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geekhack Media / [WIKI] Custom keyboard projects from Russian-Speaking community
« Last post by zlobin356 on Tue, 02 December 2025, 08:43:01 »Hello Geekhack! Today i will start new series of posts about russian projects in MK community, i want to highlight the community i originate from more and possibly broaden the horizons of other foreign communities in our hobby.
I will try to keep chronological order like in mine otd wiki, but if i will uncover something interesting from old days during making of this write-up - i will add additional posts.
So, for better understanding i would need to introduce you into keyboard communities of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine and other countries, how they work and etc. Mostly, they were hosted as chats and groups in VK (Russian Facebook analog) or Telegram. As one of the main communities :
Mechcult. Mechcult as chat was founded around 2016, i cant really trace the first messages of group, because it seems that all messages were deleted back in june of 2017. However, as tightly-knitted community it was established during 2018-2019 period with The Mch (a.k.a Mikhalych) and others, when it started to have form of something bigger than just group of people. The mechcult was really engaged in keyboards as in hobby (no surprise), and many people you might know like Zyxxke (space invader and alps deskmat author), Gvalch'ca & Jugizafupe (authors of SpaccBoard60 pcb), cool collectors like Damonskv and others, ergo-split keyboard enthusiats like Joric (Author of Jorne) and KGOH (KgOfHedgehogs, author of Jian), and ofc Watchman (РИСАТЕНО author) and Krikun (after of Skean and etc) were from Mechcult. Enormous amounts of enthusiasm! I wasnt part of Mechcult back in the day, even though i participate in their telegram group, so i missed most of it. Chat had interesting reputation, being rough in some parts, but there was nothing better than it, back in the day. Right now, mechcult is mostly inactive since shatter of it around july of 2023, when the people who didnt like state of it decided to make new chat, Keebcult, i will tell about it next.
Website: mechcult.ru
(logos made by: Oleg Paschenko)
Keebcult. Keebcult is also chat in telegram, more organised and maybe even more presented as brand than Mechcult. It's still alive and considered the main hub of russian-speaking keyboard community right now, newcomers and enthusiasts "live under one roof" and contribute to hobby together. Most of the best RU keyboard projects were born under keebcult wing, and i will tell about those projects here, of course. Regarding the history of it, Keebcult was founded in July of 2023 by Sensetrigger, during the creation of it the main focus was to make really "free" community for people who still had enthusiasm for the hobby. Most of mechcult active members transferred into Keebcult, and the chat started to get "huge" media presence (in russian-speaking pc and peripherals enthusiasts world), which made high number of newcomers get into the hobby deeper. Some of the members already try to post meetups and other stuff on reddit to know english-speaking community better, and ive also decided to support their enthusiasm with this article.
website: keebcult.com
youtube channel: keebcult
(render by sensetrigger)
Ive also mentioned VK community, its nothing special, but i want to pay tribute to chat where i started:
Ниче Такой Сет/Niche Takoy Set (A.K.A Such A Nice Set, NTS) - It was a small group in vk, chat around 40 people, it was the first kb community were i was a member. No huge projects, just cool chatting about Hobby. I remember how i ranted about WKL when i was newcomer, back in 2021/2020?? It was founded by Pearlpoint (Misha Markin, a.k.a Flipsina and etc). It was really a group about memes, but everyone was a enthusiast, for real. The name goes from GMK Taro, especially after it yellow accents, the naming "such a nice set" sticked to it so hard, that the NTS was founded.
And the local jargon. Lots of unique slang is a feature of russian-speaking communities for sure.
Here are two most popular words: Anek and Rygachka.
"Anek - A newbie with a claim to "expertise" or someone asking questions that have been discussed countless times in the chat (and whose answers are easily found via Google or chat search). It dates back to the time of the Mechcult and literally means "walking anecdote"."
"Rygachka - Rygachka is a good group-buy keyboard, usually expensive. It must be made out of metal. The example where it all started is the GSKT-00."
