[IC] The Keycaps Archive

[bobdenard]

Hi everyone!

I've been lurking in the back for a while now and I think it is time for me to become more involved and start giving back to this awesome community!
I'm a webdesigner and developer by trade so I came up with a few websites ideas and one of them seemed to stick.

I am thinking of building a keycap sets archive. For someone new, the sheer amount of existing sets, vendors, designers... can be daunting, and to have a place to gather everything would help I think. I looked but the only thing I could find was a couple of threads on GH listing some keysets but they were from a while ago. If there alredy is something in the pipeline let me know and I will kill my project.

Here are the features I am thinking about implementing:

- one page per keyset including: background info, designer, manufacturer, vendors, timeline, colors, kits, user pics, available sales numbers, maybe a user star rating...
- one page per designer
- one page per vendor
- a calendar view to quickly see what's in IC phase, what's in production, GB phase, incoming etc.

Being a Wordpress developer this will be my CMS of choice as it is solid and well known. I already starting building the platform.

This is an IC so every idea is welcome at this stage. Thanks for reading this and I hope you support this project!

BTW down the line I will need volunteers to help building the database and cross check everything, so let me know if interested.

Bob.

[qriousgabriel]

I really love the idea! I know there is a site by someone that archives all GMK and SA sets but some of them only have renders, it would be better if there are some photos. Also would be better if there is a project that can include other profiles.

[Afteryou]

Really cool initiative. Might be useful to categorise according to GMK, SA, etc as well.

[bengine]

How about this one: https://matrixzj.github.io/ ?

[bobdenard]

I really love the idea! I know there is a site by someone that archives all GMK and SA sets but some of them only have renders, it would be better if there are some photos. Also would be better if there is a project that can include other profiles.

Well I didn't find any site when I searched, do you have the URL? I will try to make the site as exhaustive as possible, including all renders, kits pictures (if ok with designer of course) and everyone will be able to upload real world pics of the sets.
As far as profiles go, same thing, I want to include everything, MT3, KAT, Alps keycaps...

[bobdenard]

How about this one: https://matrixzj.github.io/ ?

Thanks for the link! I didn't know this existed. It is similar to what I have in mind but I want to make something more user friendly, more inclusive (all profiles), less austere, and like I said I want this to be a community project, so everyone can upload pics of their keebs and comment, like etc.

[qriousgabriel]

How about this one: https://matrixzj.github.io/ ?

Thanks for the link! I didn't know this existed. It is similar to what I have in mind but I want to make something more user friendly, more inclusive (all profiles), less austere, and like I said I want this to be a community project, so everyone can upload pics of their keebs and comment, like etc.

This is the site I was talking about. btw I'm a computer science student and had some experiences developing web sites, I'd like to help if you need ;-)

[sinnyc]

That's a great idea but it sounds like a daunting undertaking.  Good luck!

[Mechboards]

Sounds like a good idea! I setup a spreadsheet a couple years ago that a lot of people helped with so it would be a good starting point

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1byRpKCGR8tbV8tyTb3vwhLyiOcCgxbRTDUptnWgG3IE/edit#gid=2047522367

[bobdenard]

Sounds like a good idea! I setup a spreadsheet a couple years ago that a lot of people helped with so it would be a good starting point

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1byRpKCGR8tbV8tyTb3vwhLyiOcCgxbRTDUptnWgG3IE/edit#gid=2047522367

Wow this is amazing! Thank you so much, it will be so helpful!

[EMC Labs]

Yes please! I would really like to see this.

[Fnzzy]

There has been such a site in the past called Keypuller.com. I think it went under maintenance in early 2017 and then never came back until it closed doors in late 2018. The site was made by Matt3o and you can still check it out on archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20161127150924/http://keypuller.com/

There has also been a spreadsheet of custom keyboards in the past that catalogued the original GB price, aftermarket value, the options you had during the GB like colour or layouts etc., when and where the GB took place, but since it was an open spreadsheet it has been trashed and vandalised and was eventually deleted.

