. I still have most of the ones in the signature.
Apparently the N64 cartridges are also going for ridiculous prices. I have probably 10 of the top 20 including the elusive Clay Fighter. All with well preserved boxes and manuals.

Crazy times.




Yes, tangible nostalgia goods have been booming for years, although it may crash if hoarders / scalpers keep exploiting it. It's become a huge issue in new keyboards, too.

Good that you can sell some useful things that have gone up in price because of supply-chain issues.


Another update: People are finally getting tired of GMK font, and SP's Gorton Modified and all other fonts are on the upswing. And I was going to mention the F13 thing, too!

It puzzled me at first. There was a Chinese GB for an early one just before the pandemic, it got delayed but then was completed with the then-new Tangerine linears to compensate for the delay. (They were fairly transformative, themselves). I almost went it on that one!

I kept squinting at the keyboard, because there was something 'wrong' with it. But it was an F13 keyboard. I haven't seen a written explanation of why it's catching on, but it seems to give an extra space for artisans (for which it is used) and also the F13 key (that only custom sets have, so it's an exclusive thing.)  It's like having a regular-size keyboard, but with space for an artisan or another gaming F-key. Maybe it's a macro-key function. Those are popular now. Otherwise, I'm not sure why it exists and maybe someone can explain it.

Also, there have been some hilarious meme keyboards, like the "base kit," which is what you think it is.
« Last Edit: Sun, 09 January 2022, 15:18:42 by HungerMechanic »

Offline HungerMechanic

  • Posts: 1377
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #11 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 15:17:32 »
Years are passing and we're not getting any younger. Making room for new generations.
It's good to see that the passion for custom and high end keyboards is still live and kickin.

Yes, thanks to you and all those who keep non-MX designs alive so that new people can experience something different. Everyone has the birthright to try ALPS, buckling-spring, and so-on. It's one thing that will drive manufacturers to push forward with their new designs.


There are also a crazy number of vendors out there.  I guess it helps to legitimize things, but somehow sending money to long time members of the forum and hoping you'd get something in the mail 9 months later seemed to add something to the community.  And how are we supposed to bond if we don't have the opportunity to collectively get screwed over (cough, Ivan)?


Oh, don't worry. There's still plenty of that!
« Last Edit: Sun, 09 January 2022, 15:26:59 by HungerMechanic »

Offline BucklingSpring

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #12 on: Sun, 09 January 2022, 16:26:27 »
Welcome back!

I guess it helps to legitimize things, but somehow sending money to long time members of the forum and hoping you'd get something in the mail 9 months later seemed to add something to the community.  And how are we supposed to bond if we don't have the opportunity to collectively get screwed over (cough, Ivan)?

LoL. Except for that Matias 60% GB(*) for which I got a full refund, all my transactions on GH went smoothly.
I'm sure we had Ivan's older relatives around back then. But I guess they had nothing of interest for me to buy :-)
In memory of smallfry 1996-2013
Boards I own, click ->
More
Ducky x2 (9008G2 Pro PBT/MX Green and Mini MX Red), Matias x2 (QP and Mini QP Dampened ALPS), Topre RealForce x4 (87U 55g/Digilog case, 103U-UW & 104UG High-Profile x2), Filco Majestouch x2 (TKL MX Blue & V2 AI 104 MX Blue), IBM-M x2 (BS & RD), Unicomp-M x5 (BS black on black x2, BS Ivory x2, QT Ultra-Classic), Deck x4 (Legend MX Black & MX Clear, Hassium & Francium w/ MX Brown), DAS III (MX Blue), KBT Pure Pro 60% (MX Red), NMB-RT8256CW+ x2 (black space invader), XArmor U9BL-S (MX Brown) given for free to someone I hate, CM X2 (Trigger/MX Green + Storm TKL/NovaTouch), TVS GOLD (MX Blue) and a many many more (NMB, DELL, MS, ATT, KeyTronic, Etc...)

