The Realforce Euro Tour - Round 4

[Khers]

Keyboardco lists a gross weight of a full sized RF at 1.8 kg

[wlhlm]

Thanks! Luckily, it doesn't blast past the DHL 2kg limit.

[shreebles]

Thanks! Luckily, it doesn't blast past the DHL 2kg limit.

Depending on how it is packed, packing material can easily exceed 200g.

[wlhlm]

Thanks! Luckily, it doesn't blast past the DHL 2kg limit.

Depending on how it is packed, packing material can easily exceed 200g.

Gross weight includes packaging I thought:

Gross weight is a term that is generally found in commerce or trade applications, and refers to the total weight of a product and its packaging.

[chzel]

Yes, but you'd never ship such a board in it's retail packaging, so you need to add the weight of the second box.
BTW I am fine with being last!

[002]

When I first sent it over from Australia, it was in a DELL rubber dome keyboard box. I think at some point in Tour 1 or 2, this box was so coated in stickers and tape and such that someone replaced it. Maybe matt3o can let us know what the current state of the original box is. You are welcome to adjust the packaging yourself, so long as the keyboard is safely secured for its next leg of the journey.

[wlhlm]

I hope we can find another person who wants to try a Topre board.

Please, so that we can get this started

[jou]

I do want to try a Topre but I don't qualify…

[wlhlm]

That's a bummer!

What's missing? I see you have >15 posts.

[jou]

But most of those posts were made after the OP. I didn't have enough post when this thread started.

[wlhlm]

That's no problem. I'm in the same boat as you, but have been approved.

Also it doesn't seem like you were spamming trying to meet the goals for this tour.

[Muirium]

Yup. I'll keep stuff like this in mind when I organise the Matias Ergo Pro tour. Rules exist for overruling, at discretion!

[002]

I admit that the rules are a bit harsh, but I have to apply them equally, otherwise may as well not even have the rule. Depending on how popular your tour becomes, interviewing each potential candidate could become bothersome for you, especially if you have a sea of 1-posters trying to tell you how much they really care about the community and stuff. I am open to ideas on how better to manage this but in the meantime I think the 'vouch for someone' exception has been helpful.

[Muirium]

Yeah, I'll probably get enough interest for now from forum regulars to make things fairly easy. After that, vouching is nice. And then after that, people's general behaviour on the forum. There's no such thing as certainty, but I like to think I can take reasonable bets. So long as my hands aren't tied.

Rule 0: Mu makes up the rules as he goes.

[002]

Haha, that could work pretty well for you actually. The all-seeing eye of Deskthority

[Muirium]

Everyone's got a post history. You don't have to be me! Though it helps.

[002]

I would be too worried about giving the OK to someone who I thought has good character, and then upsetting a whole bunch of other people in the process

[wlhlm]

But then candidates for these tours are often relatively fresh members and there's always some uncertainty.

[Muirium]

Correct. That's what makes this an interesting problem: there is no simple ideal solution.

I'll likely have an easier time with the Matias. It's new. Realforces aren't, so 002's tour appeals to new people instead.

[002]

Yeah -- I suppose that's true.
Honestly the Slutforce has been to over 30 different people now all over EU and without any hiccups really. I am impressed to say the least.

Anyway, an attempt to change the rules at this point is silly and based on the amount of time it took to get this tour running, it will be a while before Round 5 happens. Mu's tour will happen in the meantime and I will see how he goes with that and apply to Round 5 if needed.

[Muirium]

Just thinking of how much shipping that all came to!

Shipping cost is the one thing really keeping tours limited. If we could ship stuff around for less, I'm sure there'd be Model F tours and such. They're a lot of fun but only really make sense currently as investigations for those about to buy.

[002]

Europe's pretty small, just get someone to drive the Model F around

[Muirium]

The smaller the country, the higher the fuel tax. The roadtrip my brother took me on, most of the way up California (a longer distance than the total length of Britain) cost about the same in fuel as driving from Edinburgh to Aberdeen and back. (Which, by your map, would be like Sydney to Canberra.) No kidding!

[002]

Yeah I was just being silly
Fuel costs are pretty bad here but not sure compared to other countries. We pay ~$1.30 AUD per litre where I live. I assume it's much more expensive in EU. The postage thing is interesting, though. What is the average cost for you to send something to another EU country? Does it vary a lot depending on country?

[Muirium]

Fuel here is something like $3 US a litre (so $10+ per US gallon). I don't drive so don't pay attention.

Shipping varies a lot depending on where you are sending from, much less so on where you're shipping to. In Britain it's quite bad, and I'm sure I spent over £20 on your Realforce. Germans get it much easier. While those poor Scandinavians get it worse! Oddly enough, sending things to Scottc in the Republic of Ireland (which is really close) is about the same fee as shipping all the way to Russia! Actual cost doesn't heavily factor into it.

[scottc]

Nice map OO2. I like how they call Ireland by its proper name!

Though, err, they seem to have forgotten about the splits of Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia...

[robpaulson]

But most of those posts were made after the OP. I didn't have enough post when this thread started.

Where are you from? Maybe you could ask someone living in your country and already on the list to have a phone interview and vouch for you...

[Muirium]

Swiss:

http://deskthority.net/post228221.html#p228221

Forget the phone. Go here!

http://deskthority.net/off-topic-f10/sw ... 10660.html

[acolombo]

Jou bought a keyboard from me, everything went perfectly and he is a very cool guy, perfect for deskthority

But I already vouched for Robpaulson and I don't feel that consolidated as a member of this community to vouch for 20% of the members in the tour.

However I highly suggest a German speaking member should get his number and call him as I did for Robpaulson, which I think is the perfect way for new members to be trusted and to be allowed to partecipate to this kind of experience, which most of the regulars already had.

[jou]

Thanks for the kind words, acolombo. It would be nice if someone would vouch for me, but I have no problem with waiting for the next tour. It might even be better so I won't need to resist getting a Topre myself after trying one

(If it wasn't clear: I don't object to 002's rules, they're very sensible to me. I'm just a little bit sad that I can't participate)