Mech board hobbyist trends that piss you off

[Niomosy]

For anything you can buy elsewhere, MassDrop is often not that good.  The prices are frequently about the same price you can find elsewhere and the estimated arrival times are abysmal.  The mech keyboard world does well since they've got the special run stuff like the artisan caps, specialty keysets, specialty keyboards, etc.  With other stuff, I see frequent discussions along the lines of, "but I can get this off Amazon for about the same price and skip the 3 month wait."

My thoughts exactly. Mass drop has provided a valuable service to the keyboard community. Beginning with the ErgoDox, they have been able to put together projects that would otherwise have been stall by missing links and lack of organization by the inexperienced.

That has been their greatest asset.

Yeah MassDrop is hit and miss.  Their exclusives are where they shine.  MD still has work to do.  They desperately need warehouses in Europe and Asia to handle all the international buys better.  Shipping everything through New Jerseys isn't ideal.  Especially if it's coming from Europe or Asia already.

They also need to move out of California so they can stop charging me sales tax, dammit! 

[chuckdee]

For anything you can buy elsewhere, MassDrop is often not that good.  The prices are frequently about the same price you can find elsewhere and the estimated arrival times are abysmal.  The mech keyboard world does well since they've got the special run stuff like the artisan caps, specialty keysets, specialty keyboards, etc.  With other stuff, I see frequent discussions along the lines of, "but I can get this off Amazon for about the same price and skip the 3 month wait."

My thoughts exactly. Mass drop has provided a valuable service to the keyboard community. Beginning with the ErgoDox, they have been able to put together projects that would otherwise have been stall by missing links and lack of organization by the inexperienced.

That has been their greatest asset.

Yeah MassDrop is hit and miss.  Their exclusives are where they shine.  MD still has work to do.  They desperately need warehouses in Europe and Asia to handle all the international buys better.  Shipping everything through New Jerseys isn't ideal.  Especially if it's coming from Europe or Asia already.

They also need to move out of California so they can stop charging me sales tax, dammit!

That takes money that they probably don't have.  And the logistics and financials of setting up in a different country are not exactly trivial.  But it's always like just do it.  I'm sure if they had unlimited funds and a workforce ready to go, they'd do something.  But they don't.

The other part about logistics and shipping things from one location is that they're buying in bulk, which is one of the reasons they get the breaks.  Increasing the shipping locations isn't necessarily possible and in many cases would increase the prices.  Just because something is manufactured somewhere, doesn't mean that they're going to be willing to break the large order into multiples to ship to different places.

[chuckdee]

My gripe with Razer is not so much about the quality of their products but about their attitude. They are spouting bull**** and deliberately deceiving customers.

Exactly this.  They set themselves up for failure, by putting themselves above everyone else, when they really aren't.

[Niomosy]

For anything you can buy elsewhere, MassDrop is often not that good.  The prices are frequently about the same price you can find elsewhere and the estimated arrival times are abysmal.  The mech keyboard world does well since they've got the special run stuff like the artisan caps, specialty keysets, specialty keyboards, etc.  With other stuff, I see frequent discussions along the lines of, "but I can get this off Amazon for about the same price and skip the 3 month wait."

My thoughts exactly. Mass drop has provided a valuable service to the keyboard community. Beginning with the ErgoDox, they have been able to put together projects that would otherwise have been stall by missing links and lack of organization by the inexperienced.

That has been their greatest asset.

Yeah MassDrop is hit and miss.  Their exclusives are where they shine.  MD still has work to do.  They desperately need warehouses in Europe and Asia to handle all the international buys better.  Shipping everything through New Jerseys isn't ideal.  Especially if it's coming from Europe or Asia already.

They also need to move out of California so they can stop charging me sales tax, dammit!

That takes money that they probably don't have.  And the logistics and financials of setting up in a different country are not exactly trivial.  But it's always like just do it.  I'm sure if they had unlimited funds and a workforce ready to go, they'd do something.  But they don't.

The other part about logistics and shipping things from one location is that they're buying in bulk, which is one of the reasons they get the breaks.  Increasing the shipping locations isn't necessarily possible and in many cases would increase the prices.  Just because something is manufactured somewhere, doesn't mean that they're going to be willing to break the large order into multiples to ship to different places.

