My interest in keyboards has waned a lot recently. The last keyboard I bought was two years ago - a RAMA U80 -, which I wasn't terribly hyped about; it just looked like a well built unit. When I received it a year later, it was mildly interesting and worked ok. But I eventually just switched back to one of my first mechs, a CM Quickfire TK, because I was tired of worrying about scratching my other keyboards. I haven't rotated in any other keyboards in probably eight months.
how does anyone keep up with Discord? I actually don't understand it
But just now, my waning interest turned into feeling like an outsider looking in. I had the feeling that others must have when they see this hobby and don't understand it...I watched a few videos and realized I really don't have any idea what they're talking about anymore. I haven't kept up with all the new switches and new custom keyboards and keysets. I don't know what the trends are, so everything just looks alien to me.
nearly infinite Discord servers, each with 100 million channels (how does anyone keep up with Discord? I actually don't understand it).
I think my loss of interest was partly caused by the endless chase of perfection that was never realized no matter how much money was spent. Every board and every switch and every keycap set have not lived up to expectations or hype, even the really good stuff. There was always some nitpick that didn't live up to my imagination. Disillusioned may be an apt description for me.
My interest in keyboards has waned a lot recently. The last keyboard I bought was two years ago - a RAMA U80 -, which I wasn't terribly hyped about; it just looked like a well built unit. When I received it a year later, it was mildly interesting and worked ok. But I eventually just switched back to one of my first mechs, a CM Quickfire TK, because I was tired of worrying about scratching my other keyboards. I haven't rotated in any other keyboards in probably eight months.
But just now, my waning interest turned into feeling like an outsider looking in. I had the feeling that others must have when they see this hobby and don't understand it. I watched a Chyrosran22 video for the first time in a long while, and I noticed he has 116k subscribers. Wow, that seems like a lot for a keyboard channel. Oh, Taeha Types has almost a half million?! And there's a new channel, Glarses, with even more subs than Taeha? I watched a few videos and realized I really don't have any idea what they're talking about anymore. I haven't kept up with all the new switches and new custom keyboards and keysets. I don't know what the trends are, so everything just looks alien to me. It was like stumbling onto someone else's hobby I'd never heard of, especially when I saw comments on Chyrosran's video complaining about his outdated opinions since he likes vintage stuff; that just struck me weird. Maybe staying on my little corner of Geekhack has insulated me from the larger world of keyboards, what with Keebtalk (is that still a thing?), r/MK, and nearly infinite Discord servers, each with 100 million channels (how does anyone keep up with Discord? I actually don't understand it). It probably doesn't help that I just ignore ICs and GBs too. This was already an esoteric hobby, but there's so much new stuff now that it seems impossible to keep up or even compare things.
I think my loss of interest was partly caused by the endless chase of perfection that was never realized no matter how much money was spent. Every board and every switch and every keycap set have not lived up to expectations or hype, even the really good stuff. There was always some nitpick that didn't live up to my imagination. Disillusioned may be an apt description for me.
Maybe some new keyboard or switch will come along and rekindle the passion. Someday, I'll receive the Ellipse F77 I ordered years ago. Maybe that will get me back into it, but it's been so long that patience has got the better of me, so I'm not terribly eager for it anymore.
Well, anyway, pointless ramble is pointless. The feeling of not only being uninterested but also a total outsider just really struck me.
This is pretty normal. You'll notice that not many people stick around longer than a few years on here. Hell, I wouldn't be on here nearly as much (possibly at all) if I weren't a mod. Kind of a weird thing to think about, since the hobby was once such a big and important thing in my life, but we move on and try new things. As long as you had fun along the way, it was worth it. :)
My RF10AE hasn't left my desk in probably 4 years now, aside from the occasional need to swap to something with a numpad. Not much need to geek out over keyboards when you're content and aren't buying things anymore (which, let's admit it, is basically the heart and soul of the actual "hobby" - not counting the friendships and other more meaningful things you get out of it).
I'm new to keebs, but I can heavily relate to this from my other/first main hobby. I simply found what works in general and what works for me. Sure, I could keep up with all the latest and greatest, but why would I? At the end of the day, there's nothing coming out that's so groundbreaking as to be worth the time investment into checking the other thousand products that'll happen between now and then. When something truly revolutionary does come along, I'll hear about it whether I'm directly involved with and on top of that hobby or not.
