keyboard redditors get someone fired, Corsair acquires Drop, crooked GMK keycaps

Managed to catch COVID again and am recovering so sorry about the slightly muddy voice if audio wasn't as clear!

If I'm being completely honest, I'm very glad that he lost his job. Now he knows how it feels when someone fucks with their hard earned money.

gb's are confusing and a pita

This hobby is what got a lot of people through covid and gave quite a few something to do at home wether researching or building … the state of the hobby now is dreadful most companies expanded during the boom of popularity but are now suffering because of the steady decline in hobby participants. A lot of vendors were already shady and when concerns were brought up like zeal and their terrible switch QC the customers were scoffed at simply from band wagoning. Makes me sad every time I check back into the hobby to see what’s new or going on and it’s all just a mess and everything is so horridly expensive now.

Of course group buys should still exist. This whole Mechs & Co saga is not the fault of group buys. Group buys are the only way the little guy can make stuff. No group buys, no hobby really, as we're just merely consumers when that happens, sitting here waiting for large companies to make something we want. Group buys give every one of us agency in our hobby. It's vendors that are the issue, not group buys.

I'm glad that the Mechs and Co founder got fired from his job. He got what he had coming. Full stop.

Dont know if anyone ever reported on that but PRKNS who wanted to make the 40% whimsy also made a keycap set called 1930 and never delivered, then just vanished from his discord and never returned. I remember someone telling me if I want to buy that keyboard I need to have some faith. Well lucky I am not a believer.

Heaven Beach in the background, you are a very tasteful man Taeha.

I virtually only buy from products if it's on preorder (AKA they are already in production and are simply waiting on shipments. Examples like the HIBI June), or if they're in stock. Osume has been fucking amazing and is virtually one of the only people I buy sets from because they have consistently good CS, are constantly fixing whatever rare mistakes pop up, and are very prompt with all order shipments and transparency.

GBs just shouldn't exist anymore, IMO. Just because the hobby is still small compared to other industires (though it's grown a lot), doesn't mean giving random untrustworthy people money for years on end makes sense. It kind of reminds me of the current arguments about fanzines. Fanzines are a much smaller market but there's been a huge spike in people taking 20/30k worth of preorders for a zine and running with the money. There's gotta be a solution

I don't understand why some group buys even exist like for the Kohaku guaranteed to sell just make a certain amount dont run a group buy and when you receive them then put them up for sale and and people will buy them.

<3

Don’t play with buyers money. People are investing into these businesses through the purchase of a promised product. Simply not delivering is asinine and leads to the situation you outlined. The flip side of the coin, let us not get angry enough to harass individuals who are subject to the same nonsense for the entities they work. Class action lawsuits are still the way to go.

thg group buy business model is the worst part about keyboards now. i have been burned by too many of these vendors at this point and have little faith in future GBs. also extras are easy to get on the ones that are successful without preording anything and also usually for cheaper.

Nerds with pitchforks are right up there with middle-aged women in terms of outrage.

As someone that is furiously waiting on my first ever absolute Group buy, GMK Sumi from Project Keyboards, I understand the frustration of the people affected by mechs and co. However, I also don’t support the personal harassment and comments they got but I do still think they should be held liable under a legal standpoint. For this same very reason I have not joined a GroupBuy since and will now only buy from reputable sources or second hand market I guess….it’s because of things like this that hurt the reputation of the hobby

Your face isn't clear in the thumbnail. I had no idea this was you.

I really like these, I need more of these pls k thx bai <3

I dont think the community have gone way too far & beyond.
I lost $600 and there is no way to chargeback.
Given that they didn’t pay vast majority of the GBs, where did all the money go to?
It is assumed that they owe at least $500k, it can’t just be a few business mistakes here and there.
Im guessing they were having too much fun and it is time for justice.

Haven't been a part of any GBs since 2020/early 21 at latest, but man it's crazy I've forgotten about so many GBs and just receiving shipment now—I can't imagine folks who have recently joined and are getting burned.

Has the hobby really scaled up this much that things are such a mess now? Is it just covid backlogs? What's going on?

I disagree here, a business deserves to know if they're employing a person that would so grossly mismanage their business and outright scam their customers.

Wow Taeha owns a Bucahardt speaker~

what a nice voice man fufufu XD also nice vid ofc

Group buys should be only for small creators creating limited runs. The likes of wuque still doing group buy is just comical! How many thousands of boards they already sold?

I'm still geninely dissappointed with how the whole Rukia R2 groupbuy has gone.

