What does iMav think of the keyboard scene today?

[romevi]

After eleven years of geekhack being online, what does/would our Creator think of the state of the keyboard community today? Exempli gratia, keyboard kits, artisans, keysets, switch offerings, so on and so forth.

[tp4tissue]

I'd imagine it's probably similar to how normal adults view legalized marijuana..

Not an outright bad thing, but it's clearly escapism and fundamentally a stagnation of ideas.

[Leslieann]

Stagnant?
This is a golden age of mechanical keyboards. We have way more (quality) choices and buying options than ever and more of our own are also now making stuff that caters to us.

Not only are our options better, but ideas and new things are coming at faster rates than ever before. How many new switches and customs have been released in the last couple years compared to the years before? Besides leds, we have also seen a major shift in flashable open source firmware. If this is boring and stagnant, I'm not sure I want to see what you think is exciting, because frankly the only way it would get more exciting would be for things to collapse.

[noisyturtle]

Agreed, there have never been more creatives creating in this hobby. We are clearly at a zenith of mech keyboard popularity which has resulted in the rapid expenditure of the market and increase in both quantity and quality of offerings.

[iMav]

Color me impressed with what communities like geekhack have ushered in.  (Also, I'm still good at reviving old threads.)

[rowdy]

Back when I joined GH there were only about a dozen keyboard manufacturers, each in their own niche.  Only one keycap artisan.  Only a few companies making custom keycap sets.

Now there are hundreds of people/companies in each area.

The good is that prices have come down and availability has gone up.

The bad is that the market is flooded with some good, and some (very) bad products, and it's not a specialist hobby any more.