A new all in one website for these two things would be great I think.

[iaman]

There has been such a site in the past called Keypuller.com. I think it went under maintenance in early 2017 and then never came back until it closed doors in late 2018. The site was made by Matt3o and you can still check it out on archive.org. https://web.archive.org/web/20161127150924/http://keypuller.com/

There has also been a spreadsheet of custom keyboards in the past that catalogued the original GB price, aftermarket value, the options you had during the GB like colour or layouts etc., when and where the GB took place, but since it was an open spreadsheet it has been trashed and vandalised and was eventually deleted.

A new all in one website for these two things would be great I think.

Running an actual website with a DB and everything is really significantly going to depend on whether or not the community can make it financially and logistically viable to continue its operation, whether that be through some kind of subscription or donation program or business model (facilitating trades and having a transaction fee) or whatever. I'd be happy to pay some kind of subscription to subsidize the cost of running the site, assuming it's run well and fairly by good people and that my subscription would partly go towards making a majority of its information freely available to everybody.

[OtherAndrew]

mykeycapcollection uwu

[vosechu]

Please consider doing this via jekyll and prose.io (or equivalent) on github pages or something like that. Even if not those technologies, the thing I’m hoping for is that the data is not locked in a db that you have to maintain forever. Also, please use a github org to own the project. We’ve seen too many projects go away because the cost of maintainership is too high to bear alone. From recent history we can see that making /contribution/ easy is not enough; you need to make /maintainership/ easy and distributed too.

Also, I would love to be an editor or pr reviewer. I’ve been a web dev for 13 years, so I don’t have time to engage in developing the project, but I would be happy to contribute data and review code if you would like that. And should the worst happen, I could help find new maintainers.

[tunadesu]

As daunting as it sounds, it would made an amazing hardcover book for a collector! A little unrelated, but I just got a hardcover of Tim Heideckers 'On Cinema At The Cinema' reader. There are detailed write up's on every single episode across 10 seasons, every tweet from tim and gregg archived, and many more detailed write ups. So it'd take a bit of time, but I'd be down for sure

[cijanzen]

Please consider doing this via jekyll and prose.io (or equivalent) on github pages or something like that. Even if not those technologies, the thing I’m hoping for is that the data is not locked in a db that you have to maintain forever. Also, please use a github org to own the project. We’ve seen too many projects go away because the cost of maintainership is too high to bear alone. From recent history we can see that making /contribution/ easy is not enough; you need to make /maintainership/ easy and distributed too.

Also, I would love to be an editor or pr reviewer. I’ve been a web dev for 13 years, so I don’t have time to engage in developing the project, but I would be happy to contribute data and review code if you would like that. And should the worst happen, I could help find new maintainers.

I agree. Something that could accept pull requests would be much easier to maintain and could then support updates from the community rather than one person in charge of the site. Wordpress is way to clunky for this type of project IMO.

[Azureshell]

If it would be community driven what about a wiki? Keypedia or something more clever. You could drive people to make an effort to upload content but after a while there would be less maintenance bc the community would be empowered to pitch in.

Idk much about stuff like this so idk if that even is feasible.

[iaman]

If it would be community driven what about a wiki? Keypedia or something more clever. You could drive people to make an effort to upload content but after a while there would be less maintenance bc the community would be empowered to pitch in.

Idk much about stuff like this so idk if that even is feasible.

I think a wiki would end up with the same vandalism issue mentioned here:

There has also been a spreadsheet of custom keyboards in the past that catalogued the original GB price, aftermarket value, the options you had during the GB like colour or layouts etc., when and where the GB took place, but since it was an open spreadsheet it has been trashed and vandalised and was eventually deleted.

Of course, ideally that would be countered with some amount of moderation but I'm not particularly optimistic about unpaid labor like that winning out against trolls in the end

[cijanzen]

If it would be community driven what about a wiki? Keypedia or something more clever. You could drive people to make an effort to upload content but after a while there would be less maintenance bc the community would be empowered to pitch in.

