Whatever happened to ________?

[raoulduke-esq]

If you like. Which evidently you do!

Well we need someone to blame and listening to a bunch of apologists explain why webwit didn't actually sell out has gotten old. You're around more than most, so you when you said "we failed"... must be the royal we. Instant scapegoat.

[Muirium]

I’ve not been around consistently enough to see anyone apologising for him. Fair do’s: it was his to sell. You won’t find me trying to say a fat bung is not a sellout. He sold out. It was his, and so (after many years of joking about it) he did.

Besides for a really shitty welcome for the new kid, which hasn’t gotten any better, I don’t see us users doing anything about it. Which was exactly our problem back in the old days, too. No one besides Matteo ever really put in the effort, and even he burned out. Thankless business, manning a forum. The real thanks being to actually share in the effort, not just typing cheers.

I wish NeXTthority the best of luck. But I can see exactly the same problems lying in store for them, once being the one and only “Someone” behind the scenes gets old.

[raoulduke-esq]

We're doing what we can on the Discord side of the house, but on the forum side we can do fuck all without Oliver. Can't add mods, can't un-screw stuff, etc.

That's right folks- mods aren't just asleep; they don't exist.

[invalid mr_a500]

Where are andrewjoy and Findecanor? They were great guys.

What about conversion heros like Sangdrax, OldIsNew and, of course, xwhatsit?

Did this place die or what?

[Muirium]

People come and go. Sometimes old regulars show up and sometimes not. Such is life. Me and you are like that too, right enough!

Keyboards are a hard hobby to stay into forever. Sometimes you just get the itch again.

[invalid mr_a500]

People come and go. Sometimes old regulars show up and sometimes not. Such is life. Me and you are like that too, right enough!

Keyboards are a hard hobby to stay into forever. Sometimes you just get the itch again.

Yes, you're right. I'll be gone again soon - and I'll never be back. Life is about to get serious.

[Muirium]

Serious good or serious bad, have luck my old rival.

And whatever you do, don't let those squirrels win!

[invalid mr_a500]

Serious good or serious bad, have luck my old rival.

And whatever you do, don't let those squirrels win!

Serious bad, my friend. It's coming - this winter. It has been planned for decades. I see the plan. (..."I see plans within plans"... sorry, Dune quote)

Hopefully, I'm wrong, nothing will happen and everybody can laugh at me like school girls on helium. I don't think I'm wrong. So far, I've accurately predicted everything that has happened in the last 2 years. Doom is coming.

[Muirium]

Chilling.

I'd make a joke about needing a good bottle of Scotch, but, man, you need real courage not just the fuzzy minded Dutch stuff. It's not easy, all this. We can joke about it, try to put our minds on something else. Something we can handle. But, in the end, the only way out is through.

You do what you can, you hear. Do what you need. And when you can't, well, we're all there sooner or later, too. It's a fucking trip, this life…

[kelvinhall05]

Serious good or serious bad, have luck my old rival.

And whatever you do, don't let those squirrels win!

Serious bad, my friend. It's coming - this winter. It has been planned for decades. I see the plan. (..."I see plans within plans"... sorry, Dune quote)

Hopefully, I'm wrong, nothing will happen and everybody can laugh at me like school girls on helium. I don't think I'm wrong. So far, I've accurately predicted everything that has happened in the last 2 years. Doom is coming.

you've had your turn, pass the boof

[kbdfr]

Where are […] and Findecanor? They were great guys. […]

Findecanor at least is posting once in a while.
And yes, great guy.

[wobbled]

We're doing what we can on the Discord side of the house, but on the forum side we can do fuck all without Oliver. Can't add mods, can't un-screw stuff, etc.

That's right folks- mods aren't just asleep; they don't exist.

I was all for giving the guy a chance after the discord call with him - but it doesn't appear anything is actually happening other than garbage merch and other quick money making schemes being created.
I do think matt3o should've taken control after the amount of effort he put into the place with an effective & mature moderation team to back him.

[invalid mr_a500]

Serious good or serious bad, have luck my old rival.

And whatever you do, don't let those squirrels win!

Serious bad, my friend. It's coming - this winter. It has been planned for decades. I see the plan. (..."I see plans within plans"... sorry, Dune quote)

Hopefully, I'm wrong, nothing will happen and everybody can laugh at me like school girls on helium. I don't think I'm wrong. So far, I've accurately predicted everything that has happened in the last 2 years. Doom is coming.

you've had your turn, pass the boof

What is a "boof"? (... and where may I acquire some?)

