Deskthority Awards discussion

[keyboardjoy]

Dear all,

Many of you know that DT used to have its annual DT Awards - if you're unfamiliar check outwiki/Deskthority_Awards#2019.

In 2019, the nominations were free-form without rigid categories. Beforehand, the awards were more concrete including 'best keycaps', 'best modern keyboard or company', 'best project or innovation' etc.

Any suggestions for any other categories that should be represented in the awards? One of the underserved categories is Wiki maintenance/contribution which is noted.

Cheers!

[Muirium]

We wind up redesigning the awards every year. They're… complex.

What do you have in mind for prizes? In the distant past, we had a stash of Wingnuts to award. But those have skyrocketed in resale value—something already prohibited—and brought bad attention to the awards for people to pile in just to pump and dump for a trophy.

There's also the perennial question of should these awards be for products or for people? Should they be an endorsement of a switch / brand / store or should they be a reward for contributors to the community? I lean heavily to the latter, but it's an active argument.

My favourite category was the best photo of the year award, but that one's nominations phase was quite a lot to handle!

[keyboardjoy]

We wind up redesigning the awards every year. They're… complex.

What do you have in mind for prizes? In the distant past, we had a stash of Wingnuts to award. But those have skyrocketed in resale value—something already prohibited—and brought bad attention to the awards for people to pile in just to pump and dump for a trophy.

There's also the perennial question of should these awards be for products or for people? Should they be an endorsement of a switch / brand / store or should they be a reward for contributors to the community? I lean heavily to the latter, but it's an active argument.

My favourite category was the best photo of the year award, but that one's nominations phase was quite a lot to handle!

Hmm, yeah, the products/company angle could be a little problematic, but I think the community is well placed to have an opinion on companies are operating best practices/serving the mech keyboard community (particularly vintage keyboard/component vendors), or which products were particularly innovative or interesting.

Regarding prizes, I think it's fair game to approach preferred suppliers/companies to contribute prizes as a soft form of sponsorship.

Overall, the DT awards I think should reward community contribution above product always.

[Muirium]

Regarding prizes, I think it's fair game to approach preferred suppliers to contribute prizes as a soft form of sponsorship.

Overall, the DT awards I think should reward community contribution above product always.

That's certainly my own side of the argument.

The DTAs were sponsored in the past. Everyone who voted in the final round entered a lottery for a voters prize, which was often a keyboard from a sponsor like Keyboardco, Ducky and Matias. That's how I won my Filco. We had a bunch of sponsors every year, one per award.

[Go-Kart]

Although I'm fairly new here myself, I think this place is brilliant because of the content the community produces. I have found so much information here that'd warrant me sticking around, aside from the very friendly community. Even just reading some of the reviews of products; one reviewer commented that it took him about 40 hours to put together a particular review. It's thing like that, the time put in and the quality of the content produced that makes DT my preferred e-haunt. I feel such contributions to the community should be at the forefront of any awards.

If one were to look at any kind of product awards, I think product innovation would be a key category. However, instances of this, such as Steel Series bringing H.E. switches back into the mainstream, are few and far between, as far as I can tell.

[keyboardjoy]

Although I'm fairly new here myself, I think this place is brilliant because of the content the community produces. I have found so much information here that'd warrant me sticking around, aside from the very friendly community. Even just reading some of the reviews of products; one reviewer commented that it took him about 40 hours to put together a particular review. It's thing like that, the time put in and the quality of the content produced that makes DT my preferred e-haunt. I feel such contributions to the community should be at the forefront of any awards.

If one were to look at any kind of product awards, I think product innovation would be a key category. However, instances of this, such as Steel Series bringing H.E. switches back into the mainstream, are few and far between, as far as I can tell.

Absolutely agree.

[ntv242ver2]

It is worth it to bring back, i certainly agree. In a sense, it can really motivate people to be more engaged with the forum, and contribute their knowledge.

However one thing i think should be made clear right from the start: what are the categories? I feel like awarding people because they find something rare makes little sense. Award should be, in my opinion, given according to either the contribution one has had for the forum (reviews/blogs/wiki or what have you) or the amazing work they have put into keyboards (restoration, design this and that and open source it to the community etc). Then it can really be meaningful.

Also regarding the prize, imo it should be as non-materialistic as possible. Even though a great prize, there are far too much incentive for one to sell their wingnut on the after market, or worse as many have mentioned, partake in the competition with the sole intention of grabbing one wing nut and... flip. A keyboard is cool. I certainly can't speak for the mass, but let me bite the bullet and state my controversial opinion here: don't think a stock modern keyboard would be of much use to most members in this community. Perhaps some thing one can hang on their wall, or place on their desk to remind them of the good time in the forum and their work, that might be better? Idk, just my two cents here, it is hard thing to specify clearly, i tried my best and i acknowledge that there are still holes in my argument. Like people can still ebay their plaque if they really want to. But i hope my point gets across.