I understand the logistics.  It's not a problem for me as I'm in the US.  It is something MD will need to think about for the future.

[noisyturtle]

For anything you can buy elsewhere, MassDrop is often not that good.  The prices are frequently about the same price you can find elsewhere and the estimated arrival times are abysmal.  The mech keyboard world does well since they've got the special run stuff like the artisan caps, specialty keysets, specialty keyboards, etc.  With other stuff, I see frequent discussions along the lines of, "but I can get this off Amazon for about the same price and skip the 3 month wait."

My thoughts exactly. Mass drop has provided a valuable service to the keyboard community. Beginning with the ErgoDox, they have been able to put together projects that would otherwise have been stall by missing links and lack of organization by the inexperienced.

That has been their greatest asset.

Agreed, for whatever faults they have with intl shipping and manufacturing times, they provide a good service with pretty good customer service. It pisses me off they stopped doing smoking accessories drops for some seriously stupid reasons, I realize they like to gauge their customer base but taking one of the largest draws to your site for some loudmouth SJW ****holes looking to get offended is just bad business.

... what was my point again? Oh yeah, MD provides a needed service of middlemen for neiche items. It would be worse w/o them around.

[chyros]

<fullsize
ANSI

[pr0ximity]

tbqh my endgame grail is lit af also ur mam

[chyros]

tbqh my endgame grail is lit af also ur mam

me wot m8

[Petch]

My gripe with Razer is not so much about the quality of their products but about their attitude. They are spouting bull**** and deliberately deceiving customers.

They're not the only ones guilty. I saw a video ad, I think for Logitech's Romer G keyboard, that said almost all keyboards have "zero key rollover" and theirs had 26.

Pretty sure if you had 0kro your keyboard wouldn't work 

Then there's the whole "military aircraft grade metal" they all seem to be pushing as of late. Do people really buy into that?

[dante]

.

[tp4tissue]

My gripe with Razer is not so much about the quality of their products but about their attitude. They are spouting bull**** and deliberately deceiving customers.

They're not the only ones guilty. I saw a video ad, I think for Logitech's Romer G keyboard, that said almost all keyboards have "zero key rollover" and theirs had 26.

Pretty sure if you had 0kro your keyboard wouldn't work 

Then there's the whole "military aircraft grade metal" they all seem to be pushing as of late. Do people really buy into that?

But they're not lying..

Hahahahaha military aircraft grade metal..


they use a whole bunch of different aluminum alloys in aircrafts..     because an aircraft is complicated, and require slightly different aluminums to fill different roles..    Some areas need high corrosion resistence,  some areas need high strength to weight,  etc..


But that's the same as saying..  we use America grade people..   That could be anything,  you could get a black guy, a white guy, brown guy, yellow guy.

[shadowku]

My thoughts exactly. Mass drop has provided a valuable service to the keyboard community. Beginning with the ErgoDox, they have been able to put together projects that would otherwise have been stall by missing links and lack of organization by the inexperienced.

That has been their greatest asset.

I'm starting to wonder where it's going with this though. The WhiteFox, which had a strong debut on MassDrop, had it's departure from MassDrop, and is now on KickStarter.. Matt3o's explanation for this was a bit less than flattering (For MassDrop).

[davkol]

Speaking of ErgoDox on Massdrop, let's not forget that they messed up very often too. For example, the early aluminium cases were a disaster quality-wise, some of the next drops had ridiculous delays (even over half a year).

[Niomosy]

My thoughts exactly. Mass drop has provided a valuable service to the keyboard community. Beginning with the ErgoDox, they have been able to put together projects that would otherwise have been stall by missing links and lack of organization by the inexperienced.

That has been their greatest asset.

I'm starting to wonder where it's going with this though. The WhiteFox, which had a strong debut on MassDrop, had it's departure from MassDrop, and is now on KickStarter.. Matt3o's explanation for this was a bit less than flattering (For MassDrop).

Well let's be honest.  We have stories like Dasher/Dancer, among others, falling into a pit of unknown until MD finally chimed in on a December release hint before finally confirming it later.  Submissions often seem to just be lost and MD communication is erratic at best.  They're still a work in progress.  They're not bad in many ways but many still do find problems with them.  Hopefully they can continue to improve.

