Things that make us go... hmmm šŸ¤”

I think Melissa was trying to moderate it all by herself between all of her other duties, so I’m glad to see Will post on there too now. It has a lot of potential, in the hands of someone with the time and social media experience to be more involved there.

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Will sounds like he’s an enthusiast first and foremost, but also has a background in entrepreneurship. As it happens he was in the right place to make this move although, even though I do love SP, this is pretty risky.

I’m also super glad he’s in the Pacific Northwest, so not only is SP going to keep running, but ownership remains local as well.

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SP really sounds like they would benefit from a community manager and thats some of what these new guys offer.

I heard something recently too about them trying to get DCS sets in stock. Designs unique to them too. [IC] DCS SMRT - Possible SP In-Stock Sale, waiting to hear from SP - ā€œAs of July 2024, Signature Plastics has expressed interest in selling both DCS and SA versions (they were interested well before this IC; this was less about finding a vendor than fine-tuning the design) as in-stock offerings; with no group buy.ā€

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Yep, that’s one of my designs! So yeah, a big frustration on my part, even though I love them, is that they’re really overwhelmed and slow to respond to emails. I’ve been trying to get an update on that set since July, when I sent them the ā€œfinalā€ kitting (barring changes they request). But I haven’t heard anything in over two months now.

I have another SA set in manufacturing that I haven’t heard about since July, either. I assume it’s finishing soon, but can’t say for certain without more info. That was one reason why I switched my latest design to MTNU.

I’m hoping that now that the sale has begun, they’ll have more resources. I’m not mad at them at all, I just wish I had answers when I’m asked multiple times a week where DCS and SA SMRT stand. I wish I knew!

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That was one of the points that Taeha asked Will, will there be an increase in community involvement. His response was careful, but generally it sounds like that’s the goal. Plus, they also have a Discord.

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Not familiar with Will myself either, but like @Piperaceae said he did say a lot of the things I think we wanted to hear. Personally I am just glad SP didn’t gobbled up by some corporate entity looking to cash in on the community.

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He’s actively reaching out to people on their Discord about meetups, that’s a good sign

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Doesn’t even mention his time as 1B for the San Francisco Giants:

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Probably embarrassed that he built an entire career at 1B out of slapping singles.

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harsh. He had a career avg OPS of .880!

(or maybe I’m missing a joke, probably more likely)

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Nah, I’m mostly kidding as a fan of the 90s Braves. He was Hall of Very Good, but especially later on he did lack a certain power you’d want out of a truly great First Baseman.

In a related note, all sets from Signature Plastics will now be Skiidata or Carbon. no exceptions.

ah. gotcha.

I figured something like that since it’s a joke also made about a more recently ex-Brave 1B

Will’s LinkedIn mentions: ā€œFor 10 years I was the head of product at Goldstar, helping it to grow to $100m AGR.ā€ I’m not sure what SP has for revenue, but it’s good to see a keyboard enthusiast with a design background and product experience at this level will be running things. I’m cautiously optimistic!

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So, uh, what’s up with Space Cables?

I was going to order Jamón 2 extras but now I’m not sure: are they having issues?

(Edit: they’ve removed all the chat channels)

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Not sure, but you’re definitely not the only one.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/1epwmh8/my_experience_with_spacecables/

I think some of these micro-vendors treat the business like a gambling hobby and they’re sure the next project will be the one that makes it all right so why not borrow a little from the current group-buy to fulfill the last one. I reckon most (but not all… e.g. RAMA) of the seeming exit scams happen out of desperation and shame. What’s the old saw? Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence?

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I sure hope they aren’t having problems because they finally got the Hubble65 cases from the other failed vendor delivered to Space Cables in Texas about a month ago. GODDAMNIT.

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That’s weird, I’ve had emails from the recently as well. I’ll be really disappointed if they crash and burn.

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guh, why did I have to get the keyboard from the bad batch (note this thing is new)

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also, when screwing around in toolbox, qmk just says ā€œi dunno, this thing weirdā€

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