How Did We Let Mechs & Co Happen?

Thank you rmendis for a great talk!

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Thanks for watching! ＼(≧▽≦)／
시청해 주셔서 감사합니다! (´｡• ᵕ •｡`) ♡

Chapters:
00:00 - Intro
05:43 - r/mk lockdown
09:52 - Group Buys Then vs. Now
21:55 - People knew Mechs & Co was coming...
28:30 - Moderators powertripping/SantiGo Customs drama
34:43 - How can we prevent future Mechs & Co?
42:14 - Should GB's still exist?
46:30 - How did manufacturers not catch this earlier?
48:25 - How can we move forward?
51:40 - What are the mods working on?
53:57 - Consider the positives
55:20 - GBs used to be fun

[TaehaTypes]

You know what ISN'T a group buy and already paid for, in stock, and ready to ship?

[brandonkw]

rmendis is so well spoken and made so much of this very digestible. He clearly knows his shit backwards and forwards and gives me a lot of hope for the future of the hobby. Fantastic video <3

[razer]

Taeha going full keyboard journalist mode, love to see it.

[BathingPrimeape]

You guys did a great job breaking everything down without interrupting each other, I hope there is more vids like this. A lot of great points.
I have a feeling Rama works also mismanaged peoples money. A lot of their keyboards in group buys have been made in the past and yet it’s still taking them years to fulfill. In the meantime they’re selling random merchandise and barely any updates on their main products.

[JumpCutJake]

Huge props to rmendis for doing such a thorough walk through of the Mechs & Co situation as well as the state of the hobby as a whole (in regards to GB’s). Also props to you Taeha for fostering this discussion with your platform and status in the hobby.

[sushiburps]

It's wild how Geekhack basically stepped in like the Federal Reserve handling a collapsed bank.

[MatthewEncina]

What an insightful conversation, and really pleasant to listen to in the background. I hope you do more of these!

[Harry_Smallwood]

Fantastic video. As a long time lurker, I wanted to create a YT account just to comment and say thanks for the work both you and rmendis put into this. I hope that people that have the mindset of "GB always bad/vendor profit always bad" will watch this video with an open mind and listen to what rmendis is saying.

Starting @39:10, I agree that educating and creating visibility would be fantastic!

[fjmoneybagz]

I'm still going through this video but I just wanted to take the opportunity to thank both you and rmendis for this discussion on this topic! It's been incredibly informative and rmendis's insight on this facet of the hobby should be enlightening to both newcomers and veterans on how we came to be in this predicament as far as GBs are concerned. Not only does this go into the pitfalls of this system the community has in place but it also discusses the reasoning behind why it's a sort of necessity in our hobby and also how GBs were originally done as passion projects for enthused individuals. Please feel free to do more long form discussion like this one Taeha it's very much appreciated!

[MrSkullhead]

These vids are wicked awesome. Your voice is ASMR and It’s always nice to get news swirling around the community

[cannolisquid]

This was a fantastic and well thought out discussion on the topic of GBs, the community, vetting of community figures, etc.
Really enjoyed watching this!! Thanks Taeha and rmendis!

[BakusanDayo]

Coming from the Japanese Figure hobby, we pre-order months in advance ALL THE TIME, and they are ALL fulfilled.
I am just not sure why we are still stuck with GB when pre-order is so much better.

[Kentanimationnnnnnnnn]

alternate title: Two guys to listen to while lubing up your switches

[TheWrongButton]

Awesome video Taeha. One point of constructive criticism: Subtitles baked into the video are great, but they're even better when they're uploaded as a subtitle/closed caption file alongside your video so that people can turn them on/off, change their size, etc. through the Youtube player.

Keep up the good work, looking forward to your next video :)

[IranianOyibo]

This was very educational. I actually had very little understanding of how group buys worked vendor-wise.

Thank you both for taking the time to make this.

[fashionweek]

This is some good ass content, love how much effort you and rmendis both put into this. Super informative and very important conversation for such a fast growing hobby

[DamnAwesome]

Such an awesome conversation you can tell rmendis really cares about the community!

[kawaiikeyboards]

its sad what the hobby has become now, but I'm glad you and rmendis have this discussion regarding the situation. I think part of the problems also came from us (the buyers) who wants something which nobody knew how the end results would be after the group buy ended. We just pour in money to vendors carrying the keyset or keyboard kits which we wanted and hope it arrives on our doorstep, and don't really know what happens behind closed doors. Honestly I wish there were more transparency from manufacturers regarding how to group buy is going. Sometimes the manufacturers covering up the issues which in turn leaves vendors having to answer the buyers without any info. With GMKs case, there are just way too many keysets which they ran which some might still be in queue even after 2 years after the group buy ended. So all in all, I feel there should be more direct interactions between manufacturers, vendors and customers so that we're all on the same page. Also with so many products out now (yes that does include clones), why do we need more group buys lol? Maybe private GBs should be more of a thing where the risks are minimal, while pre orders should be the norm for most big vendors if they really want in on the profits.

Overall, just have fun and never get fomo on everything. I had to learn it the hard way and currently taking a rest from buying stuff in the keyboard hobby. Keyboards are expensive and I definitely have more than enough keyboards with me to last several generations... 😅

[alfred.clement]

I've went down the mechanical keyboard rabbit hole back in 2011 when it really wasn't popular and there weren't many vendors selling mechanical keyboards. I think a year after is when I started seeing many group buys for mechanical keyboards that was originally conceived as a cost-effective method for enthusiasts to secure a keyboard at reduced prices. However, in recent times, this concept has been overshadowed by profit-driven motives, with group buys often not providing the cost savings they once promised. Instead of fostering a sense of community and mutual benefit, it seems that the original ethos of group buying has been diluted, leading to prices that aren't significantly lower than individual purchases.

Edit: Unfortunately I've been detached from the mechanical keyboard community for a very long time now, ever since I've noticed price discrepancies of mechanical keyboards sold by many different trusted international multi-channel retailing vendors. The prices for mechanical keyboards were significantly higher in the western market compared to the market in Asia.

[norrdal]

During the pandemic, I think early 2021, I joined my only two group buys. One keyboard, and one keycap set that I helped design novelties for, and I absolutely loved the process. It was super exciting, but also kind of wild to send several hundred dollars to random vendors, but around 1.5 years later I finally held a beautifully made custom keyboard in my hands that I still use every day and it was one of the best purchases I have made. I loved the community aspect and that things worked out so well, just based on trust. It's so sad to see things go south like this, but it's also not really surprising. I hope that the community can recover from this and get to a safer place where a lot of people can enjoy this great hobby.