Will Hipsters Discover/Ruin/Improve Mechanical Keyboards?

[Altis]

I was talking with some people about hipsters (meaning young, mainstream, urbanites, of a particular brand) and it occurred to me that hipsters could find their way to mechanical keyboards because MKs are:

- Vintage/Retro
- Highly customizable (and colourful)
- Serve a purpose
- Fits in with hipster-nerd culture which they're moved into

They fit the bill perfectly. They could make them all customized and yammer on about being one with the internet (as they do about fixie bikes with no brakes, film cameras they don't know how to use, etc).

I couldn't help but wonder then, will mechanical keyboards catch on with hipsters?

While it makes perfect sense and seems ideal, hipsters seem hesitant to take on things that aren't already trendy. They're expensive, though that doesn't seem to matter as most hipsters are actually fairly well off (a la MacBook).

What would happen if there was suddenly a large demand for customized keyboards? Would the demand increase our options and availability with the market? Or would it just get flooded with low-quality stuff as their standards would be lower.

Would it change the way you feel about this hobby? I know many people who are into more obscure niches (let's face it, most people have no idea you can be a "keyboard enthusiast") prefer that they remain low-key enough that it's genuine enthusiasts involved. It also lets the hobby be rather unique, and if it suddenly becomes super popular, there's no distinguishing the founders from the followers, making it seem less special.

What are your thoughts? I know some people will think this is strange and they just want to enjoy some typing, but I know many of you have spent enough time and money to know what I'm talking about (not to mention those with post counts in the thousands or north of 10k!).


Personally, I'd rather it remain fairly niche.

PS Nothing against hipsters in particular, but I've seen that type of thing take away from other hobbies. For example, one of my 4 bicycles is a training bike with fixed gear (ie fixie). I've had it for ages, but now that it's a hipster icon, that's all people assume when they see it or find out I have one, when really it's used for muscle training. Even less experienced riders who aren't aware of the training benefits assume that if you have a fixie, you aren't a serious rider now.

[Karura]

Dude, we're all computer hipsters. All those IBM collectors? Hipsters.

[PunksDead]

Dude, we're all computer hipsters. All those IBM collectors? Hipsters.

Can confirm,

Source: hipster

[nubbinator]

Complains about hipsters, wants hobby to remain underground and not become mainstream.

[ApocalypseMaow]

lol

[clacktalk]

caring about what other people think is so 2k14

fixies are badass btw

[Karura]

Dude, we're all computer hipsters. All those IBM collectors? Hipsters.

Can confirm,

Source: hipster

I'm using this to post on GH 

[Joey Quinn]

Nubb we're in the clear. We did it before it was cool.

[byker]

caring about what other people think is so 2k14

fixies are badass btw

fixies are love. fixies are life

[tbc]

Dude, we're all computer hipsters. All those IBM collectors? Hipsters.

Can confirm,

Source: hipster

I'm using this to post on GH 

Show Image

jeez

take a shower already you dirty hipster

:P

i hate you

[nubbinator]

Nubb we're in the clear. We did it before it was cool.

Phew, I thought my ironic nose ring and unabashed love for saying "I don't have a TV" even though I watch Netflix would lump me in with them, but I'm safe.

Also, ****, I hit quad 6s and missed the screen shot. 

[Joey Quinn]

Nubb we're in the clear. We did it before it was cool.

Phew, I thought my ironic nose ring and unabashed love for saying "I don't have a TV" even though I watch Netflix would lump me in with them, but I'm safe.

Also, ****, I hit quad 6s and missed the screen shot. 

 

[intelli78]

Haha yep... that would be all of us.

[madhias]

It is already happening!

Also I don't understand why you have a problem with your bike now. Just ride and don't care - as long as you don't only drive 2km without helmet to school or work

Hipster is new term for fashion, so this will change all the time.

[Altis]

Complains about hipsters, wants hobby to remain underground and not become mainstream.

[img]http://rs1img.memecdn.com/lol-wut---kim-jong-un-edition_o_1616433.jpg[img]

Yes, but hipsters are the kind of people who need everyone to witness their endeavors. Bringing a large typewriter to a lecture class comes to mind.

MK is the kind of thing I don't even tell people about because it's actually kind of weird to a lot of people.

Being an enthusiast in a niche or vintage hobby does not a hipster make. Look at all the photography enthusiasts with vintage lenses and gear... they don't make a point of letting everyone else know about it, and they actually know a great deal of information about the stuff.

Not even close to the same thing.

Hipsters would buy their mechanical keyboards pre-customized from Urban Outfitters, as they do with bikes, film cameras, and vinyl audio. These are not enthusiasts.

It is already happening!

Also I don't understand why you have a problem with your bike now. Just ride and don't care - as long as you don't only drive 2km without helmet to school or work

Hipster is new term for fashion, so this will change all the time.

