Friends vs Keyboards

[Lain1911]

In all lightheartedness when friends come over and they want to use your keyboard do you:

A: Tell them to plug in the membrane keyboard and say "Get your filthy hands away from the controls to the command center."

B: Let them use your best keyboard and say "Ya you like dem feels don't ya? Jealous right? Don't press too hard....OK you're done now."

C: Tell them to use the laptop or tablet and make sure they don't give you any lip.

D: All your friends own mechanical keyboards and respect the feels so there's no problem.

[Computer-Lab in Basement]

Threads like this make me wish I had friends...

I did let my cousin use one of my MX Blue boards once, but then he kept calling me a nerdy **** for bringing a keyboard with me wherever I went. Needless to say, no longer do I bring a keyboard with me when I travel to Massachusetts...

[hcry4]

I have separate mechanical keyboards for friends to use since no one else uses HHKB layout.

[interwebhobo]

I generally trust my friends enough to use my kb. I'm not worried about them pressing too hard or whatever because let's face it... by the time the keys actually wear out, I'll have already bought 10 new keyboards...

[Lastpilot]

I let them use my best board.
Happiness is only real when shared - Christopher Johnson McCandless

[sth]

nobody uses my keyboard because it has no legends.

[Vibex]

I use a Colemak layout, so my friends just give up and let me do all the typing.

[Lain1911]

Ya probably the fastest way to force your friends to let you use your own keyboard is get stealth keycaps ....then modify the keys

[hwood34]

I've managed to turn most of my friends into at least occasional mech users, if not keyboard elitists

[daerid]

Nobody touches my computer but me. Period.

All my friends have ipads or smartphones, so there's really no need, either.

[mougrim]

When my brother at home, I allow him to use my keyboard... as long as he was his hands before it. Seriously, why all CS gamers have such sweaty hands?

[EvillePanda]

I use Dvorak.  My friends are freaked out by my keyboard.  Previously, I had a cheapy ergo board with Dvorak stickers to practice and it always threw them off.  Now I have a TECK.  They'll never touch it.

[mougrim]

I use Dvorak.  My friends are freaked out by my keyboard.  Previously, I had a cheapy ergo board with Dvorak stickers to practice and it always threw them off.  Now I have a TECK.  They'll never touch it.

Ohhh, you have a sneaky, sneaky mind, sir By the way... is this layout any good? I'm not a native English speaker, so I pretty content with standard QWERTY, but...

[ideus]

Option E: They do not give a damn.

[Findecanor]

More like option 'B': Please feel my keyboard, and then I geek out telling them what it is and how I got hold of/constructed it.

I have had people being put off by me having German QWERTZ layout where Z and Y being swapped is the only significant difference from my national layout: "Where is Y? I can't find the Y key!".

[EvillePanda]

I use Dvorak.  My friends are freaked out by my keyboard.  Previously, I had a cheapy ergo board with Dvorak stickers to practice and it always threw them off.  Now I have a TECK.  They'll never touch it.

Ohhh, you have a sneaky, sneaky mind, sir By the way... is this layout any good? I'm not a native English speaker, so I pretty content with standard QWERTY, but...

I love it.  It puts less stress on my hands when I type.  It takes some getting used to, but worth it in the end.

[mougrim]

I use Dvorak.  My friends are freaked out by my keyboard.  Previously, I had a cheapy ergo board with Dvorak stickers to practice and it always threw them off.  Now I have a TECK.  They'll never touch it.

Ohhh, you have a sneaky, sneaky mind, sir By the way... is this layout any good? I'm not a native English speaker, so I pretty content with standard QWERTY, but...

I love it.  It puts less stress on my hands when I type.  It takes some getting used to, but worth it in the end.

Well... we have some alternative Cyrillic layouts too, but we're more lucky - as our standard layout, ЙЦУКЕН, was created later and with the same goals as Dvorak. So those "alternative" layouts are even less popular than Dvorak, I think.

[SpAmRaY]

I've never had a friend come over 

[CPTBadAss]

Half of my friends get boards. I just let my friends type at whatever I have plugged in. If it happens to be something weird like a 60% or 75% board, they tend not to want to use it just because it's weird. The people who do know about boards will ask me tons of questions. Those who don't know usually tell me that they like my color schemes or Clacks .

[blackbox]

For me its not an issue if others use my keyboard.

[epzy]

I let them test every keyboard I have, and then try to sell them the one they want. :3

[jameslr]

How about Kids vs Keyboards? Do you all let your kids use your good keyboards? I do as long as they have clean hands and don't eat at the computer. They love how the keys feel compared to the cheap keyboards they're used to using. My wife doesn't like Topre. She seems to like Blue MX with O-rings the best. As far as friends are concerned - I don't have any friends that live near me anymore. They all moved away. The people I know and hang out with here don't know anything about computers and couldn't care less about keyboards.

