…Or weird situations like, “I know it’s not for sale - but here, take all my money anyway - because I’m leaving with your board/caps right now!”
I’ve been to a few meetups years ago and they were small enough that this wasn’t an issue. Fast forward to today and the gatherings are multiple times in size from what I remember.
With literally thousands of dollars showing up at these events has it been much of a struggle to keep the trouble makers out?
So I ran a meetup in Leeds UK back in May - and whilst it was relatively small (about 40 people) we had about $100k of keyboards in there Incl caps, artisans and other misc parts. But not a single issue (except people with dirty hands, isn’t that right @meliewx??)
I’ve also been to a couple of the larger MKUK meetups and again haven’t heard of anything like that. I get that there can always be accidents, and not everyone in the world is honourable - but this community seems really open and honest, the scams are few and far between, and its just a generally nice place to be.
Nope, I’ve been to four so far in my area, and the people seem to treat my board(s) better than I do. In fact, if you see me hovering around my gear at all, it’s just so I can talk your ear off about how awesome my taste is, dontcha agree, and to invite the onlooker to touch, feel, pick the damn thing up and feel how heavy it all is.
If I don’t, chances are, folks will stand there with their hands in their pockets and their noses two feet away from the board, studying every detail.
On the other hand, I do about the same thing. I want permission before touching and feeling. It just seems like the polite thing to do.
I’ve been to a couple of meetups and for those, I haven’t heard of anything going wrong in terms of theft/damage/malicious doing.
There was only one instance awhile back where someone had a couple (maybe 2) of their artisan keycaps stolen off their board (I wasn’t at this meetup) but I think that is an outlier and is far from being the norm.
I’ll second everything everyone else has said here. Worst I’ve heard was the artisan theft mentioned by @tiny, but it says something about how aberrant this single incident is that it has been mentioned to me a number of times. A bit of prudence is probably reasonable if you’re bringing something truly extremely valuable or irreplaceable (and everybody at meetups should try to help keep watch), but it’s not something I’ve ever personally worried about. I just never bring something I would be really upset not coming home with (it helps that for me there are very few physical objects on this planet, if any, to which that would apply). This ensures I can walk about and talk to everyone freely without feeling any need to hover anxiously near my boards.
very much this. 
I’ve never actually thought to inspect the keyboards that I’ve brought to meetups for damage. The only thing I do is wipe them down after I get home following the conclusion of a meetup. My experience is that people are generally quite considerate when it comes to handling keyboards. I think it stems from an unspoken understanding that if theft and damage become a problem, people will stop bringing their super cool keyboards. If there’s less to see and try, everybody loses.
With regards to inappropriate behavior directed at other attendees, I’ve yet to hear any horror stories.
Everyone loves their boards and treats them carefully. This habit extends to other boards as well so I don’t think there are issues. I’ve seen people also drop keyboards though because some boards are difficult to lift up from the table.
The only time I’ve ever picked someone else’s board up was when Norbaur brought the prototype case for the FC660c and even then it was only an inch off the table so I could feel how heavy the production board was going to be. Otherwise I keep it to poking at switches and making pleasant conversation.
Funny you mention wiping down your boards, I find it kind interesting that all the meetups now get pizza. I think its counter intuitive to have a greasy food eaten without utensils at a place where everyone is touching the same keyboards.
To the “war” stories point, been to a few meetups and never had any problems.
Can attest to this, the single biggest faux pas was probably me being a little tipsy and regailing people with extrenuous details on linears until they left glassy eyed.
Chris lets be honest, you don’t need to be drunk to wax lyrical about the virtues of linear switches 
Fair.
Dirty hands are the biggest issue I’ve encountered. But it is a major issue. I keep pumps of hand sanitizer on each table and encourage people to use them. That helps.
Also we always run out of pens, sharpies, and name tags, so I keep those handy.
Hand sanistiser ftw! What Jae said on a serious note though; no issues. I’d hope all would be the same with like minded individuals just enjoying the hobby and fellow enthusiasts 
We can already be friends. I had wet wipes and hand sanistiser at the Leeds UK meetup and apparently I was the odd/rude one for this 
I was at this meetup (but it wasn’t my artisans). That was kind of a huge bummer, and I’ve been pretty vigilant about watching my boards since then. I know a lot of folks out here stopped leaving artisans on their boards and keep them on/in something smaller that they can carry around with them (or just leave them at home 
).
Other than a few small drops (some people now label things as “do not pick up”) the only real “incident” I can think of was some guy that brought the single most disgusting keyboard I’ve ever seen to a meetup. It was all grimy and covered in hand cheese. 0/10, did not touch.
Yeah, imagine that slathered generously all over a keyboard and I think you’re pretty close.
Hand sanitizer kills the germs, but doesn’t remove the grime. It’d be ideal if people washed their hands before touching keyboards, but that’s difficult to enforce. Personally, I just don’t bring anything that I wouldn’t allow people to touch.
i think i heard someone stole some artisans
also a bag of switches
I don’t know if someone intentionally did it though because there’s sometimes a bunch of free stuff laying out for people to grab
i’ve also seen the reverse where there’s a free full keyset but people didn’t want to take it cause no one was really sure if it was free