If you're saying I'm a paranoid moron, then I hope you're right. We'll see this fall. It's coming. Prepare.

[Muirium]

The APLocalypse!?!

[kelvinhall05]

Serious bad, my friend. It's coming - this winter. It has been planned for decades. I see the plan. (..."I see plans within plans"... sorry, Dune quote)

Hopefully, I'm wrong, nothing will happen and everybody can laugh at me like school girls on helium. I don't think I'm wrong. So far, I've accurately predicted everything that has happened in the last 2 years. Doom is coming.

you've had your turn, pass the boof

What is a "boof"? (... and where may I acquire some?)

If you're saying I'm a paranoid moron, then I hope you're right. We'll see this fall. It's coming. Prepare.

I've submitted your post to the fbi for threats of domestic terrorism.

[Muirium]

Canadian FBI wants to have a word with your mom.

[invalid mr_a500]

The FBI has no jurisdiction in my country. (...but I don't know if they know that)

Bah. What can the FBI do to me that the Mossad hasn't already done?

[depletedvespene]

The FBI has no jurisdiction in my country. (...but I don't know if they know that)

Don't worry. They'll have it if they decide it's in their best interest.

[Muirium]

Mossad? The smart money is on Shin Bet.

[invalid mr_a500]

Mossad? The smart money is on Shin Bet.

Maybe. They seemed like Mossad to me. They broke into my house, tied me up and forced me to watch the 3 hour director's cut of Yentl - all for just questioning why grocery food products have to be blessed by a rabbi.

[Muirium]

They worked me over one time for my preference for Iraqi medjool over Israeli deglet-nour dates. I am officially re-educated, but between you and me I still don’t like those slimy, newfangled dates. Gimme the hard skinned juicy ones like the Sumerians any day.

[Wodan]

Hopefully, I'm wrong, nothing will happen and everybody can laugh at me like school girls on helium. I don't think I'm wrong. So far, I've accurately predicted everything that has happened in the last 2 years. Doom is coming.

Yeah so maybe you could just predict 2-3 days of crypto market and help a brother get some gainzzz

[Sangdrax]

Where are andrewjoy and Findecanor? They were great guys.

What about conversion heros like Sangdrax, OldIsNew and, of course, xwhatsit?

Did this place die or what?

6 month necrobump but I thought I'd share my story at least. I got a new job in 2019, moved states. DMA even visited me in the rundown old rock castle apartment I had when I got started. Then the pandemic hit, I got a house, and then just a few weeks ago, my Epson QX-10 I had been using for my daily driver for years started acting funny, ghosting and worse. I had the electronic conversion itch bad again and started pulling old projects out of storage.

I have an F&F that needs a conversion, two alps tall cream terminals and a couple others. I figured out nothing in my QX-10 died and it was just a hair over the naked diodes causing problems. And the convertor in my pingmaster threw the USB port off the board so I have to make a new Soarer's for that. Then I decided to get a new beamspring project to restore and convert to compare to the new Round 2 new production and see the comparison firsthand.

So I'm back, for at least a little while. Ready to try to tackle some of my old magvalve monsters now that DMA has had more time to perfect his magic.

[ifohancroft]

Welcome back Sangdrax! Happy to hear that your QX-10 ended up being fine!

P.S. Anyone knows what happened to manisteinn? Also, Palatino? I thought Palatino's off again as he tends to disappear every few months for a few months, but it's been awhile already and I'm starting to worry.

[del20nd]

I think it's just the nature of this hobby to be in and out. I've been a member of GH since 2011, but if I look at my post history there's really only 3-4 periods where I was active on the site.

My nature is to get an itch for a keyboard, look it up, ask questions, (maybe) ultimately buy it, talk about the new keyboard, learn everything there is to know about it and maybe contribute some new info if I find it... and then I'm satisfied. If the new keyboard works and continues to be a pleasure, what more is there to say about it? Time to give my other hobbies some attention.

This is in contrast to my presence on the MX5 Miata forums, because old cars always have things going wrong to ask about and document for others, and even if your car is doing fine there's probably somebody else you can answer a question for. Compared to this, my Model F keyboard is quite reliable and all the info anyone could ever want on it already exists. This includes in depth Q&As with the original switch designer. What can I add outside of personal opinion?

