Today marks my ten-year anniversary as a user on Geekhack.
Yet. It does not feel like ten years. Where has all the time gone?
I had found this place because I wanted to customise a keyboard with a Star Wars theme when building a new PC, and I found posts here about a custom called the Datamancer — that had been built from a Model M.
I got a tip on some mechanical keyboard, bought a few and really liked them. Then I experienced hand and arm problems from typing and mousing a lot at work, which prompted me to change to mechanical keyboards with light feel — and I was hooked.
I experienced the explosion of the keyboard hobby(hobbies), from a relatively small group of die-hard enthusiasts who used mostly vintage, to mechanical keyboards becoming mainstream and then the the rise of customs.
I got most of my small collection in the first few years — after that they were not dirt-cheap any more. :-þ
I knew of Ripster, before it was evident he lost his mind. I saw Razer ask the community about keyboards — the community answering that they wanted clicky, the result kickstarting the mainstream and then being ridiculed for being too pedestrian when it got overtaken by the rest of the industry.
I was in the first run of the ErgoDox. I remember when Signature Plastics DCS was the **** (because that was the only custom keycaps there was), and I was in the first attempt at a group order from GMK. I saw people leave and found Deskthority, and I helped kick-start their Wiki by entering info from Geekhack's old lost one because I thought one was important.
I had got a collection mostly to try different things, to find what I like and to learn.
I found my preferences relatively early: I am happy with blank PBT keys in Cherry profile and Cherry MX Clear (albeit lubricated and silenced). I have seen a lot of people join, and a lot of weird trends.
What should I do next?
I still have not finished and released my home-made firmware: I resume work on it now and again and it will probably never hold up to the likes of QMK. And I have had an ergo design for a bunch of years (although I don't really use ergo keyboards myself). But I dunno, with so many other things being out there by now.
I am still learning and I am still fascinated by this hobby -- but there are so many things going on now that I have a difficulty keeping up.
