[IC] GMK White-on-Black Katakana | Supporting BLM | January 14th, 2021

[Pach]

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Charity Details
I am passionate in providing support to relevant issues that are happening in the world. Therefore, all designer profits from the first month of sales will be donated to the Black Lives Matter Support Fund through blacklivesmatter.com. Social injustice in America has recently become a larger issue than ever before, and I believe that contributions from the sale of this set will help the campaign immensely. If you just came here and stumbled upon all the drama, please read my response.

Pre-Order Details
Drop
January 14th, 2021 -

When will the pre-order end?
Drop recently changed how GMK group buys are managed. Instead of the group buy lasting only a month, Drop will keep the product running in perpetuity on a pre-order -> in-stock loop. You may have already noticed this with Drop's GMK White-on-Black. This system is a win-win for everyone involved because it allows people to join the buy even if they are a few months late in discovering it.

Why just a base kit?
This is a WoB set. There are many extension kits already available. I don't plan on adding any other kits unless there is something many people want; in that case, please do tell me in the IC form. Having just one kit also helps in bringing the production cost down.

Legends?
This set will use the new community-made Katakana/Kanji monolegends (Also featured on GMK Mecha-01).

Interest Check Form rev. 2
https://forms.gle/4yEdeY7a6JCFJWZr8

Discord server (for updates, etc.)
https://discord.gg/aSsUEqc

IC on Drop
https://drop.com/talk/63508/ic-gmk-white-on-black-katakana-supporting-the-blm-initiative-drop-2021

Signature banner (support the set!)

Code: [Select]

[url=https://geekhack.org/index.php?topic=109976.0][img]https://i.imgur.com/DJ52g0u.png[/img][/url]
Special thanks to
Oblotzky for the renders and help
kidviddy for JIS and layout help

[treeleaf64]

Drop not good

[BapoDonu]

I like but what about other vendors ?

[HoodrowThrillson]

I like but what about other vendors ?

No.

[ramensan]

Please provide more compatibility by adding more keys to base kit if it is just one kit. For example ergo layout like alice support

[BapoDonu]

I like but what about other vendors ?

No.

sorry forgot no one cares about eu

[finalarcadia]

drop good for me, will prob get a couple

[pnw-g]

love wob, up to my eyeballs in wob, will consider more wob. but, prob just gonna donate to BLM. really happy to see the set supporting a critical cause. glwic. BLM

[dandruff]

DROP redemption arc 2021. I believe.

[Pach]

DROP redemption arc 2021. I believe.

[August]

[illusixn]

[konstantin]

Please consider including R3 PgUp, R4 PgDn in the kit. This is a popular option for 75% and especially 65% keyboards. To put things into perspective, they're slightly more common than 1.5u OS keys which you currently have in the kit. With 65% being the most popular layout in the community currently (and growing), I think that these keys are definitely worth having.

The following keys can be dropped from the kit as they serve no practical purpose:

• second R4 1u ^ (Ctrl);
• R4 1u ム.

Finally, if you're planning on having second B, 2.75c and 2.25c spacekeys in the kit, please also include a 2c space. (2.25–1) and (2–1.25) setups are about equally as common when it comes to Alice and similar boards.

Edit: One more thing: since you're adding a R1 half-width/full-width toggle key, I would drop one of the two Esc keys. Pick one of the two designs and just stick with that.

Edit2: One very last thing: would you consider using the following nav icons (as seen in GMK Mecha-01) rather than the stock/old ones? I think that they look a lot better.

[pentawater]

Imagine saying you support BLM while putting white on top of black

[Rafa_n]

drop bad, no eu proxy

[CoinStorm]

stop vending through drop.

[Kokaloo]

I really like that recently drop has made the move to have things in stock, hopefully eradicating limited sets and obnoxious aftermarket prices! The group buy system has been outdated for a while now, seeing as how much money is being thrown around. Seems like a great thing all around for people who want to buy stuff to actually use!

[ZavaZ86]

Really nice and all with everything but picking Drop as the only vendor and the whole ''charity'' thing just makes the set go from an insta buy to a big thonk.

[elongatedmusk]

Big yes for the set. Big no for the vendor.
I mean, Drop is amazing for their relation with GMK yes, but I just can't stand their delivery service for non-US countries.
Heard so many issues about it and seems like one of them being mine.

[beadlock]

(Attachment Link)
Charity Details
I am passionate in providing support to relevant issues that are happening in the world. Therefore, all designer profits from the first month of sales will be donated to the Black Lives Matter Support Fund through blacklivesmatter.com. Social injustice in America has recently become a larger issue than ever before, and I believe that contributions from the sale of this set will help the campaign immensely.

Hold up, so let me get this straight. So you clearly state that you would like to support Black Lives Matters, via a set that has Katakana (MiTo's Katakana because you were told months ago that you can't use Masterpiece Katakana molds), an Asian language? And yet the only thing of value that would relate to BLACK culture, is the color of the damn keycaps?

You seriously need to re-evaluate what you are trying to accomplish with this. I'm all for supporting the movement of BLM but this is a sad take of 100% cultural appropriation.

