Deskthority Awards 2015 - Request for Comments

[Muirium]

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

That would be HaaTa's second annual award all wrapped up! He posts a lot of pretty decent pictures, of pure unadulterated unobtainium, all in a single post. Beating that? Only Julle's occasional madness threads have a chance!

Right and a proper review is a lot more work than posting the finest pictures.

Very true. A lot of my own best pics are simple luck, in the middle of a longer batch I shot. Reviews, meanwhile, don't work that way. Pictures are just the start of it.

[Halvar]

I think of the "internal" awards as some kind of incentive for people who bring the community forward, so the things that look most priceworthy to me are

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

I did enjoy the "best picture" category last year, but IMO it's too random who wins this to make it really worth a wingnut.

[andrewjoy]

I propose 2 new categories.

Best USA to UK keyboard mule
Best CST Kid Track and Pool Ball Group buy

Reward is a Kirshi and a TLK novatouch with dampening rings , FOR BOTH!

[Muirium]

The Andy Awards. Coming to you in 2016. Literally. The loot ain't leaving before New Years.

Can we have one for Most Delayed GB? So long as the GH60 isn't still in pole position… I haven't even delayed the Unicomp GB for a year yet.

[andrewjoy]

Lol is the GH60 still not done ? What about the GH 122 ?

[Muirium]

I'd be the last to know.

[HzFaq]

EU GH60 PCBs went out to the EU proxy and were sent out to those that wanted just their PCBs. Plates/switches are still in the US I think. I got my PCBs about a month or so ago.

US orders are with the new proxy over there, but he is having difficulties of his own so nothing seems to be moving from that side unfortunately.

[7bit]

So the race GH60 vs. Hyper has still not been decided.


All I need to do is finishing my new key caps ordering software (SP demanded some changes) until next week and then make that little script to generate those mountplate-cuting files ...

I think of the "internal" awards as some kind of incentive for people who bring the community forward, so the things that look most priceworthy to me are

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

I did enjoy the "best picture" category last year, but IMO it's too random who wins this to make it really worth a wingnut.

Yes, I 100% agree with that.


Now, gimme my wingnut for beating GH60.

[Muirium]

Best photo is THE DTA to win. Look at the competition! Every other award was snoozeville compared to that.

How about we keep it and add a Best 7bit GB award? Round 5 actually shipped this year. Finally you'd be eligible!

[seebart]

Round 5 actually shipped this year.

Not for everyone [YET] !

[7bit]

Round 5, not 5a!


So, we will have:
Best project or group buy
Best wiki contribution
Best review or documentation
Best photo

[matt3o]

best wiki contributor? maybe 3 people update the wiki nowadays. Let's give them a wingnut each.

[Muirium]

Broaden the wiki one to include the forum in general, and you have duplicated part of my shortlist from last page.

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.

[Halvar]

best wiki contributor? maybe 3 people update the wiki nowadays. ...

Exactly, that's why it makes sense to throw a wingnut at it.

[mr_a500]

Yeah, and call it "The Daniel Beardsmore Memorial Award".

I'd like to win one of those... if I could actually bloody log in to the damn wiki.

[7bit]

best wiki contributor? maybe 3 people update the wiki nowadays. Let's give them a wingnut each.

Because Beardsmore is gone forever, we can freely edit the wiki again.


Maybe we should annonce a wiki contest for 2016 and scratch the prize for 2015.

[Muirium]

In the spirit of science, we should test for that variable. One year without the Beardsmore Wingnut. To see if wiki participation correlates to clacks.

Can I get a dedicated wiki gnome? I can supply prose, pictures, and links. But I'm as incompetent in there as I am at a command line.

:/> Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
Invalid request, Dave.
:/> Halp!

[webwit]

Best wiki contributor was merged last year into Best deskthority contributor because it wasn't strong enough.

I might refer you to the same category for Best group buy, Best project and Best review or documentation. Populate Best deskthority contributor with those nominees.

The good thing is that everyone has different opinions, so I can use those to dismiss proposals at will.

