Will sixty ever come back?

[tinnie]

[mintberryminuscrunch]

Would be great. But I don't think so.

[webwit]

He contacted me and said he got some emails from you guys. He's fine and lurking sometimes, but lost some interest in the hobby.

[7bit]

So he finally recovered from the accident where hundreds of G80-1800 fell down on him.

[kbdfr]

[…] He's fine and lurking sometimes […]

Hi sixty!

[sixty]

I doubt he will ever be back, that would be crazy

He contacted me and said he got some emails from you guys. He's fine and lurking sometimes, but lost some interest in the hobby.

Well, it's not really a loss of interest... My interest has waned a bit because of less time spent on the hobby and the development of the keyboard scene itself, I guess.

I originally disappeared due to a combination of the lack of a stable internet connection at home, health issues, some more personal issues and also a simple lack of time. A bit before that/during that time the Vortex RACE group buy had just been frozen by PayPal, locking up all of the collected funds. This came as a pretty big hit mentally and financially to me. I was trying my best to improve everything for this group buy based on what we learned on the first POKER group buy. At the point of the PayPal lockdown, I had already registered a business, signed up for a DHL business account and pre-paid about half of the shipping labels. Then PayPal hit us, and they hit hard. With all the funds locked for 6 months and absolutely zero communication from their support, I just felt extremely lost in the mess.

Up to this day PayPal still has not responded to any of my contact attempts, be it by e-mail, snailmail or phone. I have never gotten a refund from them on the shipping costs nor have they ever approved any of the documents I sent in about what... two years ago? All of my accounts remain locked to this day, including my Mom's personal (!) account which never had any connection to mine other than the same family name and city.

Overall the experience was extremely demotivating. I must personally thank webwit for helping out so much with resolving the mess, even before PayPal finally reacted due to certain EU laws. I don't think I would have had the energy and the time to sort all of this out on my own.

Add that to my already existing lack of time and personal issues and there barely was any space left for keyboards.

For a while now I have been lurking here and there every once in a while again. I was amazed by some of the recent discoveries. Some of them oddly enough also lead to a slight loss of interest in the hobby, or at least in the urge to collect. Half of the fun with this hobby was hunting down old and long forgotten relics from moldy warehouses, recycling centers, dusty basements or foreign auction sites. Sometimes buying an entire keyboard (or a pallet of them for that matter...) for just for a single keycap in a new color or an unknown type of board.

Now pretty much everything seems to be discovered and documented. We are also able to pretty much buy and produce everything - even things long believed to be gone for good, as long as we meet a certain MOQ.

Part of me really likes this and it's great to have access to all of these amazing things (such as GMK doubleshots or pretty much every Korean custom board) and I will surely need to try and get some of these new things for myself sooner or later. The other part is disappointed because at the same time it is putting an end to the fun of finding or obtaining these things the hard way. Remember webwit's quest for the flat IBM capslock key? That's the part I enjoy the most about this hobby. Treasure hunting, making contacts, discovering the holy grail.. I don't know.

All that said, my collection is still pretty much unchanged. In fact it has probably grown a bit. I had some stupid finds that I just could not pass up on, such as another G80-2000 for 1 Euro. I will need to sell some of it off soon though, since the extra storage space I have rented will expire this year.

My eyes still twitch to every keyboard on TV, I still look out for rare stuff and I still recognize a Model M in the background of random voice calls... Not much changed there. I still do enjoy all of this a lot.

I'll try to post some every now and then. And I'm sure I'll be selling and buying a bunch of stuff again eventually as well.

PS: Whoever guessed it was me posting on some 4chan /g/ keyboard thread sometime last year just based on my writing style and knowledge: congrats, you really creeped me out with that

[tinnie]

HEY SIXTY!!!

[kbdfr]

Hi again sixty, nice to hear from you

[photekq]

Sixty, I'm a latecomer to the keyboard enthusiast communities, and I was never around back when you were active. However, I've gone through all the photos on your DT/KBDMANIA/OTD accounts many, many times. Your photos have always been my favourites, and your Cherry collection has always amazed me (and made me embarrassed about my own ). I never had a chance to look at keyboardporn.com, and I've wondered if there is anywhere I can find a backup, or a collection of all the keyboard photos you've taken? If there is, I would love to be able to see it.

Welcome back! Terrible to hear about all that bollocks you got from Paypal, and great to hear about the 1€ G80-2000 find another one in DE layout?