Offline Leopard223

  • Posts: 228
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #13 on: Tue, 11 January 2022, 05:25:14 »
I'm not too knowledgeable about the past but I do know that the mehcanical keyboard community exploded in the MX form factor, manufacturers have mastered the MX form factors, in terms of smoothness, hosuing quality and tolerances, also the tactile switches are significantly better than what was offered 4 years ago.
Also the whole aesthetic aspect completely took over, colorways, mounting designs, etc.

The entry aspect also got a major shift, you have a lot of custom entry kits in various form factors, even up to budget metal custo keyboards.

Offline Handke

  • Posts: 125
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #14 on: Tue, 11 January 2022, 09:43:25 »
Custom cnc keyboards are becoming less and less important, since there are now some new cnc keyboards (in progress) from keychron, gmmk and kfa, which in a few iterations are going to match the quality of stupid artisan keyboards that cost 3 times as much without offering anything.

Furthermore, cnc keyboards are becoming more and more loud. Everyone talks about clack, thock and thick and click and nobody knows what these words mean anymore.

And everyone is stuffing their keyboards with ridiculous materials.

You'll find these rubbish materials inside keyboards, like a waste landfill:

- unwoven cotton fibers dispersed inside the keyboards

- low cost and low quality and highly flammable compressed foam

- painter's tape on the back of the pcb

- pongo

- insulating materials from car industry (?)

- adhesive foam on the back of the spacebars and other big keys

...

There was a video ridiculing the current trends, was it from linus? any link?


Offline Leopard223

  • Posts: 228
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #15 on: Tue, 11 January 2022, 15:14:58 »
Custom cnc keyboards are becoming less and less important, since there are now some new cnc keyboards (in progress) from keychron, gmmk and kfa, which in a few iterations are going to match the quality of stupid artisan keyboards that cost 3 times as much without offering anything.

Furthermore, cnc keyboards are becoming more and more loud. Everyone talks about clack, thock and thick and click and nobody knows what these words mean anymore.

And everyone is stuffing their keyboards with ridiculous materials.

You'll find these rubbish materials inside keyboards, like a waste landfill:

- unwoven cotton fibers dispersed inside the keyboards

- low cost and low quality and highly flammable compressed foam

- painter's tape on the back of the pcb

- pongo

- insulating materials from car industry (?)

- adhesive foam on the back of the spacebars and other big keys

...

There was a video ridiculing the current trends, was it from linus? any link?
I remember when I first encountered the term thock, it used to describe low pitched keyboards, usually a keyboard with dense sound dampeners and Black Inks switches which are very low pithced and muted, then it became a description for hollow keyboards, now it's used to describe the sound that switches that bottom out on the pole make.
Only further proving to me that people in this hobby have no idea or experience with what they're talking about and just repeat what they read or watch on Youtube.

Offline ddot

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #16 on: Tue, 11 January 2022, 21:56:18 »
the whole aesthetic aspect completely took over, colorways, mounting designs, etc.

I've kind of gathered that from some of the topics.  I got into this hobby when I wanted something better than crappy rubber domes.  I've never been a fan of unicorn vomit and I can appreciate a nice keycap set, but it feels like practicality is getting lost along the way here.  I saw one thread where someone was trying to match switch colours with the keycap colours.  WTF?

everyone is stuffing their keyboards with ridiculous materials.

Does anything work better than good old dollar store shelf liner?

JTK still hasn't caught up to GMK 'quality' as far as I know, but that's a moving target and we'll see how it goes when Royal Alpha comes out.

I've been a little dismayed that I haven't seen more JTK references.  It seemed like they were coming on strong a few years ago.  I picked up a couple sets of Bunny back in the day (I always had good success with him, sorry if I'm bringing up bad memories for the HyperFuse or Toxic crowd) and was really happy with them for the price.  Legends weren't perfect, but for daily driver boards that were going to get a lot of use, they were great.  A couple searches have brought up a set here and there (HungerMechanic mentioned Royal Alpha and Azure could have been interesting), but nothing too much.  Maybe they're just getting lost in the sea of GMK sets.  And Signature Plastics seems to have fallen off the radar.  Thinking back to Granite, they were the manufacture at one time.

