Deskthority Awards
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This article requires additional photographic illustration — need picture of Trophkey, logos |
The Deskthority Awards is a yearly award, given by Deskthority for outstanding achievements in the field of keyboards and input devices. The awards have been held every year until 2020 at the end of November.
Contents
Description
Nominees
The nominees have been nominated and voted for by the members on the forum, in multiple rounds in case they have been many. Nominees have been either commercial entities or individual users within the community, depending on the category.
To be eligible for a nomination, the achievement needed to have been performed (or at least be relevant) within the last rolling year, or since the last year's award started.
Prizes
From 2012 forward, each winner that has had a presence on the forum has received a Wingnut Throphkey from Clack Factory as prize. Winners of The Deskthority Award' have received a golden wingnut while other winners have received one in silver.
Voter prizes
Besides award winners, voters have been randomly selected to win prizes from sponsors.
Voter prizes have in many cases been full keyboards.
Award categories
The categories have varied (and much debated) throughout the years, but common categories (more than 4 of 8 times) have been:
- The Deskthority Award
- The most prestigious award. Awarded the Golden Wingnut prize for a significant achievement that had shadowed all others this year.
- Best regular keyboard
- A few years divided into "vintage" and "modern" or "regular" and "compact"
- Best ergonomic keyboard, "alternative" or "other" input device
- Most years one category, but a few years two separate.
- Best company or brand
- Awarded to a commercial entity, although the community-organised project behind the Phantom did win this in 2012.
- Best new project or innovation
- Awarded to something exciting that has brought the state of the art forward
- Best keycaps
- Has some times been split into two categories: for key sets and individual artisans.
- Best keyboard switch
- Often debated on forums, and has varied with user tastes.
- Best Deskthority contributor
- Was in 2012 and 2013 divided into "forum" and "wiki" contributors.
- Best vintage keyboard or relic/discovery
- Has been one or several categories throughout the years.
... and
- The *Ping* Award
- For something related to keyboards that happened in the last year that the active users find worthy of scorn. It is named for the "Summer of Ping" debacle on Geekhack in 2011.
Notable winners and nominees
- 7bit has won The Deskthority Award twice (2012 and 2014), Best forum contributor (2012) and Best keycaps(2015).
- Electronics Plus (elecplus) has won The Deskthority Award twice (2014 and 2018) for rescuing old keyboards and offering them to the community at fair prices.
- Chyros has won both Best Deskthority contributor (2015) and The Deskthority Award (2017) for his keyboard videos on Youtube.
- HaaTa has won Best Relic/Discovery no less than six times.
- Daniel Beardsmore won the Best Deskthority wiki contributor award both times it was a category (2012 and 2013).
- IBM 4704 series / "Kishsaver" 60% has won Best space-saving/compact keyboard (2013) and Best vintage keyboard twice (2014 and 2015).
- IBM buckling spring and Topre have each won Best keyboard switch twice, and been nominated many more.
- The ErgoDox won Best ergonomic keyboard in 2012 and 2013.
- Rollermouse won Best other input device in 2012 and 2014
... and
- Massdrop has won The *Ping* Award twice (2015 and 2017).
Apple has been a runner up to The *Ping* Award three times for the ultra low-profile "butterfly" keyboards in MacBook laptops (2015-2019).
Awards by year
Deskthority Awards were not held in 2020, 2021 or 2022.
2019
This year, nominations were free-form, without rigid categories. When nominating, suggestion for its category were welcome but not mandatory. Two categories were formed by organiser matt3o after the nomination round was over:
The winners were:
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Finds / Collections / Restorations | karlmartin95 for his IBM 4704 F77 find and restoration |
| Project & Overall Coolness | SneakyRobb for his Beamspring project |
2018
Deskthority Awards 2018 subforum.