[shallot]

+1 to preferring prizes that are not off-the-shelf keyboards, if there are prizes at all

[Muirium]

What about voters prizes? Those were the off-the-shelf keyboards before, and very popular!

[Ascaii]

Call me old fashioned, but what about a good old certificate with embossed foil seal. A unique prize for the winner, with little to no resale value as it clearly states the name of the winner. Plus it looks good in a frame

[kbdfr]

Call me old fashioned, but what about a good old certificate with embossed foil seal. A unique prize for the winner, with little to no resale value as it clearly states the name of the winner. Plus it looks good in a frame

I fully concur.

[Wodan]

Call me old fashioned, but what about a good old certificate with embossed foil seal. A unique prize for the winner, with little to no resale value as it clearly states the name of the winner. Plus it looks good in a frame

+1

[PlacaFromHell]

Any suggestions for any other categories that should be represented in the awards?

Hi. I think best find MUST be in the DT awards, also a best discover category, like documenting a new Alps switch or so (something more oriented to research). Maybe best community service too?

Call me old fashioned, but what about a good old certificate with embossed foil seal. A unique prize for the winner, with little to no resale value as it clearly states the name of the winner. Plus it looks good in a frame

This is a great idea, maybe a golden DT logo that you can frame if you want to.

[zrrion]

DT badges styled after a few of the cooler keyboard badges would be very cool. A zenith black badge style DT thing would be great.

I don't personally even care if there is an award of any sort so long as the awards actually happen (we might want to include stuff from last year since there weren't any)

[SneakyRobb]

Hi,

Random thoughts about possible categories.

Rebuilds/restoration
-Restored items shown with images of restoration

Custom builds
-Custom builds with their associated guides, maybe the more unique/creative the better. Not related to rarity. For instance I saw a Pro-world MX build from VintKeys was really cool and unique.

Guides to help people with existing concepts
-Guides on how to do mechanical stuff - bolt mods, painting etc
-Guides on how to do software stuff - how to convert things, how to write maps etc etc

Creation of new software/mechanical concepts
-Creating software programs to help users, be it Soarer/TMK/DMA etc
-Creating new mechanical guides, be it switch films, bolt mods, swaping xyz

Wiki maintenance and uploading
- something we really need more of

General keyboard related research
-Posts that might not necessarily merit a wiki post about general keyboard related stuff.

Production of new keyboard concepts/items.
-Switches, be it one off items like a topre silencing ring or a nexus slider
-Accessories, maybe mats or openers.
-Production of new keyboards, entire shipped products like brandnewmodel f etc


Overall coolness
-This was a previous category and I think having an overall "best thing" from the rest of the categories is good.

I am not against keyboard companies winning award, but it should have no connection to monetary things. If someone makes a cool new product that enables more people to enjoy keyboard, that is good.

[zrrion]

Wiki maintenance and uploading and General keyboard related research are both pretty interrelated I would say, and with how few people are currently working in this area it might be a good idea to merge them together for a "Documentation and research" award or something of that sort

[Jacobalbertus1]

Any suggestions for any other categories that should be represented in the awards?

Hi. I think best find MUST be in the DT awards, also a best discover category, like documenting a new Alps switch or so (something more oriented to research). Maybe best community service too?

yes we need a find of the year category, and overpaying is not allowed would have to be something that you found from a NON keyboard person

[Wodan]

Would love to see a „Best Find“ reward for something that wasn‘t already a huge pay day for the finder.

Make it something like „best discovery“ ...

[keyboardjoy]

What about voters prizes? Those were the off-the-shelf keyboards before, and very popular!

Working on this. I believe that before a couple of manufacturers were happy to offer prizes in the past.

[ifohancroft]

I've been meaning to post my opinion for awhile now, but...

Anyway, I love the idea for the Deskthority Awards, specially if there are multiple categories.
Regarding the different things that were discussed:

- Rewarding manufacturers: I feel like it would be nice for manufacturers to be included in the awards, in their own category, like Best industry innovation or something, however like someone mentioned there aren't that many, so I guess the winner there could be optional, like if there is no innovation to be awarded that year.
- Prizes: I see why the wing nuts may be a bad idea (people re-selling them and stuff) but I absolutely love them (and would obviously love to win one). Maybe they can be combined with what someone mentioned about the award including the person's username, so perhaps they can be secured to a nice wooden base that has a metal plaque on the front that says something like:

Deskthority [year]
Awarded to <username>
for
Best <category name>

- Voting prizes: I agree with whoever said that the last thing they want to win is a random stock off-the-shelf keyboard but if they have been popular with voters before, maybe we should keep them, also there are still some keyboards that are off-the-shelf that I'd love to have and win (like an ErgoDox-EZ, HHKB, Kinesis Advantage 2, Maltron Fully Ergonomic, Maltron Single Hand (although I am not sure if some of those are still being made and sold)).

I agree with keyboardjoy that users should be awarded before products and companies, also I like SneakyRobb's proposed categories. I must admit, I don't remember what the categories were the previous years off the top of my head.