Designing the next Topre keycap set

[Muirium]

The attitude they have towards their users seems to ooze right out of the page. JOIN NOW! The whole interface is about buying. ADD TO CART. The veneer of community is paper thin at best. POST A COMMENT. I honestly feel better not participating in their business. PLACE WALLET HERE.

[matt3o]

I don't think Topre will green-light the new layout anyway so... we'll see the first days of the new year.

[cswanic]

Hey Matt30, not to veer too far off, but with more tooling plastics companies coming online in asia, (the US of course), and in Europe, is there no other way for us to do this?

[matt3o]

the good thing about this is that it's original by Topre

[zslane]

The attitude they have towards their users seems to ooze right out of the page. JOIN NOW! The whole interface is about buying. ADD TO CART. The veneer of community is paper thin at best. POST A COMMENT. I honestly feel better not participating in their business. PLACE WALLET HERE.

Is MassDrop supposed to be a community? I certainly don't consider it a community just because people can carry on a linear discussion chain for any product. As far as I'm concerned, MassDrop is just a place to get in on group buys and, secondarily, help inform buyers on the specifics of items. I don't go there for community, and so I don't care how thin the veneer is--it might as well not exist for all I care.

[Muirium]

Oh, they fool some people with the idea. I've heard people say they talked about such and such "on MassDrop". Presumably in much the same way you can talk about it with a spray can at your local bus shelter.

[Hypersphere]

On the other hand, R&D, services, and things have to get paid for somehow. MD has its faults, but it has provided a convenient storefront for some worthwhile products, including creations from our own matt3o.

[Muirium]

Yup. That's what annoys me about them. They *could* be so much better. A vital source of venture capital for community efforts. But they *aren't*. If only they respected that community as anything more than a bunch of ADHD teenagers with too much cash in their wallets. I think they'd make more money with a better attitude, as well as win our respect.

[matt3o]

MassDrop has contacts with manufacturers which is incredibly important. Other than that MassDrop invest directly in products they believe in. For example they paid for the molds for the whitefox keycaps.

Kunal and Yanbo who worked with me on the whitefox are always ready to go the extra mile to make the project better and to satisfy all my crazy requests (such as 5% color change). They never told me "no this can't be done" but just "let's see how we can make it work".

I'm not saying that it's perfect, but without them surely the whitefox would have been completely different (no aluminum, no white pcb, probably teensy based, probably Signature plastics keycaps...) and more importantly x2 the cost it is now.

[webwit]

Do they still have the downright illegal terms of service? Wake me when they turn into a respectable, civilized company.

[Muirium]

Half-Saint's avatar says it best:



Half devil, all devil!