[chuckdee]

My thoughts exactly. Mass drop has provided a valuable service to the keyboard community. Beginning with the ErgoDox, they have been able to put together projects that would otherwise have been stall by missing links and lack of organization by the inexperienced.

That has been their greatest asset.

I'm starting to wonder where it's going with this though. The WhiteFox, which had a strong debut on MassDrop, had it's departure from MassDrop, and is now on KickStarter.. Matt3o's explanation for this was a bit less than flattering (For MassDrop).

It wasn't less than flattering to me.  The realities of it were that Massdrop is a company, and when profit vs the design come into play, they will of course go towards profitability.  I:C and Matt3o are both enthusiasts, and would release it for free if they could.

From matt3o on DT:

It's just a matter of priorities. I:C and I are enthusiasts first, entrepreneurs last. We love what we do and we love our product. Massdrop have different dynamics. I'm not putting the blame on anyone. They have employees, deadlines, investors. I personally would do it for free. Money, Quality, Time. You can only have two.

But everyone wants to look at it as being negatively focused on MD, no matter what the actual people involved say.

[amnesia0287]

My gripe with Razer is not so much about the quality of their products but about their attitude. They are spouting bull**** and deliberately deceiving customers.

They're not the only ones guilty. I saw a video ad, I think for Logitech's Romer G keyboard, that said almost all keyboards have "zero key rollover" and theirs had 26.

Pretty sure if you had 0kro your keyboard wouldn't work 

Then there's the whole "military aircraft grade metal" they all seem to be pushing as of late. Do people really buy into that?

But they're not lying..

Hahahahaha military aircraft grade metal..


they use a whole bunch of different aluminum alloys in aircrafts..     because an aircraft is complicated, and require slightly different aluminums to fill different roles..    Some areas need high corrosion resistence,  some areas need high strength to weight,  etc..


But that's the same as saying..  we use America grade people..   That could be anything,  you could get a black guy, a white guy, brown guy, yellow guy.

Don't forget about those awful orange people :O

[ɔiɈɘʜɈƨ∍∀]

putting artisans on a board that they really should not be on

[ander]

The trend of threads that complain about trends.

 

The trend of people who complain about threads that complain about trends.

Marginalizing Topre as "just another rubber dome". That's like saying the Mercedes F1 W08 is "just another hybrid". You can say that, but you look really stupid doing so.

It's usually just jealousy.

layouts smaller than 60% (severe key accessibility trade off for the slightly smaller form factor is not worth it)

Aww, but they're so cuuuuuuuuuuuuuute!!  :?P

RGB backlighting for one.

I don't get the point of backlighting, but for the most part, I'm pretty meh about the trend.  However, I do love underlighting.  I know some people are meh about that.

It's a gimmick. Completely. It's like putting LEDs on your car's steering wheel. Stop playing with toys while you're driving and keep your flippin' eyes on the road, huh?

Model M haters. Who's your daddy?

It's usually just jealousy.

I also don't like that people get mad when I use "keeb".

Then stop using it! Sometimes the best solutions are the simplest.

Show Image

LOL, great—except they're not caps, they're buttons. Caps are the upper halves of IBM-style two-piece buttons. (The lower half is the stem.) IBM created the term for that purpose. Then when the MK revival happened, someone misused it and everyone copied them. The good news: Just because you like mechanical things doesn't mean you have to be a mechanical sheep.

More and more stuff getting released that I can't just buy but have to get from somewhere I can't get it from. Really annoying.

Huh? I just assumed that, as the Keyboard Buddha, you could wave your hands—or a wooden shoe, or a bag of drop or something—and any board you desired would magically appear. Dude... Ik ben vrij ontnugterd.
 

I'm new to mechanical keyboards, and I understand that makes 90% of my opinions bull**** in the eyes of people who own 10 different boards. My rant focuses on the complaints and hate directed at Razer products, particularly their keyboards. I see so many folks **** on these products and the people who own them and enjoy them. It's a matter of opinion, maybe it's an uninformed opinion, but so what? Did they **** on your waffles?

I'm afraid they're just not very good compared to boards that rely less on Star-Wars-y gimcrackery. When that much of your budget goes into superficial design elements, there's less of it left for, you know, the keyboard part. It's just economics.

