Funding keyboard tours Interest Check

[ifohancroft]

I'd like to try a Topre board to see all the fuss is about, but I don't have the money to spend on a full board, as well as having no interest in actually owning a topre board as I don't think I'm going to like it.

I'd also love to own a Model F but right now I can't afford to buy one, so here's the idea:

Why don't me and other people interested in trying Topre or a Model F fund buying one that would be owned by the forum and send it on an EU tour (or I guess it could be worldwide if people don't mind paying the shipping).

If enough of us pitch in, we won't have to spend that much money and we'd have a chance to try the board, where otherwise who knows if there will be a tour soon.

The board or boards can be kept strictly for tours until it starts falling apart or maybe end up as a giveaway or something.

Anyone else interested in doing that?

Personally, here are the things I'd love to test:

- Topre
- IBM Model F
- IBM Model M
- Beamspring (obviously )
- MT3 keycaps profile
- MDA keycaps profile
- KAT keycaps profile
- An ErgoDox (mine's still in the making and besides my cardboard piece with switches, I'd like to try a real one)

Edit: I forgot mention that I'd also love to try a board with genuine Alps SKCM Blue switches, ideally in a good condition.

[Muirium]

Having run a tour or two, they tend to peter out of interest after a while. People don’t want second turns. Eventually, things wind up in someone random’s storage. That’s a good time to make them prizes I suppose. Indeed, we just did that with a Matias Ergo Pro the other day.

I’ve got the first 5 items on your list, but I like them too much to hand over, perhaps never to return as good as they are now.

I would like to feel a board of Nixies though, someday. Or a smooth Cherry G80-5000. So I know how you feel!

[ifohancroft]

Having run a tour or two, they tend to peter out of interest after a while. People don’t want second turns. Eventually, things wind up in someone random’s storage. That’s a good time to make them prizes I suppose. Indeed, we just did that with a Matias Ergo Pro the other day.

I didn't realize that but it makes sense when you think about it. For a certain period of time there would be only so many people wanting to try a specific board/board type.

I’ve got the first 5 items on your list, but I like them too much to hand over, perhaps never to return as good as they are now.

Yeah, I can't expect people to want to give their personal boards for a tour, hence wanting to fund one with other people. I mean even if it's just for a single tour, if there are 9 other people that want to try Topre, we can get an HHKB Pro 2 for example for just 22€ each.

I would like to feel a board of Nixies though, someday. Or a smooth Cherry G80-5000. So I know how you feel!

Oh yeah, I'd love to try some specific older boards as well.

[Go-Kart]

I'm somewhat game for this but I've just been abusing Amazon's liberal return policy of late, in place of where I haven't already been lucky with eBay purchases. The only board on your list that I do still have an itch to yet be scratched is a Model F. Beamspring too actually but the money those things go for is absurd so I haven't really considered owning one. Fs are obtainable at least.

I don't mind lending fellow Brits boards to try for a week. They pay, I send, they send back, I pay back. I don't really have anything particularly sexy to lend out but I'm willing none-the-less.

[Rayndalf]

I have an F XT I wouldn't mind turning into a space monkey, but it needs a convertor and I'm located in the US.

This wouldn't work too well for an Ergodox since it took me about 3 weeks of practice to get comfortable on a Kinesis Advantage. Unless it's a 1 month per person kind of tour. Definitely doable, but it'd be cheaper in the long run to do a run of PCBs and avoid reshipping.

[ifohancroft]

I'm somewhat game for this but I've just been abusing Amazon's liberal return policy of late

That's what I was thinking of doing, but my problem is that in-order to do it, I need to have the full price of the board in advance and not actually need the money for some time.

I have an F XT I wouldn't mind turning into a space monkey, but it needs a convertor and I'm located in the US.

This wouldn't work too well for an Ergodox since it took me about 3 weeks of practice to get comfortable on a Kinesis Advantage. Unless it's a 1 month per person kind of tour. Definitely doable, but it'd be cheaper in the long run to do a run of PCBs and avoid reshipping.

I guess it depends on how used people are to such a layout, but yeah, we can always negotiate the terms of the tour and it could be on a board to board basis.

[ntv242ver2]

this approach is too complex to execute.
- What if one guy decides that he can flip the board and ghost everyone?
- What if it gets damaged during transport of during the use of someone?

[ifohancroft]

this approach is too complex to execute.
- What if one guy decides that he can flip the board and ghost everyone?
- What if it gets damaged during transport of during the use of someone?

Keyboard tours already exist and are being executed/done on Deskthority. The only difference in what I am proposing is that instead of waiting for someone who has the keyboard you want to try to offer it for a tour, a couple of people that want to try it, pitch in money to buy the keyboard.

As for the specific questions about what happens if someone decides to flip the board and ghost everyone or if the board gets damaged during use or during shipping - perhaps someone who has organized a tour before can let us know what is the standard procedure (if there is one) for such cases