Offline HungerMechanic

  • Posts: 1377
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #17 on: Tue, 11 January 2022, 22:20:43 »
JTK will be releasing Royal Alpha this quarter.

It was a huge GB, 3K+ sets I believe, so it probably occupied a large part of their capacity. Plus, it is tripleshot, which requires more care. Should be interesting to compare with GMK when it releases, although GMK doesn't do tripleshot. Domikey ABS would be a better comparison.

SP has not fallen off the radar, quite the opposite. DCS is enjoying a revival, there are many sets in the pipeline because there is allegedly less turnaround time than with GMK. Look up DCS Solarized Dark for an example of a recent GB. Also, SP is bringing back DSS profile, with small kits for 40s only, as well as full GBs. DSS Late Harvest, DSS Carpinteria, DSS Lightcycle. They're still producing top-notch SA-profile [which now has huge competition in high-profile] but have no competition for DCS and DSS. A set called DSS Sleeper GBed on Drop, and it was fairly large. I have the accents, and they're high-quality. If you like thin keycaps for some builds, SP can produce some very good quality DCS.

Offline Handke

  • Posts: 125
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #18 on: Wed, 12 January 2022, 02:20:46 »
I'm quite disgusted by the fact that these artisan keyboards sound so bad when stock. They have an acute pitched sound, and you need to mod them to add some depth to the sound, or to mute them a little bit. Plastic cases look and sound better (deeper), but the only one who made some progress with them is RAMA: he made some nice cases with interchangeable parts (rama kara).

Often cnc keyboards look disgusting, too shiny. My keyboards are clean, no fingerprints, and most pictures that I see online (made from the creators/ sellers), show bit greasy fingerprints everywhere. They're just dust an grease magnets.




« Last Edit: Thu, 13 January 2022, 04:29:28 by Handke »

Offline ddot

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #19 on: Wed, 12 January 2022, 15:42:53 »
Thanks for all the info.  Hopefully BucklingSpring is learning some stuff too as I kind of hijacked their thread.

I thought of another one.  Are box switches still breaking keycap stems or has that problem been solved?

Offline HungerMechanic

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #20 on: Wed, 12 January 2022, 18:41:51 »
The BOX switch problem was allegedly solved some time ago. Probably by 2019.

But there were still a lot of the old switches in the inventory of several sellers, so it took a while for the problem to taper down.

I have used the updated BOX switches and still seen them crack a keycap, but the prevalance is a lot less than in the past. I still wouldn't put expensive keycaps on them. But breakages are reported much less now.

A couple of tools were developed or ICed such as the Cruciformer and the Stemshaver. I actually have one of these, forget which one, but I haven't really used it.

Offline butre

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #21 on: Wed, 12 January 2022, 18:47:44 »
Thanks for all the info.  Hopefully BucklingSpring is learning some stuff too as I kind of hijacked their thread.

I thought of another one.  Are box switches still breaking keycap stems or has that problem been solved?
They fixed that not too long after it was originally reported, though it did take a while for the change to roll out to the individual sellers.  It's still quite a bit tighter than on a Cherry or a Gateron/outemu/etc. , but they're not splitting the posts anymore.  Some other Kaihua-made switches are still far too tight though, I've got some NK sherbets on hand (waiting on a plate to come in to start that build) and I am real nervous about putting some of my nice Domikeys on them.  Almost feels like pulling alps caps.
« Last Edit: Wed, 12 January 2022, 21:25:55 by butre »

Offline Leopard223

  • Posts: 228
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #22 on: Thu, 13 January 2022, 05:46:14 »
I'm quite disgusted by the fact that these artisan keyboards sound so bad when stock. They have an acute pitched sound, and you need to mod them to add some depth to the sound, or to mute them a little bit. Plastic cases look and sound better (deeper), but the only one who made some progress with them is RAMA: he made some nice cases with interchangeable parts (rama kara).
The KBD67 Lite is also great, no mods needed, KBDFans has various option to mod your keyboard.
The BOX switch problem was allegedly solved some time ago. Probably by 2019.

But there were still a lot of the old switches in the inventory of several sellers, so it took a while for the problem to taper down.