(explanations by Sensetrigger and Krautcat)
So.. Shall we step into their keyboards, i guess?
I will try to keep chronological order like in mine otd wiki, but if i will uncover something interesting from old days during making of this write-up - i will add additional posts.
So, for better understanding i would need to introduce you into keyboard communities of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine and other countries, how they work and etc. Mostly, they were hosted as chats and groups in VK (Russian Facebook analog) or Telegram. As one of the main communities :
Mechcult. Mechcult as chat was founded around 2016, i cant really trace the first messages of group, because it seems that all messages were deleted back in june of 2017. However, as tightly-knitted community it was established during 2018-2019 period with The Mch (a.k.a Mikhalych) and others, when it started to have form of something bigger than just group of people. The mechcult was really engaged in keyboards as in hobby (no surprise), and many people you might know like Zyxxke (space invader and alps deskmat author), Gvalch'ca & Jugizafupe (authors of SpaccBoard60 pcb), cool collectors like Damonskv and others, ergo-split keyboard enthusiats like Joric (Author of Jorne) and KGOH (KgOfHedgehogs, author of Jian), and ofc Watchman (РИСАТЕНО author) and Krikun (after of Skean and etc) were from Mechcult. Enormous amounts of enthusiasm! I wasnt part of Mechcult back in the day, even though i participate in their telegram group, so i missed most of it. Chat had interesting reputation, being rough in some parts, but there was nothing better than it, back in the day. Right now, mechcult is mostly inactive since shatter of it around july of 2023, when the people who didnt like state of it decided to make new chat, Keebcult, i will tell about it next.
Website: mechcult.ru
(logos made by: Oleg Paschenko)
Keebcult. Keebcult is also chat in telegram, more organised and maybe even more presented as brand than Mechcult. It's still alive and considered the main hub of russian-speaking keyboard community right now, newcomers and enthusiasts "live under one roof" and contribute to hobby together. Most of the best RU keyboard projects were born under keebcult wing, and i will tell about those projects here, of course. Regarding the history of it, Keebcult was founded in July of 2023 by Sensetrigger, during the creation of it the main focus was to make really "free" community for people who still had enthusiasm for the hobby. Most of mechcult active members transferred into Keebcult, and the chat started to get "huge" media presence (in russian-speaking pc and peripherals enthusiasts world), which made high number of newcomers get into the hobby deeper. Some of the members already try to post meetups and other stuff on reddit to know english-speaking community better, and ive also decided to support their enthusiasm with this article.
website: keebcult.com
youtube channel: keebcult
(render by sensetrigger)
Ive also mentioned VK community, its nothing special, but i want to pay tribute to chat where i started:
Ниче Такой Сет/Niche Takoy Set (A.K.A Such A Nice Set, NTS) - It was a small group in vk, chat around 40 people, it was the first kb community were i was a member. No huge projects, just cool chatting about Hobby. I remember how i ranted about WKL when i was newcomer, back in 2021/2020?? It was founded by Pearlpoint (Misha Markin, a.k.a Flipsina and etc). It was really a group about memes, but everyone was a enthusiast, for real. The name goes from GMK Taro, especially after it yellow accents, the naming "such a nice set" sticked to it so hard, that the NTS was founded.
And the local jargon. Lots of unique slang is a feature of russian-speaking communities for sure.
Here are two most popular words: Anek and Rygachka.
"Anek - A newbie with a claim to "expertise" or someone asking questions that have been discussed countless times in the chat (and whose answers are easily found via Google or chat search). It dates back to the time of the Mechcult and literally means "walking anecdote"."
"Rygachka - Rygachka is a good group-buy keyboard, usually expensive. It must be made out of metal. The example where it all started is the GSKT-00."
(explanations by Sensetrigger and Krautcat)
So.. Shall we step into their keyboards, i guess?