[002]

I think the problem with putting the wiki guys into a generic DT contributor group is that wiki editors are the silent heroes. People who contribute in more tangible ways like group buys and custom keyboards and such are more on people's minds than the guy who sneakily and thanklessly updates the wiki. On the other hand, I do agree that we need to cut some of the fluff, so if we go down that route, the best we can do is try to bring to light what the wiki contributors have done in the past year.

[Halvar]

Yes, I agree. Also, last year, we had a different situation. Beardsmore was still active, and we knew that if we had done the wiki category, he would have (rightfully) won once again and once again not accepted the award. So there was a reason for not doing it last time. Help our poor wiki gain strength again after the fatal blow!

Also, for the "commercial" categories, yes, there should be less than last year, but only two? Isn't that a bit too boring?

Last year there were 15 awards, so you really want to boil that down to 2+1+1 = 4?

Last year:

"buyer's guides":
Best keycaps 2014
Best keyboard switch 2014
Best keyboard innovation 2014
Best regular keyboard 2014
Best space-saving or compact keyboard 2014
Best alternative or other input device 2014
Best keyboard company or brand 2014

"community":
Best deskthority contributor 2014
Best relic or discovery 2014
Best input device photo 2014
Best input device mod, device or software 2014
Best vintage keyboard 2014
Best self-build keyboard 2014

The Deskthority Award
The *Ping* Award 2014

[matt3o]

- Best DT contribution (being review, photo, wiki, tutorial, fart, ...)
- Best commercial keyboard / product
- Best community project
- Ping award

That's all we need imho

I don't like the "best contributor", it goes to the usual suspects and it looks like an e-penis thing.

And the next DT award in 2017.

[002]

- Best DT contribution (being review, photo, wiki, tutorial, fart, ...)

Finally -- a field in which I am surely competitive!

[Muirium]

That would be a deathly dull set of awards. Apart from the fart award, which I think we can all get behind, if we peg our noses…

The winners would automatically be:

Contribution: HaaTa for his impossible relics plus firmware. No photo or regular contribution could compete
Keyboard: Topre Realforce (the IBM vote and the Cherry vote are more split)
Project: TMK, as consolation for HaaTa already winning
Ping: Matteo for ruining the DTAs

I'm not all about making the awards so I can win myself. (Already have a Wingnut, thanks.) But they are a lot of fun and pissing all over them would ruin the festive season they belong to around here. If you really, really don't want to win one or even be mentioned, by grumbling nominators who want to push you forward against your wishes anyway, we can explicitly exclude you in the rules and even moderate the nominations so such incidents disappear. Then you might enjoy the awards as by far most of us do: a spectator with a single vote, honestly interested in rewarding his favourites of the year.

[matt3o]

If you really, really don't want to win one or even be mentioned

are you talking to me?

[Muirium]

Yup!

No one else has the same agenda. I get that you don't like the awards. Why not just ignore them?

[matt3o]

I get that you don't like my DT awards suggestions. Why don't you just ignore them?

[Muirium]

I would, but the trouble is I think you might be serious.

[matt3o]

wow I didn't realize you had such a little respect of other's opinions

[Muirium]

I thought I am pretty transparent about that!

Joking aside, I don't mean to get all personal. I just think the DTAs are a good thing and need tweaks, rather than a meat cleaver. Holding them every 2 years would be the kiss of death. On the Internet, even 1 year is very almost an eternity. At any given time, a large number of our active posters weren't on DT a year ago. And any award always has a bias to recent winners: it's hard to remember what to nominate from January, this year, let alone 2 years ago. That would be a hell of an unfair playing field.

[matt3o]

I'm giving you my opinion. that being said I'm okay at keeping the awards exactly as they were the last year. Two years are an eternity in internet time, but nothing in mechanical keyboard time. I find the DT award a nice yearly event but I believe it would be more cunning if held every two years. If we had to keep it yearly, at least reduce the amount of awards.

An alternative might be to run a light version (fewer awards) every odd years and the full blown up on even years.