Idk much about stuff like this so idk if that even is feasible.

I think a wiki would end up with the same vandalism issue mentioned here:

There has also been a spreadsheet of custom keyboards in the past that catalogued the original GB price, aftermarket value, the options you had during the GB like colour or layouts etc., when and where the GB took place, but since it was an open spreadsheet it has been trashed and vandalised and was eventually deleted.

Of course, ideally that would be countered with some amount of moderation but I'm not particularly optimistic about unpaid labor like that winning out against trolls in the end

If it was on github or similar you’d have to merge the pull request and thus don’t have to worry about that.

[iaman]

If it was on github or similar you’d have to merge the pull request and thus don’t have to worry about that.

Agreed! I'd much rather that than a wiki, for that reason.

[KingOfMemes]

If it was on github or similar you’d have to merge the pull request and thus don’t have to worry about that.

Agreed! I'd much rather that than a wiki, for that reason.

I'd be down to contribute to the development, too.

[iaman]

If it was on github or similar you’d have to merge the pull request and thus don’t have to worry about that.

Agreed! I'd much rather that than a wiki, for that reason.

I'd be down to contribute to the development, too.

I could maybe spare some time working on the front-end for it as well.

[ZayyirUlric]

This is a great idea!

[fkcaps]

That's a wonderful idea and I am glad someone is taking another stab at this!

FYI we have been trying to do such a thing, and called it MechDB. It is available on mechdb.net but didn't really take off since I partnered with a guy on this project whose role was to bring in content but he unfortunately couldn't deliver due to his personal life.

First things first, I have been a web dev for 10+ years and can take care of the development if you are willing to iterate on the existing codebase. It is a full JS stack, running Nuxt which is a web framework based on Vue (for the front end components) that takes care of the server-side rendering (for SEO). Database is MongoDB. Quite modern and robust stack, much more customizable than Wordpress. Also I am in the process of starting a keyboard-related project and the company will assume the hosting costs to make the data available for free to anyone.

So that's two things off your plate already!

If you are interested, here are a few things you should know:

- The website has been originally made to cover all sort of "datasets", meaning not only keycaps but also keyboards and I have code ready for other things such as switches, plates, pcbs and all. Now if it feels wrong to you, I may also just remove all the other stuff and focus on keycaps (which makes sense since I am starting a keycaps business too)
- It was made to be community-driven, so accept contributions. I won't go too deep into details about what and how this would happen, just know that all content is being input by website users (after registration) and there is a built-in possibility to review edits. "Verified" users can post directly without validation, and can also approve/deny other edits made by "unverified users". Verifying users is made by a few selected admins only. We had concerns about people messing up the DB so this mechanism is already in place. Also if you subscribe now you are verified automatically, if you want to give it a try. Note that this system can of course be modified to suit what you guys think is better.
- The codebase is on github and can be open to contributors/maintainers, a few people have already contributed in the past but I closed it until I know what will happen with this project.

There are three things that were in the works (but coding got frozen on the way):
1. Creating and documenting an API so that other websites can use this data to create new cool projects
2. Make it into a pcpartpicker kind of thing where one can pick some parts to make a build (this could be split out in a side project with the proper API)
3. Having a gallery of images posted online (there is a draft if you click in the "Gallery" header menu, all the automatic import has been done, but the front is really just a placeholder)

I have zero design skills so your help as a designer to make this look better would be awesome! Also I am now lacking content but if we focus on the keycaps only this will probably make it easier... We might have been too ambitious...

Happy to hear your thoughts about all this and I hope this project will come to life again!

[Noxygen]

There is this one - https://matrixzj.github.io/#gmk-keycaps it's up to date as far as I know. Maybe you could ask the person who is running it if you could make visual changes and such?

