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xNyxNox t1_ixxxag1 wrote

Reply to comment by QWERKey-UK in Me whenever I ask a question or post a non-meta keyboard in this sub by HydroCigna

Sure, but people almost never actually answer questions there. Seriously, scroll through right now and look at almost half the questions sitting unanswered. Not that I am blaming the community, it's time consuming and frustrating to answer questions. Earlier this week, I spent over half an hour curating a list of options for somebody because they were asking about building a keyboard for $100 and the only comment was to buy holy pandas or something. After typing it all out and clicking post, the comment disappeared. I think it had to do with the links I attached even though I tried to remove anything that could be considered referral related. I literally just Googled the stuff, I'm not making any kickback on it.

Also, the fact that it resets kinda sucks. If you post a question at the wrong time, you may never get an answer because soon after you typed it, a new post was made.

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QWERKey-UK t1_ixxyv93 wrote

>Sure, but people almost never actually answer questions there.

No more of less than they would in the main feed. It depends on the question. If it's a "what keyboard should I buy?" question, then no, of course not. It's a pointless question that has no real answer without a long conversation to establish what the user needs. That's time consuming. The OP should just do a bit or research to see what they like. If you suggest that though... apparently you are elitist. If it's actually a question that can be answered meaningfully, then they often get answered.

I often spend time in that thread and do what I can help people, especially newcomers, but seriously, most of the questions are like "what's the best switch?". I tend to ignore such questions, as there's no really useful answer to give, and explaining why is again time consuming.

I do what I can, like many do, but let's be honest, questions like that never really generate useful answers even if they are in the main feed. Usually, they get ignored there as well, or at worst, get hundreds of answers from people just recommending what they personally like, and that is just as useless for the OP.

>"After typing it all out and clicking post, the comment disappeared. I think it had to do with the links I attached"

There are many sites that linking to will get the post removed. Did you link to AliExpress? It's best not to link to such sites.

>Also, the fact that it resets kinda sucks.

Can you imagine the thread without it? Sure, it resets, but you can just ask again, and the point is, you can ask as many times as you like without cluttering up the main feed and annoying people with the same question. Let's be honest, beginners never actually do check to see if their question has been asked. They can't do, or they'd not just dive in with "Hi, I'm new.... what keyboard should I get?". If people think complaining about that is "elitist" then they need to have a good think about how that can be annoying in a sub with over a million people subcribed to it. Of anyone still thinks it's elitist after that, then tough. There has to be some moderation on these things in a subreddit of this size. It can't be a free-for-all where the feed gets filled with "how do I get thock" posts. Just you watch though... this post will get downvoted. You can't just barge in and blurt out the same question that every other person asks when they also just barge in and blurt it out without searching and then accuse anyone that complains as elitist, as THAT makes you look like an over-privileged brat who expects everyone to stop what they are doing to pander to your needs.

Give and take. Spend some time reading the sub, and the wiki, and take at least a few minutes to see if your questions have already been answered.

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xNyxNox t1_ixxzxq9 wrote

I definitely appreciate you and the others who regularly answer questions there. I try when I can, but admittedly I'm not sure I have enough experience to answer a lot of questions people ask. All of my keyboards are around $100 of total parts each, so I know nothing about the higher end.

I think it would be helpful if people ask useless questions to politely inform them. That way, they don't get discouraged from lack of help and people don't have to see the same person come back and post the same question tomorrow.

Like when people ask what keyboard to buy, say:

"That's a really hard question to answer because there are so many options. You should decide what layout you want and a budget, then come back with that information to get some options."

Maybe a copy & paste so it's less painful to type out each time? I know it's not a perfect solution, but it feels really bad to scroll through and see so many unanswered comments.

Also, small sample size I know, but someone posted they didn't know which switch to buy on the same day I was typing out that big response to the other guy. I told him I needed more info and before I was even finished writing out the other post, he had more info for me and also asked me to share what I personally enjoyed. I don't think it's fair to say beginners won't come back to their post, although I know it does happen sometimes.

Some people definitely suck at answering questions, like the guy I referenced in my original post who answered someone asking how to make a $100 build with "I like holy pandas," but that doesn't mean we shouldn't give people an active place to ask questions. That being said, you're right, this is a huge subreddit and it would be really annoying for a million people to get pinged every time someone asked a question and it got some upvotes.

I don't know that there's anything wrong with a separate place to ask and answer questions, but having a daily threat that resets every day means that if someone has the same question that someone else had in the past, it can be really hard to find that answer even though it's a question that's already been asked and answered.

I like the idea someone else proposed of an alternative sub just for asking/answering questions, but obviously someone has to have the time to create and run that. I don't really have a good solution for this part of the problem, it just comes with having an open community I think.

Also, kind of a side discussion at this point, but I linked Amazon, Dangkeebs, and Akko's website. I'm assuming it was Amazon that got the post removed, but it's honestly not a bad place to buy ultra cheap keycaps imo.

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QWERKey-UK t1_ixy24lq wrote

>I definitely appreciate you and the others who regularly answer questions there

That's good to hear.

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>Like when people ask what keyboard to buy, say:
>
>"That's a really hard question to answer because there are so many options. You should decide what layout you want and a budget, then come back with that information to get some options."