[002]

Good to hear from you, sixty
There's still plenty of stuff left to discover and document, but I'd say that a lot (not all) of the *cool* stuff has been discovered already. Nowadays it's Daniel cracking the whip and chasing up leads more than anyone and the wiki is great because of it.

[Findecanor]

Hello dude!

[sixty]

Thanks for the warm welcome(back) guys!

I've wondered if there is anywhere I can find a backup, or a collection of all the keyboard photos you've taken? If there is, I would love to be able to see it.

Oh yeah that... sadly I forgot to pay for the domain at some point, so most of it is gone. I still have all the images that used to be on it. 355 unsorted, unordered and probably incomplete images from keyboardporn.com, go all out!

http://imgur.com/a/M93qm#0

As usual feel free to use the pictures anywhere.

There is also a bunch of stuff I never had time to document/review properly, such as this much more modern variant of the Phoneboard:

http://imgur.com/a/WI0K4#0

I'll have to go through my collection (both digital and physical) one of these days

another one in DE layout?

Yeah, but very different on the inside from the other one I have.

There's still plenty of stuff left to discover and document, but I'd say that a lot (not all) of the *cool* stuff has been discovered already. Nowadays it's Daniel cracking the whip and chasing up leads more than anyone and the wiki is great because of it.

You're right. There always is more to discover. Everyone who is working on the wiki did quite an amazing job. That thing grew so much!

[photekq]

Brilliant! Just skimmed through those pics since it's 5am. Great stuff.. those Nixdorf black pics make me drool every time. So glad I was able to get some of my own.

I hope to see more beautiful pics soon!

One thing I'm curious about more than anything.. Where did you get those A-profile GMK RGBs in the 'RGB' folder of your imgur account?

[REVENGE]

http://imgur.com/a/M93qm#0

That was a DAMN good collection, thanks for mirroring it!

EDIT: Ah yes, the legend returns.

Speaking of health issues, I hope you don't mean this is your new daily driver...

[sixty]

One thing I'm curious about more than anything.. Where did you get those A-profile GMK RGBs in the 'RGB' folder of your imgur account?

Through a third party from Cherry.
198 more of those exist somewhere out there, mostly in Korea.

EDIT: Ah yes, the legend returns.

I think I still have this board somewhere... I might put it up for sale. Who wouldn't want this?!

PS: This was actually made by Tipro too. I contacted them years ago and they were extremely surprised that some of these were still out there in the wild. The support guy was really helpful and helped me track down all information he could on this board, which sadly was not much anymore.

Speaking of health issues, I hope you don't mean this is your new daily driver...

Another Tipro.. nah no shaky issues here... yet.
This board has been salvaged for the switches and caps long ago

[Broadmonkey]

Hi, Sixty! It's great to see you here again! (even though I was just a lurker back then)
Now that I have the chance, what keyboard(s) have you been using regularly since? I've always wondered about this, since it was assumed you had lost the interest.

[CeeSA]

Hi Sixty, nice to read your post, see that Avatar (with a actual timestamp) and have a look at your pic archives.
Always a pleasure.

I had always hoped to meet you at a keyboard party and also see some treasure in real life.

[rindorbrot]

Welcome back sixty!

[woody]

Hey!

[Muirium]

Welcome back home, Sixty! Didn't think I'd ever get to write that.

Tinnie: you are a wizard, I'm certain now. First all those SSKs, then the Kishsavers, and now Sixty! What can't you summon forth?!?

[7bit]

Welcome back!


What about a keyboard party in you storage facility?

[REVENGE]

What about a keyboard party in you storage facility?

Is that where he stores the dead bodies of former Korean keyboard enthusiats?

[Muirium]

Translation: We really want to hear about your keyboard dungeon…

[cookie]

Welcome back! Good to have you around again

[HzFaq]

Nice to see you again sixty, hope you stick around a bit.

[webwit]

Good to see you online, man!

[matt3o]

huge win when you can use some pictures from your "meme" directory

[tinnie]

Tinnie: you are a wizard, I'm certain now. First all those SSKs, then the Kishsavers, and now Sixty! What can't you summon forth?!?

I can't summon this.

Spoiler:

[Dubsgalore]

All that keyboard porn..it's ridiculous

Like I said in my pm, I wasn't here for when you were active, but welcome back!

[matt3o]

Tinnie: you are a wizard, I'm certain now. First all those SSKs, then the Kishsavers, and now Sixty! What can't you summon forth?!?

I can't summon this.

Spoiler:

that's a pity! I love country plaid shirts