Edit: Way to go, you made it even worse to choose only ONE month of sales instead of a continual portion of the proceeds to be donated.

HARD PASS

[Auslander]

Just no...lmao   )

[pentawater]

(Attachment Link)
Charity Details
I am passionate in providing support to relevant issues that are happening in the world. Therefore, all designer profits from the first month of sales will be donated to the Black Lives Matter Support Fund through blacklivesmatter.com. Social injustice in America has recently become a larger issue than ever before, and I believe that contributions from the sale of this set will help the campaign immensely.

Hold up, so let me get this straight. So you clearly state that you would like to support Black Lives Matters, via a set that has Katakana (MiTo's Katakana because you were told months ago that you can't use Masterpiece Katakana molds), an Asian language? And yet the only thing of value that would relate to BLACK culture, is the color of the damn keycaps?

You seriously need to re-evaluate what you are trying to accomplish with this. I'm all for supporting the movement of BLM but this is a sad take of 100% cultural appropriation.

Edit: Way to go, you made it even worse to choose only ONE month of sales instead of a continual portion of the proceeds to be donated.

HARD PASS

I would like to propose that the group buy should start in February 2021, so that the one month of sales going to Black Lives Matters would line up with Black History month.
Hear me out, you can milk the blm thing even more with the group buy starting in black history month.
Also, there's only 28 days in February so you can keep two more days of profits for yourself

[Merked]

So only the first month sale profits would be donated to BLM, but this set will be on a perpetual pre order-> in stock item loop through Drop...huh I guess BLM isn’t a relevant issue anymore after the first month of sales lol /s

Edit: This just seems like a blatant PR move to associate the set to a charitable cause to boost first month sales, in hopes of boosting future sales of the set as it inevitably becomes more widespread. I mean, there isn’t even any sort of design inspiration to the BLM cause on this set. At least The EPBT Ivory set you designed made sense with the elephants, but this set has nothing to do with BLM; otherwise good set maybe might still buy with my Drop rewards.

[Arithmetics]

anyone complaining about someone donating money needs to shut the hell up

[OtherAndrew]

what

[harlekein]

drop bad, no eu proxy

[beadlock]

anyone complaining about someone donating money needs to shut the hell up

So you feel that it is ok to milk Asian/weeb culture because it sells very well in this community, disassociate it, and tack on donations to a charity/movement unrelated to the theme to get brownie points?

This community blows my mind constantly for all the stupidity that it brings up.

[NotYeMK]

This set just feels so out of touch with every part of it and doesn't make any sense.

[firewrath9]

got my popcorn ready.

[directheatedtriode]

Hold up, there is an exclusivity on the Katakana molds that were created for Masterpiece? 

[IOVERCALLHISTIOCYTES]

Hold up, there is an exclusivity on the Katakana molds that were created for Masterpiece? 

Didn’t a few businesses/entities/designers or whatever put some money in up front for the cost of the molds, so the mold cost wasn’t transmitted to the cost of the kits in group buy? And that’s how masterpiece was 130$ base with enough new molds I thought it woulda been 160? I presume then the molds would be theirs to run back with different colorways.

[treeleaf64]

anyone complaining about someone donating money needs to shut the hell up

So you feel that it is ok to milk Asian/weeb culture because it sells very well in this community, disassociate it, and tack on donations to a charity/movement unrelated to the theme to get brownie points?

This community blows my mind constantly for all the stupidity that it brings up.

Not good I agree. It doesn't make sense.

This is not a treeleaf approved thread

[directheatedtriode]

Hold up, there is an exclusivity on the Katakana molds that were created for Masterpiece? 

Didn’t a few businesses/entities/designers or whatever put some money in up front for the cost of the molds, so the mold cost wasn’t transmitted to the cost of the kits in group buy? And that’s how masterpiece was 130$ base with enough new molds I thought it woulda been 160? I presume then the molds would be theirs to run back with different colorways.

I don't recall this from the IC but I didn't pay the utmost attention to it because it was in a color I wasn't interested in. I thought the higher MOQ and higher price combination covered the molds.

Anyway as an American I like Drop pricing plus their improved customer service after their rebrand (same day refunds once prepaid shipping label updates tracking), also essentially what like 10% off with that cashback system. But I'll wait to see Energies ever plans to offer a WOB.

[elmo]

Hold up, there is an exclusivity on the Katakana molds that were created for Masterpiece? 

Yes. Because the maker of GMK Masterpiece paid for those molds by himself. Thus he owns these molds and not GMK.

[BapoDonu]

Hold up, there is an exclusivity on the Katakana molds that were created for Masterpiece? 

Yes. Because the maker of GMK Masterpiece paid for those molds by himself. Thus he owns these molds and not GMK.

He owns the molds that he paid to be made, he does not own katakana

[eskimojo]

Hold up, there is an exclusivity on the Katakana molds that were created for Masterpiece? 

Yes. Because the maker of GMK Masterpiece paid for those molds by himself. Thus he owns these molds and not GMK.

