With the influx of new people joining the hobby since the start of covid we've also gotten a lot of new people who want to design keysets and post ICs to the Interest Check board. Times have changed, and we typically expect an IC to have more than just a KLE or blender render. We want to see kits that have some thought put into them, high quality renders, Pantone or RAL colors for reference, and the list goes on.
Unfortunately, a lot of ICs posted by these new members don't align with what we expect a proper IC to have. Many of these posts are met with jokes, and in some rare cases outright hostility. Sadly, many groups outside of Geekhack view this forum and it's members as toxic because of this. I've meme'd on these posts, too, so I'd be lying if I said I wasn't complicit in this behavior. As a result, some of these people leave and never come back.
What I'm proposing is simple: create a separate board for people who just want to discuss their keyset design ideas and get some constructive feedback. The key difference is that we don't put it in the Marketplace category. I don't think it occurs to many of the individuals who make these posts that they need to approach posting an IC with the mindset of sharing a product to check community interest in buying that product. Sure, that might be their ultimate goal, but often they come in with undeveloped ideas and see the IC board as a way to get feedback on those ideas, when really, that's not the purpose of the board. We know that, and they don't. So let's give these people a place to develop these ideas, and then when they're ready, post an IC.
Edit: also, I'm aware of the "Making stuff together!" board. But the board doesn't get that much traffic, and I feel like it's overly broad for this purpose.