Maybe once in awhile I'll check in, think about getting a new board again, but probably just as a lurker. I don't feel too compelled to post unless some new board has caught my attention, as it has right now.

[ifohancroft]

I think it's just the nature of this hobby to be in and out. I've been a member of GH since 2011, but if I look at my post history there's really only 3-4 periods where I was active on the site.

True. If it's just that he got bored or is busy or something, I'm fine with that. I guess all of us are posting here with the hope that they'll hear that the person is still alive and well. So basically I'm asking what happened to Palatino, hoping to hear some confirmation that he's alive.

[Muirium]

Checking in with absent users used to be easier when DT's email notification system still worked.

But yes, there's a fair truth in the notion that not everyone is mental enough to stick around constantly forever. Only us special few. (And even then…)

[micrex22]

It's fairly common in forums for individuals to move on as everyone has an expiration in the microcosm: whether it's because you've lost interest, have to deal with real-world problems, actually died, etc.

Hell, even our favourite friends Webwit and Ripster are long out of the keyboard game. https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyb ... i/ripster/ "Last revised by ripster55 - 6 years ago". I actually spoke with Sixty (unintentionally) on Discord, and he also said it just isn't as interesting as it once was.

I suppose the issue is it takes time to notice (being a forum format), and then when you do, it's already too late. Whereas something like a live chat you'll notice immediately when the person stops showing up rather than a problem that develops over time.

[Muirium]

Webwit still pops up around here fairly frequently to troll, so some things are still right with the world.

And yes I remember a handful of “holy shit, it’s sixty, risen from the grave!” moments over the years. He’s as infrequent as February 29ths, but both things have been known.

It’s hard to be excited when the scene you loved moved on. I get that too. My own heyday here was 2013-2015. Man, those were the days. Live Matteo and 7bit group pre-buys to badger into shape, group builds, Cindy, beams and Kishsavers. What’s a kid to do now for nowhere near a grand? Well, Gateron (in all their end user labels) has that covered, and I suppose I’d have just gotten into them.

Apparently I showed up in the brief, alluring, and downright challenging window between boring MX ‘modding’ (ghetto clears anyone?) being all there was and the lively post-MX renaissance that’s been all the rage these years since. Sure, we had to bide our time as our miracle finds showed up in recycling centres in Hong Kong and south Texas, then wait months for shipping and customs after, and then there was all the deep cleaning to get rid of vintage puke, but it was so worth it. Well, with all the right guys around here, too.

[pyrelink]

I have a lot of nostalgia for that same 2013-2016 period as well. Besides life just taking you in different directions with less time to put into hobbies, I think I got most of what I wanted to get out of keyboards. I like learning about and re-discovering old as dirt vintage stuff. Building and restoring old keyboards is super rewarding, but eventually you've exhausted it all.

During those golden years we kinda did it. We completed keyboards. We could convert almost all of the grail vintage stuff, we had a super fleshed out wiki, and with the graciousness of people like Cindy, if you wanted one of those grails you could have it at a super reasonable price. Outside of pursuing this hobby, how many keyboards does one really need?

Once the Model MF project burned out I felt like I could finally put the soldering iron down and move on to other things. I started collecting records and becoming more obsessed with music, fell in love with programming and became a software engineer. Still use a cool keyboard every single day, but now it's just part of the background. The 15lb F107 on my desk always makes for good conversation whenever I have guests over.

I will say though the direction of the scene has taken is disappointing to me. The explosion of the subreddit and keyboards into the mainstream really is not my cup of tea. It is such an expensive, consumerist, collection based thing now. Everyone trying to make a buck. Keyboard assembly has been dumbed down to Legos, and your measure of engagement in the community is showing off how much junk you've purchased. I realize I am just yelling at a cloud here, but I feel like hobbies should require more involvement than opening your wallet, and I see very little more than that anymore. Like imagine buying one of Ellipse's keyboards, or "building" your 5th gateron 65%. Absurd.

Anyway all that is to say that I think Deskthority was and still is in a lot of ways something special. Online communities and discourse these days is so terrible, and I don't think we (I?) realized how good we had it. Aside from like automotive communities, I feel like Deskthority and Geekhack were in the last generation of active discussion forums. Having communities siloed in synchronous Discord servers, or catering-to-the-lowest-common-denominator subreddits, with corporate overlords, just plain sucks. I have come back every now and again hoping to reignite the passion, but it has yet to take hold. I just bought a $50 SSK yesterday though so maybe there is hope for me yet...