Seriously... done that. You still get accused of being elitist. I get accused of it constantly. Kids just don't like it when you say things they don't want to hear, and I'm sorry, most of the salt comes from people who, if you read their posts, are obviously kids. This very paragraph will be seen as elitist as well now... by kids LOL. You can't fucking win. Kids are selfish. It's a fact. I have a kid... and I used to be a kid. It's just one of those facts that is unpleasant... when you are a kid. (shrug).

I just scroll through and look for things I just supply a definitive answer to. If many others did the same, then that thread would be as useful as the admins obviously thought it would (should) be. I'm not here to be anyone's friend, or mentor. I wish I had the time, but considering how busy I am, I'm absolutely amazed I find as much time as I do in here, so when after just disseminating common sense advice and genuine help, I get accused of this this (by people who never help anyone themselves), then those people can just take a running jump; Their tiny minds cannot comprehend how uninterested I am in their childish opinions. If they are too lazy to just spend some time researching at least whether their question has recently been asked, then they can just fuck right off. this has nothing to do with being a beginner in this hobby. It has nothing to do with keyboards... It's just lazy and annoying, and crap behaviour and poor etiquette... in ANY internet forum. Saying "but I'm only a beginner" is not an excuse. A beginner at what? The internet? This is not keyboard specific. It's just about being rude and being lazy.

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>I like the idea someone else proposed of an alternative sub just for asking/answering questions,

The minute you do that, then everyone who feels even slightly aggrieved will want their own sub, and most of those people will part on bad terms because they thought they were badly done by in THIS sub. This is what happened with budgetkeebs, and now look at how they behave. Bad idea. There's a wealth of help available right here in this sub from people who have been in this game for a very long time. If you develop a breakaway sub just for beginners, only the beginners will use it. It would be like the blind leading the blind.. it would be a car crash. The thing is though, the people IN that sub probably wouldn't care.. or even know... so long as they get their answers... any answers... even bad ones.

Sometimes being pragmatic makes you sound harsh and cold, but if you dispassionately think about these issues, you'll see there's logic in there.

Release your inner Spock.

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Kirball904 t1_ixz45ne wrote

Doesn’t matter what you do if you aren’t suggesting clones and cheap knock offs or you tell people anything they don’t want to hear you will be called elitist. It’s a hypocritical irony the calling of people elitists has become this whole other group of people that act elitist about being on the side of the average person.

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QWERKey-UK t1_ixzc7mh wrote

Yep. Inverse elitism. Simple as that. The fact is, the existence of expensive group buy boards and keycaps doesn't affect anyone who has no intention of buying them. There will always be cheaper in stock items, no matter whether it is keycaps, or keyboards. There are plenty of in stock options for keycaps that are not clones, and the same can be said for keyboards. There's never been a better time to be in this hobby on a budget, but some people seem to think that if only they can get rid of group buys, they'll be able to get GMK caps for $50 with next day delivery, or a TGR board for $200 within weeks of ordering it. They don't understand how it all works. They just say " Why don't they just make them and sell them". If it was that simple, it would be happening already. They fail to realise that all these grail products are not mass manufactured, they are designed by members of this community who do not have the financial backing to just fund the mass manufacture of these things. They also fail to realise just how small these production runs are. Take keycaps for example. A successful group buy only sells around 2 to 3 thousand sets (including extras). That's not because anyone has chosen this as some kind of artificial limit... that's just the amount that was sold. The MOQ on GMK is 250 sets. GMK will make as many as you tell them to so long as you hit the MOQ. So those that realise this would be incredibly foolish to personally fund the production of more than this, even if they had the cash to do it.

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xNyxNox t1_ixy2kal wrote

Well, I guess I can't really disagree with experience. I am thinking about things more theoretically, I'm not usually that active either in this community or on reddit, so it was mostly just ideas. It seems like you're someone who's pretty well versed in both.

I am interested though in your thoughts on budgetkeebs. I look a quick look over there (as I said earlier all my keyboards are cheap so I thought it'd be interesting) and I didn't see anything that looked strange. What's up with that community and now that I'm interested in it, is it something I should stay away from?

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QWERKey-UK t1_ixy3mfg wrote

I'm just me. Diplomacy has never been one of my strengths LOL.

Re: the other sub. It's not their behaviour in their own sub that I refer to, but their behaviour in here. There was an issue when they set up the sub, when people from there used to brigade like fuck in here. They would pounce on any newcomer's thread and tell them they would not be welcome in here unless they had an expensive board, and then use the opportunity to tell them they'd be more welcome in their sub instead. If you read their rules, you will see that their attitude is in fact so anti-elitist, it's actually elitist. One of their rules is no group buys for instance, even though some of the best budget oriented keyboards of the past year have been group buys. Inverse snobbery, which is just as bad as what they accuse people in here of doing.

I'm not suggesting you should stay away from anything. There's definitely a remit to that sub though that is not necessarily just budget keyboards. It's also redundant; The vast majority of boards posted in THIS sub, are budget oriented boards.

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Kirball904 t1_ixz4b1y wrote

That community is a haven for people that buy rip off counterfeit products. I personally think it’s bad for the hobby.

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