WASD Keyboard

[BruceMcF]

2 hours ago, SerErris said:

I did not say custom printed ... I said Cherry MX switches Keyboard.

If it's not custom printed, how is it a like to like comparison? Saying that a custom printed, deluxe mechanical keyboard is three to four times more expensive than a mass produced mechanical keyboard is as surprising as saying that a Mercedes Benz Class B RV is three to four times the price of a Mercedes Benz passenger van.

As in, entirely unsurprising.

[SerErris]

I never said custom printed ... I say custom printed caps is not worth 150$.

[BruceMcF]

39 minutes ago, SerErris said:

I never said custom printed ... I say custom printed caps is not worth 150$.

Oh, you mean ", to me" but left that part out? Making it sound as if you were making an objective claim about personal preference?

Yeah, I leave key words out sometimes myself.

It is, of course, worth it to those who value it that highly.

[troj]

8 hours ago, BruceMcF said:

It is, of course, worth it to those who value it that highly.

That would be me.  First, I love mechanical keyboards. Second, anything I can do that helps fund this project, even by a few dollars, is a worthwhile expenditure on my part.

I'll be surprised if David and the rest of the team ever generate enough revenue off of this to compensate for the hours they've put into it. It's in the "labor of love" category, so if I can send a few bucks to help make that happen, it's money well spent, to me.

And I have a cool keyboard I can use on my day-to-day computer, should I so choose!

[Perifractic]

Just a small clarification: When David mentions a Kickstarter he's using the word in the generic sense, meaning "crowdfunding". We're not yet decided what the home will be for the campaign. It may well be done within this website. Kickstarter is great for unknowns but The 8-Bit Guy brand carries some value and trust already that may make that unnecessary and help keep the end user price lower without Kickstarter's fees. More info when we have it!

[martinot]

8 hours ago, Perifractic said:

On 9/8/2020 at 6:55 PM, StephenHorn said:

Just a small clarification: When David mentions a Kickstarter he's using the word in the generic sense, meaning "crowdfunding". We're not yet decided what the home will be for the campaign. It may well be done within this website. Kickstarter is great for unknowns but The 8-Bit Guy brand carries some value and trust already that may make that unnecessary and help keep the end user price lower without Kickstarter's fees. More info when we have it!

I have backed many Kickstarter projects, but that said I really fail too see any services or advantages that Kickstarter brings to the table, except being a website/e-commerce-platform. They never guarantee anything anyway (in difference to Amazon and eBay, which gives you refund and protection as a buyer).

So for me personally I do not get any value from being on Kickstarter compared to any other webpage/ecommerce solution. 

If you kan provide your own solution for handling credit cards and backing orders, I say do it your self (and keep the KS service fees you save to the projects funding and gain).

[troj]

8 hours ago, Perifractic said:

Just a small clarification: When David mentions a Kickstarter he's using the word in the generic sense, meaning "crowdfunding". We're not yet decided what the home will be for the campaign. It may well be done within this website. Kickstarter is great for unknowns but The 8-Bit Guy brand carries some value and trust already that may make that unnecessary and help keep the end user price lower without Kickstarter's fees. More info when we have it!

Processing it yourself via the website is a great way to maintain greater control, as well as save money. The team has already been incredibly transparent about what's going on, providing significantly more information than any crowdfunding campaign I've ever seen.

You have but to say the word and I'll be signing up, regardless of the platform the team chooses.

[SerErris]

Kickstarter will bring in greater audience .. thats it. This website will only get people on them that know the product anyhow. Others may never have heard about it (like me - I heard about it in August this Year). 

[Fnord42]

While I agree that Kickstarter will probably bring in some more people, I must say that most of the Kickstarter projects that I backed, I heard about outside of Kickstarter first.

Also, keep in mind that the team has some rather popular youtube channels, and Hackaday and other media will quite probably cover the campaign, too.

So I don't expect that it will be a problem to find enough interested people for the first batch of Commander X16s.

If interest is lower than expected, Kickstarter might still be an option, but I have no idea if the gained audience would be worth the Kickstarter fees.

[BruceMcF]

14 hours ago, Fnord42 said:

While I agree that Kickstarter will probably bring in some more people, I must say that most of the Kickstarter projects that I backed, I heard about outside of Kickstarter first.



Also, keep in mind that the team has some rather popular youtube channels, and Hackaday and other media will quite probably cover the campaign, too.

So I don't expect that it will be a problem to find enough interested people for the first batch of Commander X16s.

If interest is lower than expected, Kickstarter might still be an option, but I have no idea if the gained audience would be worth the Kickstarter fees.

Indeed, as far as getting the "big bang" that is key to getting visibility VIA Kickstarter, doing a CX16p/CX16c round in house and a CX16e round on Kickstarter would be an option to consider ... certainly the Kickstarter promo video with the CX16c in its case running a game and giving its price and then holding up the prototype CX16e "What we need your help for is to shrink it down to this". The latent demand of people waiting CX16e's using it as a pre-order would give the fast first day numbers that attract the attention of people browsing Kicksrter for cool things to share.