Is this a meme or did you lose an eBay auction recently?

He probably missed out on a GB for a board he'd been following for awhile.

This thread is beautiful.

Quote from: Faceman76 on Sat, 28 May 2022, 10:03:36

Awww...show us where the keyboard hurt you.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

mature response from the average redditor with a mind of a child.

you're all neckbeard losers, really, showing off your collections to each other because nobody in your real life cares.

**** yourselves!

You seem to either be intentionally trolling, or have no idea of what you speak. Most people here are here specifically because they prefer oldschool forum formats to the useless projectile vomit that is Reddit. As already mentioned, most of my vintage boards were saved from scrapping without their corresponding computer around. The rest were purchased from who-knows-where over the internet. I have even saved a few boards that were previously inoperable and/or missing parts, including an F XT that some monster cut the cable off of for exactly the sort of display you assume we do ... which we do not.

I also have an old Blue Chip XT clone I saved from recycling that I want to try to get DOS running on, for which I would have no keyboard at all without my collection. Vintage computing was barely in my peripheral vision prior to getting into the boards. My love for Leading Edge keyboards has even tempted me to pick up a corresponding computer. This hobby can be a gateway drug into a greater appreciation for computing history.

Most boards with the most interesting and satisfying switches have been completely out of production since the 1980s. Most of these boards use either a relatively standard protocol (XT or AT) making them usable with most PCs of the period regardless of their origin, and many were third party knockoffs anyway that never shipped with a computer. For the ones with weird proprietary protocols (mostly early 80s and prior), how many people actually still have working examples of these systems and desperately need the corresponding keyboard?

This is a very real problem, but most people are not intentionally separating keyboards from their matching systems. If the layout is still usable, many of these boards are completely timeless and can serve a purpose indefinitely. Even those that cannot are interesting pieces of computing and typing history in their own right and deserve preservation one way or another.

Do you have a working IBM 4704 banking terminal, and some urgent need to access 1980s financial records? If not, I'm going to keep typing happily away on my F107 keyboard. The original cable was long gone by the time it came into my possession anyway.

now i'm just going to gut every vintage keyboard i get my hands on to spite you lol

Respectfully, please don't. Try some of the new Clickiez switches if you haven't. They're very nice.

What is happening...

Vintage computer enthusiasts vs vintage keyboard enthusiasts.

I think the thing is, the worst of the "scrap the machine, save the keyboard" is likely to disappear over time.

Most of what is coveted is also being replicated, often in forms without the original baggage.  When you can buy a new beamspring, in a modern layout, for $500, spending $2000 to break up a vintage terminal, just to deal with a layout most software isn't optimized for and some zesty 1970s ergonomic choices seems a lot less appealing.

I can see where it could have a negative influence on preservation-- if SELLERS think "I can scrap the actual obscure terminal/machine itself and get 95% as much money for the keyboard by itself" but I suspect the alternative is that more machines would be scrapped, keyboards and all-- if there's only the smaller "willing to buy and ship the whole enchilada" market.

Yes, some of the boards people paid way too much for are going to sit around gathering dust as "I have disposable income" status symbols, but I don't think that bell can be un-rung for a long time.

I think my biggest sin for keyboards was probably getting a set of SGI Granite caps and using them on a fairly pedestrian Matias Tactile Pro, but even this act doesn't really deny you a working board-- you can always get less attractive but still usable caps if you have one of the weird older SGI machines that speaks that "it looks like a PS/2 plug but will fry stuff if you try to use it as such" protocol.

I'm sort of surprised we don't see some more tag-team solutions for boards that are coveted for both switches and their vintage utility.  The guy who wants it for the switches could recoup some of his costs-- and restore the board to the "wants it to use it as a keyboard" community, by transplanting out the coveted blue/green/amber/polka dot switches and swapping in commodity switches instead.  I'm thinking of the run on Apple IIc keyboards for Amber Alps switches-- people who want to get an IIc working will probably be served about as well with Matias switches.

There's also some potential to go the other way-- there are quite a few projects designed around "use a commodity PS/2 or USB keyboard with your $obscure_machine".

Quote from: Faceman76 on Sat, 28 May 2022, 10:03:36

Awww...show us where the keyboard hurt you.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

mature response from the average redditor with a mind of a child.

you're all neckbeard losers, really, showing off your collections to each other because nobody in your real life cares.

**** yourselves!

sorry to break this to you, but you're the one making a rage post on a keyboard forum complaining about people that collect vintage keyboards, i don't know with what authority you're calling other people neckbeards lol

Quote from: kbhburner on Sat, 28 May 2022, 10:04:46

Quote from: Faceman76 on Sat, 28 May 2022, 10:03:36

Awww...show us where the keyboard hurt you.

Sent from my SM-S908U using Tapatalk

mature response from the average redditor with a mind of a child.

you're all neckbeard losers, really, showing off your collections to each other because nobody in your real life cares.

**** yourselves!

sorry to break this to you, but you're the one making a rage post on a keyboard forum complaining about people that collect vintage keyboards, i don't know with what authority you're calling other people neckbeards lol

He hasn't been back either. Just made an account to rant, got piled, and then vanished. I sent him a PM to try to figure out what his problem even was and talk about it civilly, but I don't expect any response.