Support for Alternative Layouts
This is a summary of how alternative layouts have been supported by kits such as Colevrak and Homing. It is not a discussion of alt layout performance and development, but if that interests you I highly recommend starting with Pascal Getreuer’s A guide to alt keyboard layouts (why, how, which one?). It’s a concise and comprehensive overview with links to some great sites that go deeper. He also has a separate Links about keyboards page. The Keyboard layouts doc he recommends explains layout goals and metrics in detail, summarizing the alt layouts discussed here as well as more than one hundred others. Sculpted-profile The majority of custom keycap sets are sculpted-profile (Cherry, SA, MT3, KAT, etc. - more on profiles generally here) so let’s start there. Because each row has a unique keycap shape, alt layouts require a unique keycap for each legend that moves off its QWERTY row. At first there were two The Dvorak layout was patented in 1936 by August Dvorak & William L....
Apr 23, 2024
I don't see it as "misfortunes of others" for the people who pay $24.99. I see that group as paying a fair price, and the group paying $12.99 as those who happened to get a good deal. In my opinion, this was handled about as well as could have been expected (especially considering Yanbo was out of town on vacation, and he is the primary guy for this MD community), and people either get the kit at a great price, or a good price if they waited to join.
EDIT: the reason I brought up Yanbo being out of town is that I think this whole situation would have been dealt with much more quickly if he was at the office. If the prices were corrected a day or two after the drop started, rather than two weeks after it started, I think there would be a lot less anger from the community.
For me to believe that group buy participants are "subsidizing" those who purchased the warning signs at the original price, I would need to see evidence that demonstrates people who didn't buy that kit are paying more than they would have if the kit was priced correctly from the beginning. Do you have any knowledge of such a thing happening? For instance, if alphas+ergodox+novelties is more expensive now than it would have been if the warning sign prices were always correct, I would agree with you completely. I just haven't seen anything that leads me to believe that is the case.
EDIT: I would rather not get into an argument where we are telling each other we are full of BS. I understand why you (and many others) are upset by the price hike, and can empathize. The only thing I am trying to say (and perhaps I am not being very clear) is that I do not think the incorrect warning signs prices resulted in people who didn't get that kit to have to pay more for the other kits. If that were the case, this would be a much bigger problem.
I imagine you've completely ruined your living room with charts and graphs tacked up on your wall with lines connecting them trying to figure out the conspiracy behind business and making money and uncovering the "massive scam" that is Massdrop and keyboards.
You know, you could just... not buy them?
So many better ways to spend your free time, but I digress.