Deskthority Awards 2015 - Request for Comments

[XMIT]

Don't forget that I merely acted as a proxy for Cindy in most regards. She's the one who takes the time to visit recyclers, sort through thousands of keyboards, and separate the gold from the rest. I've seen first hand what a recycling facility looks like and how much work it is to sort through these boards. Typically you're lucky to find one e.g. AT101W in a cubic meter box of sad rubber domes.

I make a couple of nice finds here and there but I'll never match Cindy's volume while I have a day job and a family.

This reminds me that I have a many month backlog of photos and articles that I need to take, write, and post. Also, I do plan on resuming sales at some point, but don't hold your breath.

[Muirium]

Rescuing and rehousing a warehouse is quite enough of a deed to put you right in the running for an award this year. You'd never catch me doing that much! I mean, I don't have a garage or a truck so duh, but even if I did…

[XMIT]

Note too that I no longer have a truck. I mentioned somewhere that I traded it for a Nissan Leaf! It turns out trucks are cheaper go rent than to own. There are no fewer than three potential truck rental places nearby.

If I were hauling that many keyboards again I would go for a rental box truck, not the pickup and trailer.

[webwit]

I had a tough time trying to merge the input in the category list. Lots of good suggestions for new categories, but we already have 15 and I don't want more.
No democracy this year as suggested, sorry, for now the volunteers (hi) who put in the work decide. I was planning to have a committee of volunteers, hopefully next year. Personally I think it's better if such a small number of people decide, otherwise no one will ever agree and we'll keep voting all year long, which will be tiresome.

Best keyboard switch or best keyboard should be a switch or keyboard that came into the marked recently. We can still add a best historic keyboard of the year, which would be won by Muirium's Honeywell keyboard.

I did this for keyboards but not for switches (not enough new switches). If a new switch doesn't win from an old one, it wasn't good enough. Note that last year a new switch won.

I nominate "Best Review" as a new category.

Use Best deskthority contributor for now.

"Best artisan keycap" i thought about best artisan but that would discourage newcomers, so maybe just the best design wins?

"Best Goup buy" in terms of content, how it progressed and how it delivered

"Best new member" only valid to members who joined since the last awards

Some of the ideas that come to mind :p

Use Best keycaps, Best deskthority contributor for now.

I agree on shrinking the number of categories.

- Best Community Project (not necessarily DT based) could be the catch all for GBs
- Best Commercial Keyboard
- maybe Best news/announcement of the year
- and Deskthority Award (that can be a person, a post, a review or whatever)

Also it might be nice to award the most active posts of the year (excluding the marketplace)

Used Best community project (as Best Input Device Project, see below).
Best news --> Use Best input device innovation (for example).
Used Best Commercial Keyboard to merge Best regular keyboard and Best space-saving or compact keyboard.

Relic or Discovery includes vintage find. Good catch on review, and I like project. So, revised list of my suggestions:

Best New Keyboard
Best Keyboard Innovation
Best Keyboard Switch
Best Keycaps
Best Pointing Device (should this be new, or in general? It should definitely include regular mice IMO)
Best Input Device Project
Best Relic or Discovery
Best Company or Brand
Best Input Device Photo
Best Input Device Review
Best Deskthority Contributor
Deskthority Award
*Ping* Award

I used Best Input Device Project to merge Best self-build keyboard and Best input device mod, device or software.

Best Input Device Innovation would give new pointing devices a chance, along with the keyboards. So that, for instance, I could nominate the new Magic Trackpad and get booed off stage…

The health of any given award lies in how many nominations it can score. As we have seen! Photos was huge in 2014. Fullsize keyboard was tumbleweed.

I've changed Best keyboard innovation to Best input device innovation.

I tell this every year, but in my opinion this should be held every other year, not annually. There are not that many news in the mech world and after all we are not a huge community.

I agree a little, this was the reason to keep the Awards compact in the first years. It would just start at some point. Now we have input topics nearly two months in advance, this makes it like Christmas starting in October. Maybe it should be done by a secret committee. Every two years is just too weird and discriminates older things

No kidding, I think we could make things good and fierce with, say 5 or 6 categories instead of 10+.

Best Switch is bullshit. Best Brand, even more bullshit. And things like innovation can be applied across hardware categories to spice it up.