[zekth]

There is this one - https://matrixzj.github.io/#gmk-keycaps it's up to date as far as I know. Maybe you could ask the person who is running it if you could make visual changes and such?

This just fits the need. Not visual appealing but open sourced on Github, and hosted on github pages. No hosting cost and easy to contribute. I think you may just purpose your services on this repo.

[KingOfMemes]

There is this one - https://matrixzj.github.io/#gmk-keycaps it's up to date as far as I know. Maybe you could ask the person who is running it if you could make visual changes and such?

Definitely some room here for visual improvement

[bobdenard]

Please consider doing this via jekyll and prose.io (or equivalent) on github pages or something like that. Even if not those technologies, the thing I’m hoping for is that the data is not locked in a db that you have to maintain forever. Also, please use a github org to own the project. We’ve seen too many projects go away because the cost of maintainership is too high to bear alone. From recent history we can see that making /contribution/ easy is not enough; you need to make /maintainership/ easy and distributed too.

Also, I would love to be an editor or pr reviewer. I’ve been a web dev for 13 years, so I don’t have time to engage in developing the project, but I would be happy to contribute data and review code if you would like that. And should the worst happen, I could help find new maintainers.

Considering people are willing to help, I remain open using different techs, nothing is set in stone yet. I was considering Wordpress because I could whip up something together really fast and on my own, but building something more streamlined would definitely be better.

[bobdenard]

If it was on github or similar you’d have to merge the pull request and thus don’t have to worry about that.

Agreed! I'd much rather that than a wiki, for that reason.

This will be no wiki, much too limited.

[bobdenard]

If it was on github or similar you’d have to merge the pull request and thus don’t have to worry about that.

Agreed! I'd much rather that than a wiki, for that reason.

I'd be down to contribute to the development, too.

If it was on github or similar you’d have to merge the pull request and thus don’t have to worry about that.

Agreed! I'd much rather that than a wiki, for that reason.

I'd be down to contribute to the development, too.

I could maybe spare some time working on the front-end for it as well.

If it was on github or similar you’d have to merge the pull request and thus don’t have to worry about that.

Agreed! I'd much rather that than a wiki, for that reason.

I'd be down to contribute to the development, too.

I could maybe spare some time working on the front-end for it as well.

I will set up Slack or Trello for this project very soon.

[bobdenard]

That's a wonderful idea and I am glad someone is taking another stab at this!

FYI we have been trying to do such a thing, and called it MechDB. It is available on mechdb.net but didn't really take off since I partnered with a guy on this project whose role was to bring in content but he unfortunately couldn't deliver due to his personal life.

First things first, I have been a web dev for 10+ years and can take care of the development if you are willing to iterate on the existing codebase. It is a full JS stack, running Nuxt which is a web framework based on Vue (for the front end components) that takes care of the server-side rendering (for SEO). Database is MongoDB. Quite modern and robust stack, much more customizable than Wordpress. Also I am in the process of starting a keyboard-related project and the company will assume the hosting costs to make the data available for free to anyone.

So that's two things off your plate already!

If you are interested, here are a few things you should know:

- The website has been originally made to cover all sort of "datasets", meaning not only keycaps but also keyboards and I have code ready for other things such as switches, plates, pcbs and all. Now if it feels wrong to you, I may also just remove all the other stuff and focus on keycaps (which makes sense since I am starting a keycaps business too)
- It was made to be community-driven, so accept contributions. I won't go too deep into details about what and how this would happen, just know that all content is being input by website users (after registration) and there is a built-in possibility to review edits. "Verified" users can post directly without validation, and can also approve/deny other edits made by "unverified users". Verifying users is made by a few selected admins only. We had concerns about people messing up the DB so this mechanism is already in place. Also if you subscribe now you are verified automatically, if you want to give it a try. Note that this system can of course be modified to suit what you guys think is better.
- The codebase is on github and can be open to contributors/maintainers, a few people have already contributed in the past but I closed it until I know what will happen with this project.