I have used the updated BOX switches and still seen them crack a keycap, but the prevalance is a lot less than in the past. I still wouldn't put expensive keycaps on them. But breakages are reported much less now.
Never understood the fear about BOX switches breaking keycaps (post remolding the stem), though I don't have any high end keycaps.
BOX switches are tight but they're not the tightest switches I tried, the Bobas are significantly tighter and they're everywhere.

Offline phinix

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #23 on: Mon, 17 January 2022, 03:22:38 »
I'm quite disgusted by the fact that these artisan keyboards sound so bad when stock. They have an acute pitched sound, and you need to mod them to add some depth to the sound, or to mute them a little bit. Plastic cases look and sound better (deeper), but the only one who made some progress with them is RAMA: he made some nice cases with interchangeable parts (rama kara).

Often cnc keyboards look disgusting, too shiny. My keyboards are clean, no fingerprints, and most pictures that I see online (made from the creators/ sellers), show bit greasy fingerprints everywhere. They're just dust an grease magnets.


I agree on plastic keyboards. They do sound deeper. A lot better than aluminium keebs. I'm always disapointed how many things you need to do to make those nice and expensive aluminium keyboards sound good. Like you need to shove all that crap inside, cardboards, condoms and your underpants to make it sound nicer...  ;)

Recently I have swapped around 5 different keyboards and noticed that plastic ones lately released sound amazing, at least for me.
I guess its individual taste, but I really liked their sound, for example kbd67lite sounded the best from all keyboards I've used in last 20 years. Then tried ikki68 Aurora - similar result. All were sold as I couldn't switch to any layout smaller than TKL, I need that nav cluster on a side. That is why next one I'll try will be NK87 entry edition.
If you like plastic keyboards and smaller layouts, like 65-68%, then you must try kbd67lite.
« Last Edit: Mon, 17 January 2022, 03:25:20 by phinix »
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Offline Handke

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #24 on: Mon, 17 January 2022, 04:29:40 »
That is why next one I'll try will be NK87 entry edition.
If you like plastic keyboards and smaller layouts, like 65-68%, then you must try kbd67lite.

thanks, NK87 is a very nice keyboard, but as usual no ISO :-D
is the plate integrated in the case?

Offline phinix

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #25 on: Mon, 17 January 2022, 09:44:38 »
That is why next one I'll try will be NK87 entry edition.
If you like plastic keyboards and smaller layouts, like 65-68%, then you must try kbd67lite.

thanks, NK87 is a very nice keyboard, but as usual no ISO :-D
is the plate integrated in the case?

No, plate is separate.

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Offline Handke

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #26 on: Mon, 17 January 2022, 10:01:40 »
That is why next one I'll try will be NK87 entry edition.
If you like plastic keyboards and smaller layouts, like 65-68%, then you must try kbd67lite.

thanks, NK87 is a very nice keyboard, but as usual no ISO :-D
is the plate integrated in the case?

No, plate is separate.


The keyboard sounds REALLY nice.

Offline HungerMechanic

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #27 on: Mon, 17 January 2022, 12:29:55 »
I agree on plastic keyboards. They do sound deeper. A lot better than aluminium keebs. I'm always disapointed how many things you need to do to make those nice and expensive aluminium keyboards sound good.

Recently I have swapped around 5 different keyboards and noticed that plastic ones lately released sound amazing, at least for me.
I guess its individual taste, but I really liked their sound, for example kbd67lite sounded the best from all keyboards I've used in last 20 years. Then tried ikki68 Aurora - similar result. All were sold as I couldn't switch to any layout smaller than TKL, I need that nav cluster on a side. That is why next one I'll try will be NK87 entry edition.

If you like plastic keyboards and smaller layouts, like 65-68%, then you must try kbd67lite.

I agree 100%. I could never fully understand the prevalence of metal custom keyboards. It seemed to be partly for production reasons [easier to do a small run with metal, not plastic], and partly because metals seem like a more 'luxury' build.