Hipster is more of a term for poser. Someone who wants everyone to see how unique they are, in the same way as everyone else, while not bothering to learn anything about their "fashion".

[Touch_It]

I've actually  been called a keyboard hipster at work due to my love of vintage boards

[nubbinator]

Considering how popular clicky switches and loud key cap sets are, I fail to see a distinction in your argument.

[Altis]

Where you're mistaking enthusiast/geek for hipster is that there is nothing even remotely trendy or fashionable about computer keyboards.

Nobody really knows about them, or cares, even the IT people I deal with all over. That defeats something from being hipster and just makes it obscure.

[nubbinator]

I hear you talking, but I still hear hipster.  Everyone always talks about hipsters in terms of irony and obscurity.  It's not about being trendy and hipsters often eschew something after it becomes hip. 

[Novus]

We are keyboard hipsters :/

[tbc]

Considering how popular clicky switches and loud key cap sets are, I fail to see a distinction in your argument.

what is a loud keycap set?

[Karura]

Where you're mistaking enthusiast/geek for hipster is that there is nothing even remotely trendy or fashionable about computer keyboards.

Nobody really knows about them, or cares, even the IT people I deal with all over. That defeats something from being hipster and just makes it obscure.

Are you kidding me? I post my keyboards on facebook, reddit, geekhack... everyone loves it!

People are always curious and wanting to find out more about it, and I'm always happy to educate

[tp4tissue]

Not true.. Tp4 not hipster..

Tp4 uses his ergodox... no non-utilized collection of any sort.

[nubbinator]

Considering how popular clicky switches and loud key cap sets are, I fail to see a distinction in your argument.

what is a loud keycap set?

Toxic is, for example.  I'm using the definition of loud that means flashy, almost vulgar.

[Altis]

Where you're mistaking enthusiast/geek for hipster is that there is nothing even remotely trendy or fashionable about computer keyboards.

Nobody really knows about them, or cares, even the IT people I deal with all over. That defeats something from being hipster and just makes it obscure.

Are you kidding me? I post my keyboards on facebook, reddit, geekhack... everyone loves it!

People are always curious and wanting to find out more about it, and I'm always happy to educate

Your experiences differ from mine. Perhaps people you know share some interest in it, which is great! I'm surrounded by tech culture and almost none of them are even remotely interested when I show them / talk about keyboards.

I hear you talking, but I still hear hipster.  Everyone always talks about hipsters in terms of irony and obscurity.  It's not about being trendy and hipsters often eschew something after it becomes hip. 

It is precisely about being trendy and fashionable. You're implying there's something hip about mechanical keyboards. I don't think it's a huge hit outside our community! 

[baldgye]

Grandad what's a hipster and how could there enjoyment of keyboards ruin my own ?

[Sifo]

I am the biggest ****ing hipster and that's why I'm here. Not the fake ass type who wear fake glasses and sit at Starbucks with a Macbook and get attention in media, I mean a true hipster at heart. Or maybe I just like weird **** who knows.

[metalliqaz]

How else you explain 40% layouts?  60% too mainstream.

The only contradiction is that hipsters are usually broke.

[Nai_Calus]

Nah, man, layouts over 100% and wide bezels are the new hipster in keyboards. Tiny layouts are the mainstream. Look at customs. 40%, 60%, TKL, TK, etc. The only 100% custom I can think of is GON's. Everyone wants fewer keys and tiny bezels and the smallest keyboard physically possible, so the non-mainstream hipster choice is full-size or bigger with big bezels. 

[bazh]

60% is now too mainstream in the keyboard hipster world, 120% user is the true hipster, like hipster's hipster.

[paicrai]

käften

[epzy]

my thoughts:

[Coreda]

"I have nothing against hipsters, really, truly... but I'll be goddamned if they get their macchiato-holding paws on my precious keyboards."

Things can feel less special I suppose when too many people know about them, but hipsters aren't mainstream or the majority of people. Using film cameras didn't suddenly become unfun to use because of Lomography.com (quite the opposite).

What would happen if there was suddenly a large demand for customized keyboards? Would the demand increase our options and availability with the market? Or would it just get flooded with low-quality stuff as their standards would be lower.

Why do you assume the standards would be lower? Typically they're the ones in the market for good quality products, especially of the limited variety, hard to find, or vintage. Gamers are more of that market than hipsters.

[Bromono]

I wouldn't mind it. It would get more people into the hobby. Sure, some would do it just to be "hip", but it would expand the market out and we could get some new cool products from it. I'm sure it would eventually die down and the real enthusiast would stay back.

[baldgye]

Reading this thread; hipsters are young people who follow fashion??

So whats wrong with that again?

[jacobolus]

I was talking with some people about hipsters

Note, when you lead off any conversation with this line, that probably means you’re a “hipster”. “Young, mainstream, urbanites, of a particular brand”† is not nearly as close a predictor for who can be classified as “hipster” in my experience as “people who talk about hipsters”.

