6 ms·

The mechanical keyboard community is unfortunately really toxic. In addition to second hand accounts, I have a friend who’s a newbie in it who I encouraged to t

by twhb 5y ago

The mechanical keyboard community is unfortunately really toxic. In addition to second hand accounts, I have a friend who’s a newbie in it who I encouraged to talk to people to get her bearings, and there was a basically unanimous chorus of “fuck off, until you have something to offer us you’re just a waste of time”. I think it’s partially because it’s largely gamers, and partially because it’s largely about perceived superiority, the pursuit of which also motivates shitting on newbies. It makes me think, though, that one of these manufacturers might be well served by creating an attached forum, like HN, that’s well moderated and permits discussion of other brands. People are getting into mechanical keyboards for the products and the art and then being driven away from community participation; whoever can capture those people could likely become the default home of mechanical keyboard fans, and the attached brand the default brand.

iratewizard 5y ago
I have used mechanical keyboard for a long time, and I think they're great. But I think it's weird to have a community centered around them.
archarios 5y ago
I haven't had that experience but I came into the hobby after going to an in-person keyboard meetup that helped me to learn the basics.
- twhb 5y ago
  Thanks, I appreciate more data points.
Oddskar 5y ago
I think it depends on where you hang out. A lot of the DIY mechanical keyboard Discord communities are tremendously helpful and open to newcomers for instance. On the flipside of that is perhaps the geekhack forums, with a ton of elitists that sometimes have little patience for people that are not up to speed.
- Findecanor 5y ago
  (Geekhack veteran here). My impression is that all kinds of people are on Geekhack and that all keyboard topics are welcome, but some users are definitely louder than others: mostly about pushing their preferences onto newbies and (mis)lead them into buying expensive things they won't like. The forums I find worse are /r/mechanicalkeyboards on Reddit (elitist about customs) and Deskthority (elitist about vintage, and also unmoderated) For mech newbies, I have found various PC-hardware forums to be the most welcoming.
  - ryantgtg 5y ago
    Yeah, my experience is the opposite of the person you’re replying to. I’ve asked a couple questions on geekhack and received terrific responses (I was confused about the swappability of my switches). And the dischord I visited was filled with pepe memes and was pretty toxic. (Unrelated, my personal story:) As is my habit, I got real into researching MKs for a few months, went through 2 (one I liked pretty well but I really missed dedicated home/end keys, and one that had switches that were slightly too tough to push and thus I kept missing letters) before I found my dream one: Mistel MD770 with MX Browns. It’s a split that I can shift around however I like. I love it. Oh, and to finish what I was getting at, as is my habit I can now stop thinking about MKs and will soon forget most everything I learned.
xwdv 5y ago
It seems toxic because we all started from nothing and learned things ourselves without having to make asinine posts asking the same questions over and over. The answers you seek are out there. Newbies are great until they start talking and pollute forums with low value discussions, and increasingly it seems even newbs never want to talk with other newbs, for these reasons.
- neurotrace 5y ago
  Found the toxic person. RTFM isn't really the best look and I love answering noob questions even if I've seen them a number of times.
cole-k 5y ago
Maybe it's changed in the past five years, but I don't recall being treated disrespectfully when I was active on /r/mk and deskthority (can't speak for geekhack, and I admittedly wasn't very active on deskthority). As what switches/layouts/keycaps/etc. folks like are highly subjective and sometimes polarizing, I would often see people espousing opinion as fact. But no one treated me rudely even when I asked dumb questions in their daily discussion/advice threads. I agree that much of the community consists of essentially bragging to other people about your own keyboards. But I saw even braggarts showing up in newbie threads to try and help other people get into the hobby. Edit: I will add though, I tend to lurk for a while and gather knowledge before I even ask a newbie question. And I probably fit better with the kind of boys club tech bro culture that you're implying is prevalent (although I can't say I noticed this all too much).
- cobalt 5y ago
  it's definitely gotten worse in the last couple years with the mainstreamification of MK b/c of things like gaming keyboards, massdrop, etc
bastardoperator 5y ago
I've had the opposite experience, everyone has been super helpful and friendly. Honestly, I think it's mostly people working in technology with deep wallets with most people purchasing for them themselves. They already have a forums at https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/ and https://geekhack.org https://geekhack.org I just bought a crappy razor keyboard specifically for gaming because I rather trash a cheaper keyboard versus my topre.

