Is there a reason elitekeyboards.com is missing from the vendor list?
We were the first vendor to have a forum; previously I had posted under the name "majestouch." The biggest perk was people would laud EK for interacting closely with the community, and this praise was good advertising, but after a while I found there was a big downside. I think the forum lasted for about a year before I asked iMav to remove it.
So, the downside....I *really* respect transparency and openness in others and I tried my best to earn that respect from the community, but there are always critics, and I ran into trouble when it came balancing the confidentialities required of running a business and my efforts. Often people would not believe me, or not respect me...simply because they could. A few particular arguments ensued over that year I was here and the biggest difficulty of it all wasn't about figuring out who was right or wrong or who's ego would break first, but because everyone here is anonymous - and EK isn't, we were at a big disadvantage.
We had a great amount of support from the majority here, but the critics, being anonymous, could perch themselves vociferously on very precarious arguments that would stalemate and drag threads into the dirt, people had nothing to lose and could say whatever they wanted to us. My feeling was, we ended up being relegated to a public position of "Yes'um!" and "Yes sir!"
EK was created as a great opportunity to mix my interest in entrepreneurship with my appreciation for excellent typing devices. I had the experience and connections to convince Asian manufacturers that had zero interest in the US market at the time to give Western markets a chance; something others who tried were not able to do. And I want my contributions to the market and to keyboard communities to continue to be something that others cannot provide. So, if at any point I have to just become a left to right dealer that can contribute nothing more than "At your service ma'am!"...I will lose the passion to continue this business.
Anyways, I'm always around, despite rumors to the contrary;) And if you'd like me to comment on a thread you can always PM me or email sales@elitekeyboards.com
tl;dr -------- Having a forum here makes me feel like I'm in the service biz because everyone here is anonymous and can say whatever they want without recourse. It's a passionless endeavor.
P.S. New stuff IS on the way:) ...(edited for grammar, doh, distractions...)