This year, webwit had stepped down and matt3o took over running the awards. The award categories were reduced to four.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| The Deskthority Award | Electronics Plus ( elecplus) for saving so many keyboards and giving fair prices for them. |
| Best Project or Innovation | DMA's Common Sense Controller. A capacitive-sensing controller, now with support for Bluetooth and Topre. |
| Best Keycap or Keycaps Set | Cherry original doubleshots |
| Best Vintage Keyboard or Relic | Aer Fixus' IBM 3279 Beamspring Restoration. He took a beam spring keyboard that had been subject to horrors few other keyboards have suffered and restored it back to health. |
2017
Deskthority Awards 2017 subforum
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| The Deskthority Award | Chyros for his youtube productions in 2017 |
| Best modern keyboard or company | KBDfans |
| Best vintage keyboard or relic | JP! 's IBM 3741 Data Station / System 3 Barn Find |
| Best "other" input device | Keebio's Iris ergonomic keyboard |
| Best project or innovation | Click bar on Kailh BOX switches |
| Best keyswitch | Vintage Cherry MX Black |
| Best keycaps | GMK "Honeywell" |
| Best artisan keycap | Jelly Key's Forbidden Realm |
| Best input device photo | iArson—Jungle Mix Moba × Reaper |
| The *Ping* Award | Massdrop for "continuing to fail on numerous occasions" |
2016
Deskthority Awards 2016 subforum.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| The Deskthority | The Model MF project |
| Best modern keyboard or company | Zeal PC |
| Best "other" input device | Kurplop 's Planet 6 Keyboard |
| Best project or innovation | The Model MF project |
| Best keyswitch | Topre |
| Best keycaps | GMK "Carbon" |
| Best artisan keycap | Nebula |
| Best vintage keyboard or cache | Snuci's Model M rescue |
| Best relic or discovery | HaaTa's Topre 39-AA-0101 |
| Best input device photo | HaaTa—Robotron K7673.09 |
| The *Ping* | IvanIvanovich for "organising group buys and disappearing with the money" |
2015
Deskthority Awards 2015 subforum.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| The Deskthority Award | User Seebart for his contributions to the Wiki this year |
| The Deskthority Lifetime Award | Hasu for his TMK firmware and other projects |
| Best keyboard company or brand | Gateron |
| Best commercial keyboard | JUSTSYSTEMS × Realforce 108UW-HiPro |
| Best vintage keyboard | IBM 4704 series, including the "Kishsaver" |
| Best commercial alternative or other input device | Matias Ergo Pro |
| Best input device innovation | E3E 's Backlit Hotswappable Alps build |
| Best input device project | Ellipse's new industrial Model F keyboards |
| Best keyboard switch | IBM Buckling Spring |
| Best keycaps | 7bit's Round 5 |
| Best deskthority contributor | Chyros for his videos |
| Best relic or discovery | HaaTa's find of Cherry 01APBSW switches |
| Best input device photo | Madhias—IBM Space Saving Keyboard at Work |
| The *Ping* Award | Massdrop, for scruffy KC60 and Infinity ErgoDox drops, bad packaging of GMK trays, registration barrier (and other grievances) |
2014
Deskthority Awards 2014 subforum in the Archive.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| The Deskthority Award | Cindy of Electronics Plus |
| Best keyboard company or brand | GON's KeyboardWorks |
| Best regular keyboard | KFC board |
| Best space-saving or compact keyboard | TEX Yoda |
| Best vintage keyboard | IBM 4704 "Kishsaver" family |
| Best alternative or other input device | Contour Rollermouse Red |
| Best keyboard innovation | Cooler Master NovaTouch TKL |
| Best keyboard switch | Topre switches with Cherry stems in the NovaTouch TKL |
| Best keycaps | The Granite set by matt3o |
| Best self-built keyboard | Wcass' XTant |
| Best input device mod, device or software | Xwhatsit's Model F controller |
| Best Deskthority contributor | Matt3o |
| Best relic or discovery | HaaTa's Ultrasonic |
| Best input device photo | HAL for "Generations" |
| The *Ping* Award | The crushing of rare IBM "Kishsaver" keyboards because of a bank's data destruction policy. |
2013
Deskthority Awards 2013 subforum in the Archive.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| The Deskthority Award | Douglas Engelbart (1925-2013). Human-computer interface pioneer |
| Best keyboard company or brand | Ducky Nordic |
| Best regular keyboard | WASD V2 |
| Best space-saving/compact keyboard | IBM "Kishsaver" 60% Model F |
| Best ergonomic input device | ErgoDox |
| Best other input device | IBM TrackPoint |
| Best keyboard switch | IBM Buckling Spring |
| Best keycaps | APL triple-shot beam-spring keycaps |
| Best Deskthority forum contributor | Muirium |
| Best Deskthority wiki contributor | Daniel Beardsmore |
| Best input device mod | xwhatsit's beam spring USB controller |
| Best relic/discovery | HaaTa's Univac F-1355-00 keyboard |
| The *Ping* Award | GMK for its minimum order quantity |
2012
Deskthority Awards 2012 subforum in the Archive.
From this year on, each winner (with the exception of the *Ping* award) that is a Deskthority member received a Wingnut Trophkey. The keycaps were made especially for the Deskthority Awards by Clack Factory.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| Deskthority Award | 7bit |
| Best keyboard company or brand | Phantom (group buy) |
| Best regular keyboard | IBM Model M |
| Best space-saving/compact keyboard | Phantom |
| Best ergonomic input device | ErgoDox |
| Best other input device | CST 2545W trackball, Rollermouse (tie) |
| Best keyboard switch | Cherry MX Ergo Clear |
| Best keycaps | imsto for group buy of thick PBT keycaps |
| Best input device mod | Soarer's Converter |
| Best deskthority forum contributor | 7bit |
| Best Deskthority wiki contributor | Daniel Beardsmore |
| Best relic/discovery | HaaTa for more finds. |
| The *Ping* Award | Geekhack for "turning into a key cap enthusiast's forum/circlejerk arts and crafts site" |
2011
Deskthority Awards 2011 subforum in the Archive.
| Category | Winner |
|---|---|
| The Deskthority Award | 7bit for organizing Round 4 |
| Best keyboard company or brand | The Keyboard Company |
| Best regular keyboard | Filco Majestouch family |
| Best ergonomic keyboard/HID | DataHand Professional II |
| Best other (non-keyboard) HID | Kensington SlimBlade Trackball |
| Best keyboard switch | Cherry MX Brown |
| Best input device mod | Lowpoly's Apple M0110 mod |
| Best relic/discovery | HaaTa for his combined archeological work in 2011 |
| The *Ping* Award | Geekhack trojan attacks, No MiniGuru in 2011 (tie) |