Maybe I'm just a young'un here, but I'm sitting in 10 keyboard discords, another 10 other servers, and then 80 others that I basically never touch. :D If you've ever got questions about discord feel free to ask, the biggest thing that I've found helpful is figuring out what channels you don't need to be looking at and then muting them. If there's 100 channels in a server, chances are you can mute anywhere from 20-95 of them depending on just how involved you want to be.
Part of me is worried about this happening to myself (I'm only on my second week of being interested in keebs), but at the end of the day I'm largely here to get better tools. I spend 8-14hrs a day behind a keyboard at both work and home, getting a properly nice setup that fits me is an investment - especially with split boards for better ergos to try and avoid future issues I can already feel creeping in. There's some really, really nice rigs out there, but I don't need a $1200 piece of art to run reports at work or hold long-winded discussions on discord. I just need a nice piece of equipment that'll last me years of feeling good to type on. The enjoyment of building it myself is just a bonus that allows me to get exactly what fits.
It's not abnormal or unwarranted to "grow out of" a hobby. But at the same time, it's a hobby. There's no required level of interest or interaction. If you just want to be around to vibe with older setups, I'm sure you're not the only one. There's no membership requirement saying you have to be able to give a dissertation on the Pandaverse and what upcoming group by most closely resembles their switch feel. Noobs like me still need the "old-timers" like you to remind us that it's just a keyboard, it's okay to not be a collector, and to answer the inevitable questions of "hey what's this thing?" when everyone else is too focused on the new hotness to remember how the longstanding setups were.
Theres the off topic forum if we're not interested in keyboards anymore..
I don't think I ever understood keyboards as a hobby any more than headphones or watches (other interests/forums I've been active in) so I'm always an outsider. I come, I learn, I get something more suited to my use than the standard off the shelf item and then, if possible, I help newbies in some way to stave off offline boredom. Only keyboards have much scope for the last bit and that's why I've been active for most of the time I've been a member here while the other forums I disappear for years on end and may never return.
Sintpinty has it right - if you don't want to talk about keyboards there's always Off Topic and Other Geeky Stuff if you want some input from a varied and knowledgable group of strangers on the internet.
I am in a lot of Discord servers just because I *might* want to look into them later, but I really tried to participate in a language learning Discord server at one point, but I couldn't even keep up with *one* channel because there was so much chatter on it. When someone replied to me, I couldn't even see my own text on the screen at the same time as the reply most of the time.
That's how this started for me. I just wanted something better than MX Blues. Somehow I heard about the Model M, and all my Google searches kept bringing me to Geekhack.
Haha, I pretty much live in Off Topic here. I rarely venture anywhere else now.Amen.
Not sure how to feel after seeing a Carbon set being used in the 2nd episode on Loki.
one of my other hobbies is long distance cycling. really long distance, from several hundred to >1,000km. there's a saying: after 300 or 400km nothing changes. somehow seems apropos.I would hope something would change if you're long distance cycling, if not then you're on an exercise bike in the house/gym. lol
Meetups need to make a comeback
one of my other hobbies is long distance cycling. really long distance, from several hundred to >1,000km. there's a saying: after 300 or 400km nothing changes. somehow seems apropos.I would hope something would change if you're long distance cycling, if not then you're on an exercise bike in the house/gym. lol
Once I ventured far enough down the rabbit hole, I found that it actually ended. I tried enough switches to see what I liked, tried enough layouts to see what I liked, tried enough keycaps to see what I liked... And that's it. Nothing really changes dramatically in the keyboard scene from what I can tell.
one of my other hobbies is long distance cycling. really long distance, from several hundred to >1,000km. there's a saying: after 300 or 400km nothing changes. somehow seems apropos.
selle san marco regal (https://sellesanmarco.it/en/regal/). don’t worry about the few extra grams. but if you really care there’s a titanium version. (or used to be.) this is what most of the pros rode in the spring classics into the early 2000’s, until sponsors took over, and it’s still my favorite saddle. you can find them used on ebay, or you can buy new. firm and a bit wide with just enough flex, imo. but even more than keebs, ymmv :thumb:
edit to add hyperlink