I personally would start with blacks. But depends what you plan on doing with the board.
You don't have the chance to try the switches somewhere?
I have the sampler kit from WASD Keyboards as it's the best I can get. It doesn't come with any board mounting of sorts, so I tried to "simulate" a board, but I find my hand's weight to be different when trying the switches there rather than on my laptop.
I prefer the feeling of both linear switches and, based on the sampler kit, I'm confident I'd be completely satisfied with either switch, but my current mindset is slightly leaning towards the lighter Reds.
As for usage, I'm a college student studying graphic design & a gamer, so its pretty balanced between hotkey-ing (if I can use that) and "normal" typing.
[e] Do you guys suggest Blacks for a "safer" buy?" I'm confident I won't have any issues in regards to the finger strain I've read about coming from scissor switches (assuming the actuation forces I've read are accurate), as well as having friends that have tried Blacks that use their keyboards for the same purposes as I do and haven't experienced any strain.
The lighter feel of the Reds feels /slightly/ better from my point of view, but if there's any issues in regards to accidental presses (which seems to be the case from what you guys are saying?), I'd rather use the switch that gives me more function over feel.