I don't think group buys should go away completely. The entire hobby is built upon the designs of other people and their own expression of art put into the form of keycaps and keyboard designs. While there are definitely examples of group buys gone bad, there's still more group buys that have been handled well. The whole 2 year wait thing for keycaps is really on GMK for accepting so many orders while still being so far behind in queue though, but its still, imo, not enough reason to get rid of GBs altogether. At this point only a few vendors can really be trusted, and it really sucks that anyone that isn't deep into the hobby won't have any idea of which ones those really are. There definitely needs to be a better system for vetting vendors that are capable and trustworthy. Idk how that will happen, and it probably does involve multiple vendors and maybe even content creators communicating with each other, but I hope people step up before we start seeing even less and less custom projects in the hobby.

Cough cough - keycult… trash company.

I have the hubble and a few keycap sets totalling over $1k with mechs and co. It's kind of upsetting. I think it's also messed up that manufacturers are going to relist these items for sale to the general public (like MW did with their keycaps). We're lost out of money while the manufacturers get away with it. I think some responsibility need to be put onto manufacturers too because it's the designers/manufacturers who pick what vendors to sell from, so they should've done their due dilligence to pick a proper vendor.

Geek Hack sucks anyway. Fvck em.

IMO goup buys might have some relevance in regards to limited production in today and age. Sadly this seems to be more of a mechanism for vendors and Cough cough GMK to infuse a false sense of FOMO and increase sacristy and thus raise costs.

Groupbuys need to go. Been waiting 5 months for my zoom75 and 2 years for my GMK Mecha01

One other thing worth mentioning about Drop and Geekhack - a prolific acammer in the community BunnyLake ripped off hundreds of people accross multiple sites and group buys and Drop stepped in and made things right for the largest scam by offering impacted people sets of their own hyperfuse keycaps. Nothing to do with Corsair but i think that was really solid for massdrop to do.

LOL deserved tho

The cherry on top for this video is my favorite album on the back shelf

Xox70 was my first GB. Very unkind way for me to learn

TYPE K LFGGGGG

oh your hair is naturally curly

Still glad to see you're doing well since the Troy days man! Keep up the great content :D

Thanks for the comment on M&C/Reddit's Reponse, and i am glad to know I am not alone there. It disappoints me, but as a maker, I will be stepping away from the r/mk community entirely. That forum has changed dramatically since I got in the hobby. People used to be excited about new projects there, but now it just seems like a forum for witch hunting. I do not feel like it is a good space to share my projects any more.

Easy to say to stay civil when you are not part of this mess. While I can’t say nasty comments (I also didn’t get a chance to see them at all) and harassment is the right way to approach this, I find myself hard to not say he got what he deserved. It’s not like he was willing to work with the members of the community to minimize damage. He used the community’s trust at his advantage and stole hundreds and thousands of dollars. This kind of happenings rot community from inside out and does nothing but harm to the hobby

I fundamentally disagree on your take on Mechs & Co. You yourself said it was gross negligence on their part.

Allowing them to scam, and then move on to a new job is gross negligence on the communities part. I’m sure they didn’t disclose any of the issues they themselves have caused for their former business. If I were the persons new employer, I would want to know whether the person im employing is trustworthy - and given how the M&C debacle went down that’s just not the case.

Reap what you sow.

reddit wins again

is that buchardt?

I was thinking of attending the Melbourne event as I can get there. Are these events worth attending? What's other people's experiences like?

Love taeha talks

Great ep.
Background music too loud though

I agree that the harassment went too far. People contacting either the clients or the owner’s family crossed a line. However, it is important to note that:
1) The ownership of Mechs & Co was listed publicly on his profile.
2) The potential for considerable fraud or at the minimum gross negligence on the owner’s part (possibly to the tune of 1M or more USD) is something that ABSOLUTELY should be disclosed to an employer. Mike may be looking at either major civil suits or potentially even criminal charges based on what is uncovered. Until this is fully resolved, he should not be trusted near money, and his firm clearly did care about this situation. It’s the sort of thing that would have turned up on a background check or credit check if the timing of his hiring had been different.

He is a ticking time bomb for anyone associated with him.

I’d like to look on the bright side of the Massdrop/Corsair deal. Even though Drop fell out of favor in both the keyboard and audiophile community in the past years, they still have great understanding of the both communities wants in a product. This is a great move on Corsair’s part if they intend to revamp their peripherals line up to better compete with Logitech and Razer.

I'm happy for this. Time to end GBs bs and making keyboard community a more transparent + better availability for all.

Love this series!

Loving these monthly updates. Great work and thank you!