He owns the molds that he paid to be made, he does not own katakana

Astute observation that nobody was questioning.

[beigeandbrown]

Show Image

I found this funny too. Isn't Japan known to be lowkey racist towards African Americans/foreigners in general? No ill will towards the set, looks very cool and any support is good. Fist rama wouldn't be a bad idea to help drive home the BLM support.

[Azernith]

glws

[aeryxz]

anyone complaining about someone donating money needs to shut the hell up

So you feel that it is ok to milk Asian/weeb culture because it sells very well in this community, disassociate it, and tack on donations to a charity/movement unrelated to the theme to get brownie points?

This community blows my mind constantly for all the stupidity that it brings up.

I mean there have been people before him that have done it like mito and no one bats an eyelid at that, why are we attacking it now?
Just don't buy the set if you don't like it.
I also don't get why it's a bad thing for ANY set to support the blm movement - as long as the funds are going to the right charities and not some other 'charity' front.

[HoodrowThrillson]

Hold up, there is an exclusivity on the Katakana molds that were created for Masterpiece? 

Didn’t a few businesses/entities/designers or whatever put some money in up front for the cost of the molds, so the mold cost wasn’t transmitted to the cost of the kits in group buy? And that’s how masterpiece was 130$ base with enough new molds I thought it woulda been 160? I presume then the molds would be theirs to run back with different colorways.

There's 2 ways to go about getting new molds done.

1) you drop a fat stack so it is yours
2) share cost with GMK which in turn makes it public (and allows anyone to use the molds, IE: the Zhuyin molds)

[haystack]

Well, it's not being run through a vendor named after a culture of black enslavement, so it's got that going for it, which is nice.

[Jefff]

Just a tad bit confused as to how the keycaps themselves relate to the BLM movement?

[Jefff]

Also, is there no plan for Alice support? The set itself is interesting, but lack of alice support + drop as the main vendor makes this a no-go for me.

[Arithmetics]

anyone complaining about someone donating money needs to shut the hell up

So you feel that it is ok to milk Asian/weeb culture because it sells very well in this community, disassociate it, and tack on donations to a charity/movement unrelated to the theme to get brownie points?

This community blows my mind constantly for all the stupidity that it brings up.

milk asian / weeb culture? they are key caps with letters on them. brownie points? its money for charity. who exactly does this hurt? no one.

[Pach]

Wow -

There's a whole bunch of different opinions and comments, and I did not expect this to happen. Let me clear things up a bit. If you still think this is bad and hate the idea of me donating funds to a cause I want to support, then feel free to keep that opinion and not support the set, but please refrain from commenting on this thread any more. I believe the point has been made by others.

First, I did not "base" this set on the BLM movement. I'm sorry if I didn't make that clear; I thought people might have guessed that BLM was not a basis for inspiration to this Japanese-themed set, but I was wrong. I never had the intention of offending anyone because of the apparent theme of the set. I approached MiTo shortly after the incident of the first IC on the proprietary molds, and he offered to help me get the set back on track with his new community molds (and ideas, renders, etc). We agreed on the idea of having all the designer profits donated to the BLM cause (a few months ago, when the movement exploded in America because of George Floyd, etc. but I don't want to get political right now), and back then I thought it was a great idea. Make a nice-looking set, and help out the community around me at a time when they needed it most.

Back then, the group buy was only scheduled to last a month. Then (a few days ago) came Drop with their (new) great system of ongoing preorders. I realized then that I had a lot more options of not only donating to just one relevant cause that I love and support and stop after the GB ended; I could donate to many other causes that I love and support if I ever wanted to. I don't plan on just running a charity for one month and then keeping every cent of profit for myself after that. That seems like a really cheap move.

Hopefully this clears some things up. Let's keep this thread a place for discussing keycaps, not a place to flame me on a charity choice.

[hali]

cool to see this worked out and being run
granted by people who arent able to communicate what their switches are made out of but hey still cool

[aeryxz]

cool to see this worked out and being run
granted by people who arent able to communicate what their switches are made out of but hey still cool

probably plastic and Chinese labour

[datfroyodoe]

anyone complaining about someone donating money needs to shut the hell up

So you feel that it is ok to milk Asian/weeb culture because it sells very well in this community, disassociate it, and tack on donations to a charity/movement unrelated to the theme to get brownie points?

This community blows my mind constantly for all the stupidity that it brings up.

dumbest thing i read all day. imagine getting butthurt over this.

[Amuaisi]

I have a question about the set, re:logistics. Drop is running group buys on a loop. It's mentioned that all designer profit during the first month of sales will go to the Black Lives Matter Support Fund. Will donating profit on first month be the case for every subsequent WoB Katakana run?

If so, this would be an interesting idea—as a community, being able to support a cause on a consistent basis, rather than one single donation.

[davisthegreat]

Show Image

Same. I appreciate the cause as a black person.. but the set has nothing to do with it. That bothers me for some reason. Nothing about this set says anything about black history, black lives matter etc. Its a great looking set, but for me .. i don't see the connection