[eth0s]

I've noticed that there is no standard response.  Every person who sees my keyboards, seems to react to them differently.  I've gotten many different and surprising responses.

One friend LOVED my RealForce 87U silent variable-weighted.  He loved the feel and the thock.  He said he would love to have one like it.  So he asked how much it cost.  And I told him the truth, which was ~$300 when I bought it.  And he was dumbstruck, and just gave me the weirdest look, like I was either lying or insane.  I still don't know what he was thinking.

Another friend said he wanted a "small" keyboard.  So I showed him a TKL.  He said "too big".  So I showed him a Poker.  He said "not impressed".  So I showed him my HHKB Pro 2 Type-S.  And he said "too expensive".  So I asked what he was looking for, and based on what he told me, I recommended that he try one of those Apple bluetooth sh!tboards, mainly because I thought he would hate it, and would come back to me wanting a "real" keyboard.  But he loved it.  One of these:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/281161668762?lpid=82.  It's one of those chiclet Apple pieces of crap.  Who could love that?  Oh well, you never know what people will like.

Another surprise was when the Cable TV repairman came to rewire my floor, and he saw my Realforce 87U 45g and my HHKB Pro 2 on my desk.  He sat at my desk and was just typing away on them.  He didn't know I was watching him, but then I came into the room, and he said he was astounded and had no idea how great keyboards could be.  He wanted to know how much and where to get them.  He did not think the price was too high, and he said he was a "Pro-gamer" (isn't everybody?  have you ever met a nub or a scrub?) who works a day job for the cable company in order to get free 100 Mbs internet connection (apparently Time Warner offers it to employees as a perk).  Anyway, I told him to get a Topre from EK, and he said he was going to order a Topre as soon as he got home. 

There are more stories I could tell, but I will stop at 3.

[Lastpilot]

eth0s. Post the rest of those stories plox. :3

[Photoelectric]

None of the above

I show them my keyboards and tell them more about mechanical keyboards if they are interested.  If they comment that they might want one, I offer to make them one or recommend one to buy   I have a standing offer with someone who got a Ducky Shine on my recommendation to modify it for him if he feels like he wants to change something at some point.

As for when I travel and my mom stays over to keep an eye on my pets, I do generally plug in a keyboard I don't care for, because I'd rather not clean my customs from accidentally spilled tea or something.

[kansas city shuffle]

In all lightheartedness when friends come over and they want to use your keyboard do you:

A: Tell them to plug in the membrane keyboard and say "Get your filthy hands away from the controls to the command center."

B: Let them use your best keyboard and say "Ya you like dem feels don't ya? Jealous right? Don't press too hard....OK you're done now."

C: Tell them to use the laptop or tablet and make sure they don't give you any lip.

D: All your friends own mechanical keyboards and respect the feels so there's no problem.

C - direct and to the point.

[Sinzz]

When my friends are over, I let them use my keyboard. They pay no mind really, they just think it's a regular keyboard with a different layout and don't say anything about it; Now when they start typing hard and bottoming out my keys, now that's when I kick them off and make them use their phone/laptop.

[epzy]

I've noticed that there is no standard response.  Every person who sees my keyboards, seems to react to them differently.  I've gotten many different and surprising responses.

One friend LOVED my RealForce 87U silent variable-weighted.  He loved the feel and the thock.  He said he would love to have one like it.  So he asked how much it cost.  And I told him the truth, which was ~$300 when I bought it.  And he was dumbstruck, and just gave me the weirdest look, like I was either lying or insane.  I still don't know what he was thinking.

Another friend said he wanted a "small" keyboard.  So I showed him a TKL.  He said "too big".  So I showed him a Poker.  He said "not impressed".  So I showed him my HHKB Pro 2 Type-S.  And he said "too expensive".  So I asked what he was looking for, and based on what he told me, I recommended that he try one of those Apple bluetooth sh!tboards, mainly because I thought he would hate it, and would come back to me wanting a "real" keyboard.  But he loved it.  One of these:  http://www.ebay.com/itm/like/281161668762?lpid=82.  It's one of those chiclet Apple pieces of crap.  Who could love that?  Oh well, you never know what people will like.

Another surprise was when the Cable TV repairman came to rewire my floor, and he saw my Realforce 87U 45g and my HHKB Pro 2 on my desk.  He sat at my desk and was just typing away on them.  He didn't know I was watching him, but then I came into the room, and he said he was astounded and had no idea how great keyboards could be.  He wanted to know how much and where to get them.  He did not think the price was too high, and he said he was a "Pro-gamer" (isn't everybody?  have you ever met a nub or a scrub?) who works a day job for the cable company in order to get free 100 Mbs internet connection (apparently Time Warner offers it to employees as a perk).  Anyway, I told him to get a Topre from EK, and he said he was going to order a Topre as soon as he got home. 

There are more stories I could tell, but I will stop at 3.