But plastic is the OG keyboard material for Cherry, things like the Model M, etc... and it also sounds better. Since sound is so paramount for customizers, there should have been a priority for plastic and polycarb. But I guess the scene had to grow enough to make large runs of plastic customs profitable, which is now happening.

KBD67 Lite is absolutely the best-sounding stock keyboard in its price range, and Aurora is easy to customize the sound. I have a polycarb KBD8X MKII as well. I didn't want the polycarb case at first, and only bought it because of availability. But it turns out that it is good-sounding and has good typing characteristics. Now I'm glad I didn't buy a metal KBD8X MKII [although I still kinda want one.]

The MK870 [which you can have delivered for like $58 CAD] can be improved sound-wise with a $23 polycarb plate and aftermarket stabilizers. I put lubed Gateron CAP Brown in mine with Varmilo PBT keycaps, and they are actually respectable-sounding Browns this way.

Offline hussar_name

  • Posts: 63
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #28 on: Mon, 17 January 2022, 17:56:13 »
I agree on plastic keyboards. They do sound deeper. A lot better than aluminium keebs. I'm always disapointed how many things you need to do to make those nice and expensive aluminium keyboards sound good.

Recently I have swapped around 5 different keyboards and noticed that plastic ones lately released sound amazing, at least for me.
I guess its individual taste, but I really liked their sound, for example kbd67lite sounded the best from all keyboards I've used in last 20 years. Then tried ikki68 Aurora - similar result. All were sold as I couldn't switch to any layout smaller than TKL, I need that nav cluster on a side. That is why next one I'll try will be NK87 entry edition.

If you like plastic keyboards and smaller layouts, like 65-68%, then you must try kbd67lite.

I agree 100%. I could never fully understand the prevalence of metal custom keyboards. It seemed to be partly for production reasons [easier to do a small run with metal, not plastic], and partly because metals seem like a more 'luxury' build.

But plastic is the OG keyboard material for Cherry, things like the Model M, etc... and it also sounds better. Since sound is so paramount for customizers, there should have been a priority for plastic and polycarb. But I guess the scene had to grow enough to make large runs of plastic customs profitable, which is now happening.

KBD67 Lite is absolutely the best-sounding stock keyboard in its price range, and Aurora is easy to customize the sound. I have a polycarb KBD8X MKII as well. I didn't want the polycarb case at first, and only bought it because of availability. But it turns out that it is good-sounding and has good typing characteristics. Now I'm glad I didn't buy a metal KBD8X MKII [although I still kinda want one.]

The MK870 [which you can have delivered for like $58 CAD] can be improved sound-wise with a $23 polycarb plate and aftermarket stabilizers. I put lubed Gateron CAP Brown in mine with Varmilo PBT keycaps, and they are actually respectable-sounding Browns this way.


Kbd mkiii seems impossible to find anymore

Offline HungerMechanic

  • Posts: 1377
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #29 on: Mon, 17 January 2022, 23:40:57 »
If you are referring to the KBD8X MKII, yes, it doesn't seem to be in production or distribution at the level it used to be.

Rumors are that KBDFans has sought to replace the KBD8X MKII with a more expensive keyboard. I know that they have had some small runs of a new design.

It looks as if the Novelkeys NK87 may be set to assume the mantle of the KBD8X MKII, and at a lower price. It may be what people have wanted for some time, a "KBD8X Lite." But we'll have to see more reviews.

[Also, there are some affordable TKLs being GBed like the Freebird. Maybe I should have gotten in on that, but I already have 2 TKLs.]

Offline Handke

  • Posts: 125
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #30 on: Tue, 18 January 2022, 02:08:10 »
If you are referring to the KBD8X MKII, yes, it doesn't seem to be in production or distribution at the level it used to be.

Rumors are that KBDFans has sought to replace the KBD8X MKII with a more expensive keyboard. I know that they have had some small runs of a new design.

It looks as if the Novelkeys NK87 may be set to assume the mantle of the KBD8X MKII, and at a lower price. It may be what people have wanted for some time, a "KBD8X Lite." But we'll have to see more reviews.