How about:

Commercial Awards

Best New Keyboard
Best Input Device Innovation

Community Awards

Best Project
Best Contributor
Best Relic
Best Photo
Best Review

And for everything else: The golden Wingnut.

Looking at them that way, I see the point about review and photo seeming a bit much. But! I bet both of them get great nominations. Weren't there more photo nominations last year than for EVERY OTHER AWARD combined? It felt like it!

Too different for this year. As it is the fifth event, I don't want drastic changes, and like before, just incrementally change 2 or 3 categories.

photo and review don't make much sense to me. let's do best post eventually.

Best project or group buy
Best wiki contribution
Best review or documentation

Let's use Best deskthority contributor for now (not enough difference between contributor and contribution).

Summarized:

Last year:

Best regular keyboard
Best space-saving or compact keyboard
Best alternative or other input device
Best vintage keyboard
Best self-build keyboard
Best input device mod, device or software
Best keyboard innovation
Best keycaps
Best keyboard switch
Best keyboard company or brand
Best relic or discovery
Best input device photo
The *Ping* Award
Best deskthority contributor
The Deskthority Award

This year:

Best commercial keyboard
Best commercial alternative or other input device
Best vintage keyboard
Best input device project (self-build keyboards, mods, devices, software, ...)
Best input device innovation
Best keycaps
Best keyboard switch
Best keyboard company or brand
Best relic or discovery
Best input device photo
The *Ping* Award
Best deskthority contributor (forum, wiki, reviews, group buys, ...)
The Deskthority Award (strong candidates from all the other categories + misc)
The Deskthority Lifetime Award (extra golden wingnut only this year, maybe again in 5 years)

That makes one category less than last year. You still have time to convince me to add one extra category to the list or to change other entries. I agree Best input device photo might be a little weak compared to other categories, I kept it in so far because that category is a lot of fun.

[Muirium]

Looks good to me. Gotta keep the photo, it's the one with all the chaos, unlike some of the worthier but less competitive awards where there's only really two to three valid contenders.

[andrewjoy]

I like it!

[bhtooefr]

"Best vintage keyboard" and "Best relic or discovery" overlap, IMO, and I'd suggest merging them.

[webwit]

Yeah I've been thinking about that one as well. Not sure yet, IBM Model M could win Best vintage keyboard 2015 but not Best relic or discovery 2015.

[Halvar]

Right, but do we need a DT award for Model M and the like? And who should get the wingnut fòr Model M anyway? IMO we don't need "best vintage keyboard".

[bhtooefr]

So, a fundamental question here is, eligibility for categories, because that determines the categories.

Is the intent of the Best Product categories for products released this year, or is it for products available this year? If it's the former, best vintage keyboard shouldn't be a thing, because it'd have to be vintage keyboards discovered this year.

(Also, that question affects Best Keyboard Switch, because it'd narrow the field to various Cherry clones and the MacBook Butterfly Keyboard if it's the former.)

[webwit]

Read "hottest in 2015" instead of "best" for some categories.

I think a nominee list and winner of the hottest vintage keyboards of the last year are interesting both internally, externally and for new enthousiasts. Imagine you're new in this hobby. DT would be the best community to pick such a list.

[Muirium]

Nice idea. I'm sure it never happens in practice. Everyone's needs are different. That's why we keep the Keyboard Oracle in that nice mountaintop temple of his. It doesn't come cheap!

As Webwit said above: let's leave the awards minimally changed this year. DTA V can be the last of the old awards, and 2016 can be the new era.

I do agree with Bhtooefr's eligibility model, though. My own proposal for a radical shakeup was built on the same idea: who are we trying to award, and for what? But this may not be the right time for a revolution. Let Webwit have his quintet!

[seebart]

Right, but do we need a DT award for Model M and the like? And who should get the wingnut fòr Model M anyway? IMO we don't need "best vintage keyboard".

I'd like to see a "best vintage keyboard" category, we have quite a few vintage keyboard enthusiasts here (including myself) and there is a lot more to it than Model M and the likes.

[webwit]

Nice idea. I'm sure it never happens in practice. Everyone's needs are different.

You just described every poll or election ever.

I guess the biggest discussion point next year will be the industry/advised by experts/extrovert awards vs the community/give prices to your pals/introvert awards. I wrote about how it is now earlier.