I’m sure you’ve figured out from the other responses here that the majority of geekhack is hipsters already. I think you are using the wrong word for the concept you’re describing. The word you’re looking for is poseurs, not hipsters. I know the way language works, we tend to take words which originally have some specific denotative meaning, and because we have strong feelings about some group or concept associated to that word, we then morph the word usage into a purely generic “thing I don’t like” connotative use. There’s even a term for this, pejoration (Steven Pinker calls it the “euphemism treadmill”). But resist the urge, Altis. It cheapens and degrades the language, and takes useful words away from us without usefully replacing them.

† I know old hipsters, countercultural hipsters, suburban hipsters, poor hipsters, etc. Likewise, I know many young, mainstream urbanites with various values and styles who are most certainly not hipsters. And what’s a “particular brand”? Does that just mean “has a personal style”?

[baldgye]

Is 'urbanites' the new word for 'townie'??

[SpAmRaY]

In b4 jwaz.

[jacobolus]

Is 'urbanites' the new word for 'townie'??

No. “Townie” refers specifically to young (as in, 15–25ish years old) local residents in university towns, who had/have a mutually antagonistic relationship with students. “Urbanites” just generically means “people who live in the city”. (Also, “urbanites” is a stupendously stupid word.)

[mecano]

In b4 jwaz.

In before wheelz!

[jamster]

I’m sure you’ve figured out from the other responses here that the majority of geekhack is hipsters already. I think you are using the wrong word for the concept you’re describing. The word you’re looking for is poseurs, not hipsters. I know the way language works, we tend to take words which originally have some specific denotative meaning, and because we have strong feelings about some group or concept associated to that word, we then morph the word usage into a purely generic “thing I don’t like” connotative use. There’s even a term for this, pejoration (Steven Pinker calls it the “euphemism treadmill”). But resist the urge, Altis. It cheapens and degrades the language, and takes useful words away from us without usefully replacing them.

From all the personal photos I've seen so far, I wouldn't say that GH has a high hipster population.

[baldgye]

Is 'urbanites' the new word for 'townie'??

No. �Townie� refers specifically to young (as in, 15�25ish years old) local residents in university towns, who had/have a mutually antagonistic relationship with students. �Urbanites� just generically means �people who live in the city�. (Also, �urbanites� is a stupendously stupid word.)

As a kid of the midlands (YES MATE) anyone from a town or city is generally considered a townie, be they young or old... anti student or a student themselves... and yes 'urbanites' is the dumbest sounding **** I've come across... especially from people condemning 'hipsters' lol

[jacobolus]

As a kid of the midlands (YES MATE) anyone from a town or city is generally considered a townie, be they young or old... anti student or a student themselves...

Yeah, people in modern England constantly redefine useful words into meaning something totally generic and pointless.

As far as I know, the definition I mentioned before has been the dominant sense of the word “townie” since at least the early 19th century, a shortened form of “townsman”. The idea is, in the middle ages, there were “townsmen” who lived permanently in towns, and then there were lots of other people who passed through or stayed temporarily. In particular, in university towns, the students came from all over, and were of generally higher social status and had special privileges compared to people who had grown up locally, causing resentment and rivalry.

[baldgye]

As a kid of the midlands (YES MATE) anyone from a town or city is generally considered a townie, be they young or old... anti student or a student themselves...

Yeah, people in modern England constantly redefine useful words into meaning something totally generic and pointless.

As far as I know, the definition I mentioned before has been the dominant sense of the word �townie� since at least the early 19th century, a shortened form of �townsman�.

aye duck

[mecano]

As a kid of the midlands (YES MATE) anyone from a town or city is generally considered a townie, be they young or old... anti student or a student themselves...

Yeah, people in modern England constantly redefine useful words into meaning something totally generic and pointless.

As far as I know, the definition I mentioned before has been the dominant sense of the word �townie� since at least the early 19th century, a shortened form of �townsman�.

aye duck

Ah Ah! Caught in the act of trying to redefine the word 'duck'!

[Coreda]

As far as I know, the definition I mentioned before has been the dominant sense of the word “townie” since at least the early 19th century, a shortened form of “townsman”. The idea is...

I swear all your posts read like they were looked up on Wikipedia the minute before posting 

[paicrai]

As far as I know, the definition I mentioned before has been the dominant sense of the word “townie” since at least the early 19th century, a shortened form of “townsman”. The idea is...

I swear all your posts read like they were looked up on Wikipedia the minute before posting 

aa

[iri]

i want/wish to be able to stab/shoot people (men/women) over the internet/www.

[paicrai]

i want/wish to be able to stab/shoot people (men/women) over the internet/www.

thats not very ****ing nice of you, ruski

[iri]

go love yourself, annoying blandinavian manlarva.