[Also, there are some affordable TKLs being GBed like the Freebird. Maybe I should have gotten in on that, but I already have 2 TKLs.]

I'm quite tired of big group buys. They should all make rolling releases... 50-100 units first come first serve, each month or so.

Offline phinix

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #31 on: Tue, 18 January 2022, 05:03:45 »
If you are referring to the KBD8X MKII, yes, it doesn't seem to be in production or distribution at the level it used to be.

Rumors are that KBDFans has sought to replace the KBD8X MKII with a more expensive keyboard. I know that they have had some small runs of a new design.

It looks as if the Novelkeys NK87 may be set to assume the mantle of the KBD8X MKII, and at a lower price. It may be what people have wanted for some time, a "KBD8X Lite." But we'll have to see more reviews.

[Also, there are some affordable TKLs being GBed like the Freebird. Maybe I should have gotten in on that, but I already have 2 TKLs.]

I'm quite tired of big group buys. They should all make rolling releases... 50-100 units first come first serve, each month or so.

Oooh no. Not that again. Frog has been out for a year and still impossible to buy. Either put out more qty or do it every 3 months fir triple qty, I say.
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Offline HungerMechanic

  • Posts: 1377
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #32 on: Tue, 18 January 2022, 16:51:33 »
FCFS is what happened with KBD8X MKII, I bought mine the day of release into "In Stock."

The metal KBD8X disappeared within minutes, but there were still polycarb left a day later. [Polycarb KBD8X was wrongly slept on.]

They also had it combined with GB, so that people could be in line for it during GB processes. But the KBD8X MKIIs were being released every quarter or so. There was almost enough for everyone.

KBD67 Lite has done something similar, combining GB lineup with In-stock sales.

I'm not saying this is a perfect system or anything, but I appreciated being able to buy from a big in-stock drop every once-in-a-while, while also being on the list for GB.

Offline phinix

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #33 on: Tue, 18 January 2022, 17:11:17 »
FCFS is what happened with KBD8X MKII, I bought mine the day of release into "In Stock."

The metal KBD8X disappeared within minutes, but there were still polycarb left a day later. [Polycarb KBD8X was wrongly slept on.]

They also had it combined with GB, so that people could be in line for it during GB processes. But the KBD8X MKIIs were being released every quarter or so. There was almost enough for everyone.

KBD67 Lite has done something similar, combining GB lineup with In-stock sales.

I'm not saying this is a perfect system or anything, but I appreciated being able to buy from a big in-stock drop every once-in-a-while, while also being on the list for GB.

Have you tried to buy Frog? Its f**ing 10 seconds and 300 units are gone. EVERY SINGLE MONTH for last year now.
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Offline HungerMechanic

  • Posts: 1377
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #34 on: Wed, 19 January 2022, 07:35:40 »
I haven't tried to buy Frog, because I knew what it would be like.

It was bad enough having to wake up at a weird hour to buy KBD8X.

Rather wait 2 years for a guaranteed GB product than struggle every month to get a keyboard.

Offline phinix

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #35 on: Thu, 20 January 2022, 02:37:45 »
I haven't tried to buy Frog, because I knew what it would be like.

It was bad enough having to wake up at a weird hour to buy KBD8X.

Rather wait 2 years for a guaranteed GB product than struggle every month to get a keyboard.

Yep, setting up an alarm and waking up for 3am sale was just making it all even more frustrating :)
That's why I dropped it, will wait till it full in stock for next day.
9100 | 3070 | 8TB SSD + 2x 1TB SSD | Z390 Aorus Pro ITX | 16GB RAM | SFX 600W | Sentry 2.0 | Ruark Audio MR1 Mark II | LG OLED 48CX
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Offline HungerMechanic

  • Posts: 1377
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #36 on: Sun, 23 January 2022, 13:01:00 »
Although I earlier complained about the seeming low-innovation in BOX clickies since 2018, I'm pleased to say that the 'muted Jade' switches have finally arrived!

https://novelkeys.com/collections/frontpage/products/kailh-box-switches

They put dampeners on the BOX Jade so now it sounds more like a regular tactile like T1 I guess.

