deskthority

Please suggest nominees for the Best deskthority contributor in 2014. You have to give a short motivation for each suggestion. You cannot nominate yourself.

By voting in the third round of this category, you can win a NovaTouch TKL and Reaper from Cooler Master|CM Storm!

In this round you can earn multiple entries in the draws for voter prizes: if you are the first to suggest a particular nominee and the suggestion gets at least 5 votes in round 2, you get an extra entry in the draw for the prize by the sponsor of the related category. If your suggestion is voted as an official nominee and makes it to round 3, you get another extra entry.

The first round ends on Thursday 27 November, 00:00hrs UTC.

Current suggestions (this list is frequently updated):

• matt3o
• Muirium
• Kbdfr
• HaaTa
• Daniel Beardsmore
• 7bit

matt3o, for starting discussions on group projects (even though they don't all take off), posting info on how to design and build your own keyboards ... and the Granite group buy.

Matt3o (the list of what he has started it's too long)

Two names stood out when I was reading through the recent reviews: Muirium and matt3o. Helpful words, great photos and videos. Thanks for the time and care put into your reviews, it's much appreciated.

I would vote Muirium for his responsiveness.

Kbdfr for his continuing detective work in rooting out dodgy eBay sellers and sock puppets:

http://deskthority.net/help-f53/price-c ... ml#p174322

He investigates enough leads that we don't always hear about it:

http://deskthority.net/ebay-co-uk-f69/c ... ll#p176806

I also appreciate his grumbly posts in general, and consider him keyboard Columbo!

To my eyes nobody deserves this award more than HaaTa.

He is not only a great contributor to the open source community with his kiibohd firmware and the McHkc controller, but also an incredible relic hunter. I do not even deserve to be nominated in the same category

Daniel Beardsmore, for his work on the wiki and his never ending research of keyboards/switches. Also he sent/offered some others and me some stuff for free, that is really hard to come by, e.g. the Mitsumi miniature mechanical switches with Cherry MX mount.
He probably won't accept his price, but I would like to nominate him nonetheless, if he is ok with that.

How do you like the Mitsumis? He sent me a few too, and they are superb!

I really like the tactility and I fell in love with the activation mechanism with the horizontal spring, but they feel a bit scratchy. Tactility-wise they feel like I would imagine Topre (I've never tried them), is that true?

A full keyboard of them would be nice, I'll try to build a small arrow cluster with the few I have.

I haven't noticed a scratch factor, but I must admit I'm not prone to it; even MX reds are okay by me so long as I'm not pressing them extra slow to feel for that. Anyway, Mitsumi's tactility is very much like Topre's. Be sure to tell us how you figure out mounting them! I have eventual plans, once i get a whole old board's worth from Cindy and know if any feel good.

Back to nominations: 7bit's always in contention for this prize. We would all be merry with our Round 5 caps if he had his way this year; SP are the ones who delayed it in the end.

I've thought about getting the Mitsumi keyboard from Cindy as well. If you get it, please tell me whether the switches feel as good as our new ones and sell me the spares, if you happen to have some, then.
I've already made a small plate for the Mitsumis, I'll send it to a manufacturer soon with some other plates I have in mind.
But first I need to get a caliper, to measure the exact dimensions of them. Currently I've measured something like 14mm by 8mm (not sure if that is correct, it's off the top of my head) with a ruler. Also the keycap mount is not centered on the switch, but I'd like to have a symmetrical plate with a equally sized border arround the keycaps, so I have to figure out how far from the center the mount is.

Will do. You know me: 60% and even smaller is my favourite size for customs, so if the donor board proves to be good, two of us could squeeze nice projects out of it; if we both aim small!

Same here: regarding symmetry. The Mitsumis are cute little switches that I think will literally as well as metaphorically shine in a contemporary layout. I'd go for something sleek and metal like I did with my (somewhat often seen around here) 60% MX green custom.

Nomination: 002 for his continuing, sterling work in the advancement of knowledge and unabashed lust for Topre keyboards! He's a solid contributor to the Wiki, too.

Nuum wrote: ↑… and sell me the spares, if you happen to have some, then. ;)

There's 19 new ones left, 17 of which are intact — that's the exact amount required for a standard numeric keypad. However, I want to reserve a few for anyone who can photograph them properly, especially someone who can open them without damage; they're a bit too small for my camera.

I'll stick mine under the macro when I can. (It's winter. Long, shady, Scottish winter. Ach!) But damned if I'll prise the wee guys apart. You're no more unskilled at that than me, so I know what to expect!

I really am unskilled at such things; it can be done: http://www7.ocn.ne.jp/~hisao/image/epsontenkey.htm