Best keyboard switch 2015

[webwit]

Please vote for nominees for the Best keyboard switch in 2015.

You can use a maximum of 5 votes.

This is round 2. This round is used to trim down the suggested nominees from round 1 - the 5 entries with most votes will be promoted to official nominees and make it into the third and final round.

See the first round for reference and motivations.

By voting in the third round of this category, you can win ErgoDox PVC cases and keyboard carry cases from FalbaTech!

The second round ends on Wednesday 9 December, 00:00hrs UTC. You can change your vote until the end of the round. The full results will be published at the end of the Awards.

[webwit]

Currently ahead are, in alphabetical order:

Alps SKCL/SKCM switches
Gateron switches
IBM buckling springs
Project Zealio switches
Topre switches

[Muirium]

Project Zealio vs. Project Zealio purple?

Anyway, so long as buckling spring and Topre make the final!

[webwit]

Oh purple is the only color right?

[Muirium]

Yeah, both Zealio flavours are actually models of Gaterons:

http://deskthority.net/wiki/Gateron_KS- ... ect_Zealio

Which makes Purple Zealios a subset of Zealios which are a subset of Gaterons, also in contention! I'd consider merging both Zealio versions final vote, and allowing the next ranked entrant into the final as well.

[webwit]

Sounds good.

[Findecanor]

Oh purple is the only color right?

No, there are also translucent white linear.

The internal leaf springs are also different in the Zealio switches compared to the ones in the group buy of Gaterons this spring. The crosspoint has been rotated 90° so it would be same as Cherry.

[Muirium]

Whoops. Thought the question I answered was "purple is only the colour"!

Still seems daft to have three levels of hierarchy of the same switch up against each other though…

[webwit]

@Findecanor Ah yeah now I also remember your original nomination. I'll leave it as is.

[Findecanor]

Well, the Zealio switches are special in that they have gold-plated springs and transparent housings - which the stock Gateron switches don't have.
You could combine parts of stock Gaterons with Korean springs and transparent tops to almost get linear Zealios: but the transparent bottoms are only available in the Zealio switches.

The sliders in the purple Zealios are also special in that they are not part of Gateron's regular product line (or was at the time I entered it into the Wiki anyway).
What sets them apart from Cherry Clear sliders is that they slide smoother and that keycaps are not so tight on them.

[SL89]

When you do the next round, do you randomize the entries in the survey? I always feel like lists that are the same across a voting process give an advantage to the people who are in the first entry. I'm asking this about all the votes btw, not just this one.

[webwit]

The first two rounds are currently in order of nomination time, the last round alphabetically:
http://deskthority.net/final-vote-f84/b ... t9300.html

I notice this problem with polls with a large number of entries, e.g. Best photo.

[Muirium]

Best Photo is a contest unlike all the others. Clicking the spoiler tags feels like work, and once you've seen the first set you might just shrug and pick your favourite from that. As a result, Photekq's tranche of late nominations aren't getting the attention they deserve.

I think that contest deserves something better than 50 entries getting cut down to 5 in one single round. Maybe simply a final set of 10 to choose from? With 10 votes to cast in the current stage. Better note this one to self so I can bring it up when we discuss next year's awards.

Anyway, if the Zealio's are distinct, leave them as they are. I'm biased: I want complicated Alps to reach the final damnit! All these damn MX clones…

[Halvar]

I'd consider merging both Zealio versions final vote, and allowing the next ranked entrant into the final as well.

I wonder why Findecanor didn't comment on this. I'm not a Zealio supporter because I didn't have a chance to try them yet, but it seems to make no sense to me from the view of Zealio voters to split up the vote on a switch type that few people will have had the chance to try anyway. You can see that the vote will be split from the fact that they're both in the top five right now.

[Muirium]

Also:

Next year I propose all nominations require a well written blurb and picture to be valid. That would save me and Webwit a lot of work, a lot of errors having to write about stuff we don't know nearly as well as the people who nominated it, and less competition against my own picks! Mwahaha!

Seriously though, there's going to be so much sniping when you guys read whatever we say about purple Zealio switches for instance. They're up against Gaterons and, um, "regular" Zealios which are somehow not the same as regular Gaterons? I'm not writing that one. You'd hear my condescension dripping down like rain about clones of clones of clones of meh switches in the first place!

Simply saying a name in the nominations thread isn't enough to make for a clear contest. But that's how it is now.

[Findecanor]

I'd consider merging both Zealio versions final vote, and allowing the next ranked entrant into the final as well.

I wonder why Findecanor didn't comment on this.

I don't think categories could be changed once voting has started.

I mentioned above how the three Gateron-manufactured switch nominations could be told apart as different. In the earlier thread, I did not mean to actually nominate the Purple Zealios separately, only mention that I thought that the purple ones were especially worthy of nomination, but once a nomination has entered the list that would prevent anyone else from nominating it because it is already done. Therefore, a nomination can not be undone.

[webwit]

Ok, I'll merge them in the final. Can't change the poll, it would reset the vote.

[Muirium]

Yeah, no need to reset the poll. We'll just manually merge their votes at the end.

So, Findecanor, care to help us by writing the blurb for Gateron and Zealios for the final round? Me and Webwit are already writing loads of other ones across all categories. I honestly don't understand the subtle differences in these switches from MX.