I was just thinking how much I miss the early days of the hobby and what a Wild West it was.
This. This is exactly like the old days where youâre out money for something that never showed up.
On a serious note, sorry youâre going through such a frustrating experience and potentially out the cash as well as time.
Iâm so glad that I missed those early days. I hope that the keyboard community consistently demands excellence in service, quality and quality control from suppliers and producers. Keyboards and keyboard accessories sure ainât cheap. I really appreciate it when members related their problems. Thanks @donpark It does impact my shopping habits.
Iâve noticed that Apex keyboards either isnât updating their tracking information or they have become pretty slow to ship. I ordered a GMK Teradrive addon kit a week ago to fill out my Boardsource Lulu with the correct labels and it hasnât shipped yet. There are similar issues I see on their discord. While this is concerning, they do say theyâre a one-person shop which seems wild for the amount of inventory they must go through.
Maybe the person running it was under the weather? I worry about one-person shops because I think the natural tendency is for everyone to work themselves past burnout and straight into exhaustion. Iâm honestly relieved when shops I like showing messages saying âorders will be slow for the next two weeks due to vacationâ because I know theyâre at least attempting some work-life balance.
I really hope these are April fools jokes. Matias is charging $600 for their normal, full size keyboard the only difference being Tap mod on spacebar to enable a second layer. That is a $450 premium for QMK.
Sadly it looks legit and like they are targeting the disabled, meaning they can charge this because stupid institutions will buy it.
This is just as bad. It is like charging more for a thong than full underwear. Half the fabric, twice the price!
One half of a laptop keyboard with QMK for the low price of $600.
Just WOW⌠I have no idea when the prices became what they are now, but the smaller âHalf Keyboardâ debuted in 2001 for $99. Charging $600 for a 23-year-old keyboard design for the Half Keyboard in 2024 seems like straight out exploitation of the disabled and intended to bilk government agencies.
Matias deserves to be pilloried over this pricing. Itâs gross.
For any future search/Google visitors: look for a split ortholinear keyboard that supports QMK/VIA or VIAL software. Youâll be able to customize your keyboard to do exactly what the Matias boards can do at a tiny fraction of the cost. Additionally, there are hundreds of friendly people on KeebTalk or QMK Discord groups that can help you with the customization if you run into challenges. 
Edit: other than keycap legends and some simple programming, the $150 Dvorak Pro Keyboard and the $600 Half-QWERTY Pro Keyboard appear to be identical:
Pretty shameful pricing. The ONLY way someone would shell out this much money is because their work or insurance would pay for it.
I cannot imagine a way to justify $500 added value from different firmware.
Definitely seems like an insurance cash grab to me. A shameful one at that.
On one hand I definitely donât enjoy the uncertainty that comes with that kind of new frontier kind of feeling, lately Iâve been getting a bit of a vibe that the hobby at large is flailing a little. Mostly due to the relatively recent chain of companies flopping on delivery. Iâm definitely a newer participant in the hobby (got into it ~2019 and have only been involved on an on-and-off basis since then) so Iâm sure that Iâm missing some of the history in the hobby but has this always been an issue or is it more visible now that the hobby seems to be moving out of the grassroots kind of vibe it had pre-pandemic.
Also this is kind of foul NGLâŚ
I think there was a much stronger feeling of caveat emptor back in the early days. You kinda knew that if the GB or transaction goes south, then you just ate the cost.
Community trust in an individual was a HUGE factor in being able to successfully sell anything at volume.
Now that there are so many professional vendors, that feeling of caveat emptor has largely seemed to vanish from the community. We should have high expectations of companies in the space. Thatâs why I think these days the level of surprise at something going poorly is greater.
Feel like spiting your eyes?
Honestly I kinda love it⌠the 90âs nostalgia in me is stronk
I absolutely love this set
edit: if I had kept this HG and put Hi! Viz on it I could basically guarantee you that Iâd never be hit by a car while typing
edit 2: I propose we send some keyboards with Hi! Rez on 'em up to folks living in the Arctic Circle and see if it can help with Seasonal Affective Disorder
Iâd get it if it had some more 40s support. Itâs so brightâŚ
oh I love this set - with the metallic legends? It will be great on its own (but definitely bright!) and mixed with other setsâŚIâm might go in on this one!
Just an example from earlier US-mail-is-weird discussions;
This Informed Delivery message says I can expect my package from Vala today before 9PM - but Iâve used this enough to know itâs almost certainly not coming today, but tomorrow. Two hints this is the case:
âby 9:00PMâ is almost always code for âitâs scheduled for that day, but isnât coming that dayâ
The last update says âmoving through networkâ rather than âout for deliveryâ; if the message says itâs coming today but the last update isnât âout for deliveryâ it probably isnât coming today
These conventions have been pretty consistent over the past three or four years. 
terminology game, huh? 
I donât know why but this made me laugh harder than it should have. 
This is what it looks like when your package is actually arriving today:
Time similar to regular local drop-off
âout for deliveryâ
The just-announced BSUN Strawberry Cheesecake Switch seems to use the exact same colors as the Gateron Mini i. And I know thereâs no copyright on colors, but the timing of two switches with a nearly identical palette struck me as a bit peculiar.
BSUN Strawberry Cheesecake:
Gateron Mini i:
