Happy to see you write professionally, CTPBadAss! I like all the information you have gathered in one spot, and reading the article was enjoyable and comprehensible.
Job well done, and keep it up. You definitely have a great understanding of how to write, and what information to keep so that it's an interesting read without too much technicality for the uninitiated.
To preface all this, I have a word count limit and a scope limit. The article was meant to be for beginners. Like you heard about mechanical keyboards and want to know the basics. I really appreciate the replies though so I'll try to address what has been said.
It might be better not to link this to tactility and just state it as a byproduct of certain switch designs. Mention it on switches on which it's quite prominent, or prominently absent, maybe? Or even include it in a simple comparison table between keyboard families?
I'm still struggling to figure out how I should present that information. Diving into hysteresis is a bit out of the range of the article. The goal was to be an introductory thing and not aimed for what we consider to be "normal" discussion here on GH. Let me think about it.
Aw cheers mate
. The vintage thing is partly based on me being way too poor to really buy keyboards, tbh, so I have to make do with what people throw away xD . It just happens that that's usually also the good stuff!
Nothing wrong with that at all.
I was surprised you didn't mention Logitech/Omron's Romer-G switch? Weren't those specifically designed for gaming in mind? Reduced actuation travel and bottoming out, dual-redundancy actuators, landing pads, less wobble from its wide key stem etc.
I've never tried them nor am I sure that they're very popular. And I have trouble differentiating marketing from design intent. Is it actually made for gamers or is that just Logitech's marketing spin? Also, I still think that the switches I've covered are more prevalent on the market versus the Romer-G. And I've never tried them so I really can't comment one way or another on them.
Speaking of which, the Alps wobble may have been worth mentioning? I guess it's difficult to convey this characteristic though without it sounding negative?
Maybe? But I don't find the wobble to be too noticeable. I'll think on that as well.
Would a brief provisory about how switches are affected by other factors confuse uninformed readers? e.g. plate or PCB mount, keycap thickness/material, responsiveness of the controller? Cherry's new RealKey tech boasting 1ms debounce times...
O-rings! How they too can affect the feel of a switch? i.e. In the context of gaming, they can facilitate quicker keypresses for those who frequently bottom out?
Nope, these are way out of the scope of the article. Definitely good for a Level 2 article. This is like Level 1. When I was at this point in mechanical keyboards, I was struggling to wrap my head around just the stock keyboards and switches available. O-rings, plates, PCB mount, swapping keycaps, and all that came later.