- OMG MY WALLET CRIES !!!111oneone
 

Yes!! Enough with the "hurting wallet" thing already—it's cringe-inducingly corny.





(He actually meant "keeb"... That shows you how out-of-it he is, see.)

I don't get the point of backlighting, but for the most part, I'm pretty meh about the trend.  However, I do love underlighting...

It's a gimmick. Completely. It's like putting LEDs on your car's steering wheel. Stop playing with toys while you're driving and keep your flippin' eyes on the road, huh?

[shadowku]

It wasn't less than flattering to me.  The realities of it were that Massdrop is a company, and when profit vs the design come into play, they will of course go towards profitability.  I:C and Matt3o are both enthusiasts, and would release it for free if they could.

From matt3o on DT:

It's just a matter of priorities. I:C and I are enthusiasts first, entrepreneurs last. We love what we do and we love our product. Massdrop have different dynamics. I'm not putting the blame on anyone. They have employees, deadlines, investors. I personally would do it for free. Money, Quality, Time. You can only have two.

But everyone wants to look at it as being negatively focused on MD, no matter what the actual people involved say.

I meant that it's less than flattering based on what he was trying to convey. Matt3o and IC had little control over the production and quality of the boards, hence taking the product out of their hands. Allowing Matt3o and IC to achieve what they want would cut into profitability.. but I don't think there's a middle ground where everyone is happy. I don't think anyone blames MD, but we may start to see less new enthusiast developed products.

I'll still look to MD for cool GMK/SP keycaps, but I don't expect as many new keyboards. More MD-made boards like the K-Type would be neat though.

[chuckdee]

It wasn't less than flattering to me.  The realities of it were that Massdrop is a company, and when profit vs the design come into play, they will of course go towards profitability.  I:C and Matt3o are both enthusiasts, and would release it for free if they could.

From matt3o on DT:

It's just a matter of priorities. I:C and I are enthusiasts first, entrepreneurs last. We love what we do and we love our product. Massdrop have different dynamics. I'm not putting the blame on anyone. They have employees, deadlines, investors. I personally would do it for free. Money, Quality, Time. You can only have two.

But everyone wants to look at it as being negatively focused on MD, no matter what the actual people involved say.

I meant that it's less than flattering based on what he was trying to convey. Matt3o and IC had little control over the production and quality of the boards, hence taking the product out of their hands. Allowing Matt3o and IC to achieve what they want would cut into profitability.. but I don't think there's a middle ground where everyone is happy. I don't think anyone blames MD, but we may start to see less new enthusiast developed products.

I'll still look to MD for cool GMK/SP keycaps, but I don't expect as many new keyboards. More MD-made boards like the K-Type would be neat though.

That's the exact opposite of what I've seen.  It just seems that they get other collaborations to fill the void.  The new Clueboard is an example of that, and launched very conspicuously at the same time as the new whitefox.  It's just business from what I've seen, and they have their ups and downs just like anything else.

[shadowku]

That's the exact opposite of what I've seen.  It just seems that they get other collaborations to fill the void.  The new Clueboard is an example of that, and launched very conspicuously at the same time as the new whitefox.  It's just business from what I've seen, and they have their ups and downs just like anything else.

Hmm, true. The WhiteFox is probably a one-off thing. I liked the clueboard, but I'm not a fan of the layout. I'm thinking of selling off my FC660C actually. I need a 75% board.

[chuckdee]

That's the exact opposite of what I've seen.  It just seems that they get other collaborations to fill the void.  The new Clueboard is an example of that, and launched very conspicuously at the same time as the new whitefox.  It's just business from what I've seen, and they have their ups and downs just like anything else.

Hmm, true. The WhiteFox is probably a one-off thing. I liked the clueboard, but I'm not a fan of the layout. I'm thinking of selling off my FC660C actually. I need a 75% board.

With the success of the kickstarter, I wouldn't doubt that they'll try that way again for the Kira.  Not sure about the next run of the Infinity 60% and Ergodox, but they've been taking a while to turn the next drop around, so who knows.

[zslane]

Model M haters. Who's your daddy?

It's usually just jealousy.

Jealousy of what? (And I think you mean envy, BTW)

I mean, it's not like cheap Model M's aren't abundant in the used market. Anyone could easily get their hands on one, though I don't know why anyone would bother except to perform the public service of destroying it.