just picked up my board in person from Mr. Quang/kuang2, good timing since this thread was due an update
- he is a very friendly and jovial guy in his mid 30s, who's only picked up the hobby in 2015 but is extremely experienced due to his technology backgrounds, and has amassed an extensive collection as well. the backstory goes, he initially wanted a more compact board to hit the 7-0 cluster more easily while holding down CTRL for his MMORPGs. his very first board was a Winkeyless 75% kit which he assembled himself. soon after he developed an obsession with mechs and acquired something like 70 boards in the following months.
- according to him, Nam/Jhoang's fiance/wife/girlfriend (not sure which, forgot this detail) happened to log into GH and see that his absence has generated a lot of controversy. so she phoned kuang (who is good friends with Jhoang irl) to inform him that he has been in the hospital for the last month, due to complications with his liver and blood pressure level. kuang and some other buddies have been meaning to visit Jhoang in the hospital, but keep putting it off because they're afraid of their potential visit causing more stress to Jhoang relating to the GB situation.
- vietnamese orders have mostly been completely resolved, with a few exceptions (but nothing to worry about). apparently some overseas orders have been resolved as well, but kuang is in a difficult position here because as he wrote in his latest update, there is no way to verify who has and hasn't disputed their orders. i hope you guys will assist him, it's the very least you can do for someone who is untangling this mess pretty much by himself.
- when i asked him if it was possible to get more people to help him out with the assembly, he told me that helpers in the past were usually very enthusiastic at the beginning and when working on their boards. however the tediousness of the process gets to them and they would only finish like 3 boards at most. also he prefers to assemble on his own because entrusting others can be hard due to lack of experience. he showed me how the same spring rotated in different ways will result in different feels, and how you need to make sure that longer keys like backspace/shift are assembled so that when you place the cap on and press it down on one side, the entire key travels the distance and not just the side you press (like a seesaw)
that's all the pertinent info relating to the GB and what i perceive to be mr. Quang's trustworthiness. we discussed a myriad of other keyboard and non keyboard topics, if anyone is interested i will write another post on the keyboard topics. pictures soon..ish!