Offline Handke

  • Posts: 125
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #37 on: Mon, 24 January 2022, 03:44:27 »
I will never buy kailh box switches after that they didn't aknowledge that the stems break gmk keycaps. What a **** show. And they're still too big. Incredibly stupid on their part.

Offline headphone_jack

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #38 on: Wed, 26 January 2022, 14:08:48 »
You also forgot the huge DT sellout over the summer. Webwit sold everything off to some shady "digital asset" corporation, all but one moderator quit, and now it's just riddled with spam. The Discord server is still alive and kicking though. Glad to see some of the old farts are still kicking around, even as a relative newcomer I thoroughly empathize with your distaste of brainless newbs that spend 5k on an artisan keyboard because "my favorite youtuber has one!!!". Shame GH has fallen by the wayside in terms of vintage boards, while I wasn't active during that era old GH threads have helped me diagnose many a problem. The front page is mainly just GB circlejerking now. Oh, and I didn't see anybody mention that Ripster left the community entirely and hasn't been seen in a couple years. There was also a visit on DT by a certain ESR, trying to hunt down Soarer to take his converter code and make it open source after all these years. That thread was the biggest ****show I've ever seen in a keyboard community.

Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #39 on: Wed, 26 January 2022, 14:17:35 »

I didn't see anybody mention that Ripster left the community entirely and hasn't been seen in a couple years.


I never heard about that! Even though he was a deplorable person he did have a vast pool of knowledge.
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Offline ddot

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #40 on: Wed, 26 January 2022, 14:43:50 »
I didn't see anybody mention that Ripster left the community entirely and hasn't been seen in a couple years.

I had picked up on that too.  After scanning r/MK and not seeing him pop up all over the place, I looked up his user name and saw he hadn't posted in a while.  But I didn't want to be the first one to bring that up over here.

Offline funkmon

  • Posts: 451
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #41 on: Wed, 26 January 2022, 19:19:20 »
There is an urban legend that Ripster passed away as a few of his keyboards confirmed to be owned by him popped up in an estate sale or something like that. That was Ripster, right?

Offline headphone_jack

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #42 on: Thu, 27 January 2022, 13:17:20 »
It's entirely possible he's passed away. Wouldn't be the first or last time someone important to the community passed unexpectedly. I wasn't aware of any estate sale involving his boards, but I do know that that's been used to verify deceased community members before, most recently Seebart.

Offline fohat.digs

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #43 on: Thu, 27 January 2022, 14:06:56 »

most recently Seebart.


Seebart! Oh no, I hadn't heard.
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Offline headphone_jack

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #44 on: Thu, 27 January 2022, 14:29:01 »

most recently Seebart.


Seebart! Oh no, I hadn't heard.
Not entirely confirmed, but more likely than not I'm afraid. A lot of his boards showed up on an estate seller's ebay account last February.

Offline funkmon

  • Posts: 451
Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #45 on: Fri, 28 January 2022, 19:54:35 »
:|

I wonder if I bought some; I have a small but notable collection of German keyboards. Do we know which seller?
« Last Edit: Fri, 28 January 2022, 19:57:47 by funkmon »

Offline madhias

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #46 on: Sat, 29 January 2022, 11:30:01 »
That's the right thread for me, it explains all my questions too, thanks for the infos! I wasn't that active the last 3-4 years or so. All these MX switches, crazy custom keyboards, so many vendors, "IC" Geekhack, dead Deskthority, and Discord. I joined some channels, so much splattered infos all over around. I joined some to get infos for example the XFR round 2 at Noxarys server. Ah and what hasn't changed I think is r/MechanicalKeyboards though, its content looks the same as it ever was  :)  Now I read through the Soarer drama at DT.

... ...

Offline headphone_jack

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Re: Back after a 4 year break... What did I miss?
« Reply #47 on: Sun, 30 January 2022, 16:07:27 »
:|

I wonder if I bought some; I have a small but notable collection of German keyboards. Do we know which seller?
Could probably ask some of the folks that knew him better. https://deskthority.net/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=16494 <The guy that gave the info in the first place.