by twhb 5y ago

iratewizard 5y ago

I have used mechanical keyboard for a long time, and I think they're great. But I think it's weird to have a community centered around them.

archarios 5y ago

I haven't had that experience but I came into the hobby after going to an in-person keyboard meetup that helped me to learn the basics.

twhb 5y ago
Thanks, I appreciate more data points.

Oddskar 5y ago

I think it depends on where you hang out. A lot of the DIY mechanical keyboard Discord communities are tremendously helpful and open to newcomers for instance. On the flipside of that is perhaps the geekhack forums, with a ton of elitists that sometimes have little patience for people that are not up to speed.

Findecanor 5y ago
(Geekhack veteran here). My impression is that all kinds of people are on Geekhack and that all keyboard topics are welcome, but some users are definitely louder than others: mostly about pushing their preferences onto newbies and (mis)lead them into buying expensive things they won't like. The forums I find worse are /r/mechanicalkeyboards on Reddit (elitist about customs) and Deskthority (elitist about vintage, and also unmoderated) For mech newbies, I have found various PC-hardware forums to be the most welcoming.
- ryantgtg 5y ago
  Yeah, my experience is the opposite of the person you’re replying to. I’ve asked a couple questions on geekhack and received terrific responses (I was confused about the swappability of my switches). And the dischord I visited was filled with pepe memes and was pretty toxic. (Unrelated, my personal story:) As is my habit, I got real into researching MKs for a few months, went through 2 (one I liked pretty well but I really missed dedicated home/end keys, and one that had switches that were slightly too tough to push and thus I kept missing letters) before I found my dream one: Mistel MD770 with MX Browns. It’s a split that I can shift around however I like. I love it. Oh, and to finish what I was getting at, as is my habit I can now stop thinking about MKs and will soon forget most everything I learned.

xwdv 5y ago

It seems toxic because we all started from nothing and learned things ourselves without having to make asinine posts asking the same questions over and over. The answers you seek are out there. Newbies are great until they start talking and pollute forums with low value discussions, and increasingly it seems even newbs never want to talk with other newbs, for these reasons.

neurotrace 5y ago
Found the toxic person. RTFM isn't really the best look and I love answering noob questions even if I've seen them a number of times.

cole-k 5y ago

Maybe it's changed in the past five years, but I don't recall being treated disrespectfully when I was active on /r/mk and deskthority (can't speak for geekhack, and I admittedly wasn't very active on deskthority). As what switches/layouts/keycaps/etc. folks like are highly subjective and sometimes polarizing, I would often see people espousing opinion as fact. But no one treated me rudely even when I asked dumb questions in their daily discussion/advice threads. I agree that much of the community consists of essentially bragging to other people about your own keyboards. But I saw even braggarts showing up in newbie threads to try and help other people get into the hobby. Edit: I will add though, I tend to lurk for a while and gather knowledge before I even ask a newbie question. And I probably fit better with the kind of boys club tech bro culture that you're implying is prevalent (although I can't say I noticed this all too much).

cobalt 5y ago
it's definitely gotten worse in the last couple years with the mainstreamification of MK b/c of things like gaming keyboards, massdrop, etc

bastardoperator 5y ago

I've had the opposite experience, everyone has been super helpful and friendly. Honestly, I think it's mostly people working in technology with deep wallets with most people purchasing for them themselves. They already have a forums at https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/ https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/ and https://geekhack.org https://geekhack.org I just bought a crappy razor keyboard specifically for gaming because I rather trash a cheaper keyboard versus my topre.