Some group buy leaders are hype masters, that are posting all the time, as if they were full time geekhackers; in the other hand, the GB leader for this set is just like you and me, a mech-keyboard enthusiast, that has had a brilliant idea: to make a GMK set after the famous Grid computer, that was a landmark in portable computers history. Do not be fooled, this thread is not bumped all the time, nor the OP is claiming to have fixed GMK molding process; this is not a colorful orange, neither a manly unicorn mix; but, this is a set that any serious mechanical keyboard aficionado deserves to have and use, imagine a sixty keyboard fully dressed with a piece of PC history; now, you would be able to type on a museum quality device, everyday...
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Thanks! Yeah, I've been pretty busy with life, but I'm really excited to see if we can get this set to production. It has not been forgotten! For those asking about the poll, the results seem to be indecisively hovering around 50-50. I'd love to see a top printed set for aesthetic reasons, but I want to be sure that the legend quality will be up to par and I share everyone's ambivalence about the durability of pad printing. It would be a shame to put together a recreation set that doesn't last. So it's likely the set won't run until there is a stronger general impression about the quality of GMKs contemporary pad printing process. (Maybe after some feedback from the folks who picked up Royal Alpha?)
In the meantime I'd love to hear feedback about what requests people have for layout support, and any other thoughts on how to improve the set. Also, since this would be my first GB, it's likely it would need to go through a vendor, or with support from a more experienced GH member so that people feel more secure in participating.
Wise reasoning and mature arguments make for a good planning process for this set.
I also share the concerns on pad printing longevity; however, I found them unjustified, if GMK uses the same manufacturing processes Cherry used, the reliability of their pad printing is close to OG sets that seem to last forever. I suggest you to contact GMK and ask if the pad printing they are using is of similar quality to old Cherry sets.
Regarding layout, I suggest you to include a row 3 `~ key and a row 4 \| key that go with US layouts with ISO enter; the keys you are suggesting are redundant with other keys in the set and they may work only if the set had the rest of keys to support an European language, that is not the case, neither the set would be mix and match with any other set due to its special color, therefore, there is no reason to include but ANSI compatible keys that may allow any user to take advantage of the set with either ANSI or ISO Enter keys. I can elaborate on this argument further if you are interested, but think on this feature as having only two strategies, to include full UK ISO support, that is the closest to ANSI with ISO enter, or to use an NCR styled layout back in the days when all the sets had an ISO enter, their ANSI keyboards had the keys I suggested, along with the standard US layout, exactly as your design.