I wanna hear more stories, haha.

[mougrim]

Yep, I'd love to hear more

[irendulic]

None of my friends has so far complained about my keyboards (except for the layout, I use US, most of them use Croatian).
But trackball is a whole different story I keep a standard mouse for others to use, it's just to painful to watch them otherwise.

[Gaahl]

I will let my friends use my board as long as they aren't pigs and have disgusting fingers etc. I have not yet had someone exclaim how good it feels yet

Another surprise was when the Cable TV repairman came to rewire my floor, and he saw my Realforce 87U 45g and my HHKB Pro 2 on my desk.  He sat at my desk and was just typing away on them.  He didn't know I was watching him, but then I came into the room, and he said he was astounded and had no idea how great keyboards could be.  He wanted to know how much and where to get them.  He did not think the price was too high, and he said he was a "Pro-gamer" (isn't everybody?  have you ever met a nub or a scrub?) who works a day job for the cable company in order to get free 100 Mbs internet connection (apparently Time Warner offers it to employees as a perk).  Anyway, I told him to get a Topre from EK, and he said he was going to order a Topre as soon as he got home. 

There are more stories I could tell, but I will stop at 3.

Haha that last one is a great story, I would love to hear more if you got them!

[rowdy]

Friends?

I let my other half and daughter use my keyboards, including HHKB and Model M.

[kaiteoki]

I let one of my friends use my comp for the very first time,
Bought a new set of blank cherry mx keycaps the next day,
That friend was never allowed to come to my place again.

I mean who the hell eats a sack of cheetos, then starts typing and playing games on my cherry mx blues and mouse...

[mougrim]

I let one of my friends use my comp for the very first time,
Bought a new set of blank cherry mx keycaps the next day,
That friend was never allowed to come to my place again.

I mean who the hell eats a sack of cheetos, then starts typing and playing games on my cherry mx blues and mouse...

That bad? Couldn't you...you know... clean them?

[rowdy]

I let one of my friends use my comp for the very first time,
Bought a new set of blank cherry mx keycaps the next day,
That friend was never allowed to come to my place again.

I mean who the hell eats a sack of cheetos, then starts typing and playing games on my cherry mx blues and mouse...

Welcome to Geekhack!

A bit of oil on the keycaps should soak off - have you tried denture tabs?

[riotonthebay]

My friends (who happen to mostly be coworkers) have been surprised at the speed at which I switch out keyboards and keycaps, but ultimately supportive. I have two extra keyboards floating around the office, a Model M and a QFR modded to 67g clears. Both of them are used daily. I also let people use my custom 60% when I had it, and when my Blue Alps Duck Mini V2 is built (Soon™), it'll be free to use as well.

I'm happy to share.

[Lain1911]

Off topic for those who are interested in stories. I had a bug sprayer come over over a month ago. Old guy  in late 50's we got to talking and he's retiring in 2 years and going to raise bees and rabbits on a farm about 3-4 states away. Seemed nice cool guy. Well he comes over the second time and asks about my diablo 3 and starcraft 2 games. So I tell him I play some no worries. He then starts to tell me that he's been playing WoW for over 7 years and he's in one of the original guilds. He plays a hunter and got 1st on he's server to get all the new achievement to the "panda" xpac. (He took a day off work to do this) Just looking at him I'm not sure if he would know how to turn a computer on...Rock on and play hard 50+ dudes! I don't play WoW anyone but I had to itch for 4 years :\ Never again. Too bad he doesn't have nay mech keyboards. But he knows a thing or two about insects! :|

[CPTBadAss]

Blue Alps Duck Mini V2 is built (Soon™), it'll be free to use as well.

I'm happy to share.

Share with me? Can we set up an extended loan? 100 years and I'll return it to you.

[riotonthebay]

Blue Alps Duck Mini V2 is built (Soon™), it'll be free to use as well.

I'm happy to share.

Share with me? Can we set up an extended loan? 100 years and I'll return it to you.

Once it's built, I'd be happy to loan it out for a month

How about this, you actually come to NYC and you can take it home with you for a while and then ship it back to me That'll give me time to build it and use it for a while, because you're probably going to totally disappear once you get your hands on it.

[C5Allroad]

No one touches my board.... No one.. They can use my K90 if they want to type something on my computer.

[CommunistWitchDr]

I use an ergodox with a custom colemak based layout and no labels. I do have a qwerty layer I can switch to if someone wants to try using it, but most of the time it's still too confusing to use for any extended period of time. I do have a few extra mech boards they'd be welcome to use though.

I do have one friend who took really well to it, reaching nearly his full typing speed pretty quickly. But most people who do try it struggle to use it.

[tricheboars]

I let people hold my 60% daily driver with the hammer titanium case so they can feel it for its 6LBS glory. but i dont let people type on anything when they are at my house besides the IBM Model M i have.