There are three things that were in the works (but coding got frozen on the way):
1. Creating and documenting an API so that other websites can use this data to create new cool projects
2. Make it into a pcpartpicker kind of thing where one can pick some parts to make a build (this could be split out in a side project with the proper API)
3. Having a gallery of images posted online (there is a draft if you click in the "Gallery" header menu, all the automatic import has been done, but the front is really just a placeholder)

I have zero design skills so your help as a designer to make this look better would be awesome! Also I am now lacking content but if we focus on the keycaps only this will probably make it easier... We might have been too ambitious...

Happy to hear your thoughts about all this and I hope this project will come to life again!

This is very very good! My idea was to start as a relatively simple keycaps database (with different views, search features, filters...) and build from there to a more complete web portal for mech keyboards: keyboards, switches, artisans, interest checks, collections, marketplace... Your platform looks like a solid foundation indeed, and I can brush up on Nuxt (I have experience with MEAN stack myself, so pretty close). A few other people have said they want to help, so I think I am going to set up a SLack or Trello to see where we can go from here.

[ocm]

I'm a visual designer if you need any assistance on that end! This could be a really cool resource for the community

[bobdenard]

I'm a visual designer if you need any assistance on that end! This could be a really cool resource for the community

Sure thing! This thing is shaping up to be bigger than I first expected so all help is welcome!

[matrixzj]

Hi,

I am maintainer for https://matrixzj.github.io

I am willing to help or merge my page in a new cool project

[matrixzj]

Sounds like a good idea! I setup a spreadsheet a couple years ago that a lot of people helped with so it would be a good starting point

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1byRpKCGR8tbV8tyTb3vwhLyiOcCgxbRTDUptnWgG3IE/edit#gid=2047522367

Really nice reference for my page 

[cijanzen]

Hi,

I am maintainer for https://matrixzj.github.io

I am willing to help or merge my page in a new cool project

All these projects coming out in this IC are really great. If we polled all of our resources together we could make something really great.

Because this is built on Jekyll I could see it being easily extended and/or ported!

[bobdenard]

Hi,

I am maintainer for https://matrixzj.github.io

I am willing to help or merge my page in a new cool project

All these projects coming out in this IC are really great. If we polled all of our resources together we could make something really great.

Because this is built on Jekyll I could see it being easily extended and/or ported!

I agree! If we all team-up we could build the definitive mechanical keyboards reference site!

[matrixzj]

Hi,

I am maintainer for https://matrixzj.github.io

I am willing to help or merge my page in a new cool project

All these projects coming out in this IC are really great. If we polled all of our resources together we could make something really great.

Because this is built on Jekyll I could see it being easily extended and/or ported!

Yes, I build it based on a free Jekyll theme. Besides easy to build it, the main attractive thing is that 'search bar' in it. Not only set name can be searched in it, but also color codes can be searched in it and all sets built with this color will be shown. According to feedback from some Chinese players, it is quite useful for them.



That's why I am trying to ask color codes for every sets

If any great feature can be added, that would be great. 

[zekth]

The only thing i'd suggest is to keep everything on Github. You don't need a database TBH, those infos can be serialized into JSON and stored in a folder / subrepo of the project. Then the UI is hosted on Github and can CURL on this.

Why no hosting platform? Maintainance => Money => Time etc. And not community based.

example of use: https://github.com/keebdata/groupbuys#usage

I'm maintainer of serveral Open Sources project so if i can help hit me up.

[cijanzen]

The only thing i'd suggest is to keep everything on Github. You don't need a database TBH, those infos can be serialized into JSON and stored in a folder / subrepo of the project. Then the UI is hosted on Github and can CURL on this.

Why no hosting platform? Maintainance => Money => Time etc. And not community based.

example of use: https://github.com/keebdata/groupbuys#usage

I'm maintainer of serveral Open Sources project so if i can help hit me up.

I totally agree with this and the method by which to store the data!