Support for Alternative Layouts
This is a summary of how alternative layouts have been supported by kits such as Colevrak and Homing. It is not a discussion of alt layout performance and development, but if that interests you I highly recommend starting with Pascal Getreuer’s A guide to alt keyboard layouts (why, how, which one?). It’s a concise and comprehensive overview with links to some great sites that go deeper. He also has a separate Links about keyboards page. The Keyboard layouts doc he recommends explains layout goals and metrics in detail, summarizing the alt layouts discussed here as well as more than one hundred others. Sculpted-profile The majority of custom keycap sets are sculpted-profile (Cherry, SA, MT3, KAT, etc. - more on profiles generally here) so let’s start there. Because each row has a unique keycap shape, alt layouts require a unique keycap for each legend that moves off its QWERTY row. At first there were two The Dvorak layout was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak & William L....
Apr 23, 2024
So I guess what I'm saying is : it's okay to be frustrated, but realize that our frustration can be turned into guiding Massdrop to be better. Let's demand more reasonable timelines, better communication, and maybe some kind of rewards program for these kinds of delays. Perhaps we can get Massdrop to get a community manager that can be our Point of Contact for these kinds of things?
So have we been waiting because of delays in manufacturing? delays caused by the FCC? delays in delivery of the switches?
I really appreciate the thoughtful post, Atari. I think you're entirely right that Massdrop can and needs to be better. I'm sorry for the shitty experience. It's frankly not acceptable, and not what you should expect from Massdrop.
You'll be hearing more from me (and my team) on what we're doing to get better as a company (on everything from messaging, to execution). If you have any specific feedback you'd like to send me, feel free to reach me at brad.ross@massdrop.com. Thanks for the patience.
Hello, Brad! Congrats on your position at Massdrop! I'd like to start by saying the Mechanical Keyboard community is probably the defining character in describing a niche community. It's a small group of people who are VERY passionate about their hobby, and most of them have never seen the sudden variety and accessibility to products that's showing up now. It's a community that continues to grow, and Massdrop is helping a tremendous amount in making the community grow. Let's talk about few things that could really help with community relations:
- Deadlines for communication: a clear set of milestones for communication. Something along the lines of "Pre Drop", "Drop", "Near Drop End", "Drop End", and then every 4 weeks post-drop unless new information comes to light. This would be key.
- In our minds, even bad news is better than no news, since no news automatically means AWFUL news to most people.
- Clear Milestones for Drop Statuses: I think people would like to know what steps these products go through. I think that's extremely important. How many steps are there from the moment the drop ends until we see a shipment?
- -Order Placed
- -Order in Production
- -Product Sample Shipped
- -Sample Recived (rejected/accepted)
- -Final Production
- -Production Complete
- -Shipment to USA
- -Inspection
- -etc etc
- Important event notices: In the event that something might delay the order, let the community know! It may make some people a little upset to know their order is going to be delayed, but they would be upset either way. It's better for us to know why than to wonder.
- Recognition and Restitution: this will always feel like "too little, too late", but it's better than nothing. In the end, no one wants to either get a delayed, canceled, or lost item. However, we all know that it will happen, especially with something so special like keysets or keyboards. As a business, Massdrop has a bottom line; and I think most of the community sees that. What would help, though, is a little something to recognize the fact that Massdrop literally couldn't exist without the community supporting them in the same way that Massdrop serves the community. So something like a coupon, or entries into a monthly or yearly raffle for when things go wrong could help. Two of my items were delayed this year, so maybe I get two entries into the raffle for something. For people whose orders were not fulfilled for some reason (not enough ordered, bad products), maybe they can get 5 entries, in addition to whatever restitution was offered through customer support. Again, something is better than nothing..
This is just a preliminary discussion. I know some of these might be hard, impossible, or possibly not even legally permissible (raffles), but there are so many ways to improve. Thank you for you time, and please feel free to contact me at this address if you'd like to talk more.We're riding the wave of community-sourced design and production that has never really been seen before, at least not in this market. I really can't stress enough how amazing it is to see so many new products come to market AND those designers getting a cut of the sales. What was once a very risky and expensive venture for creators is going through what is called "democratization of means". This happened to another community I was once involved in: video filming and production. With the sudden arrival of sub-$100k HD cameras and Adobe Premiere costing only $1k, indie filmmakers started making movies at a blinding pace. Now we're getting new movies all the time! For an example: Neil Blomkamp made a five minute short film and got enough recognition to get funding to make District 9. That's pretty amazing.
The democratization of this process, via Massdrop, means that we may see new and exciting things coming out faster and faster, much to the detriment of our wallets! It's an exciting time to be part of this community, for sure.
Thanks from all of us for your cool and well-spoken representation. Thanks from me for the wisdom! Best, Ben