deskthority

IT'S DONE!!

Many thanks to everyone that responded

Over 3600 Responses.

Link to imgur album with outputs here

Results available as a CSV here

All the images and the (very messy) work in progress XLSX I used for some of the graphs are available as a zip here

Not mentioned in the imgur album, but possibly one of the more important bits is the top three manufacturers.

1. Vortex
2. Ducky
3. Leopold

Honourable mention to IBM that just missed out on a top 10 spot despite not having manufactured keyboards for over 25 years.

The top 3 for people that said they primarily used Deskthority was actually quite different:

1. IBM
2. Cherry
3. Topre/Filco (Joint)

Aaaand the bottom 3 (which was the same across all communities)

1. Razer
2. Corsair
3. Logitech


Other ways in which Deskthority differed from the other communities is that you have fewer artisans, own more keyboards (though I imagine that one or two outliers skew the average!) prefer vintage keyboards, have a much higher vintage keyboard ownership percentage.

I may add more images to the album, I'll post here if I do, if you think of any interesting relationships or possible patterns in the data that you want to explore let me know and I'll see what I can do, or better yet, make the graphs yourself and I'll add them to the album (with attribution, of course)

And finally, congratulations to reddit user /u/Luneth12 winner of the idea23 resin 60% case from busgamer7394.

Post from when the survey was live Original call for help compiling questions in the spoiler:

Many thanks to anyone who added to the spreadsheet. I think it is close to being a pretty comprehensive list, I've just got to tweak a few of the questions and available answers, give them a priority and then use them to create the survey (I'm thinking of using typeforms)

A couple of people have expressed concerns with what I'm going to do with the survey data once it's been completed. Rest assured I'll be making it all freely available at the end.

Cool. I'll probably feature your survey on the website I write for.

I probably belong to a not-insignificant minority of hobbyists who find vintage gear and spend considerable time and energy restoring, or restoring + modifying/altering/enhancing it to work seamlessly with modern computers. There need to be a few questions devoted to vintage equipment, including collecting for the sheer sake of collecting.

There also need to be specific inquiries about linear vs tactile vs clicky switch types, including degrees of preference up to and including "always prefer to use"/"would never use" or something to that effect.

I'll bear that in mind. I also belong to that not insignificant minority, but tend to interact with the bells and whistles RGB lot!

I'll think up some more questions relating to collecting, customising and switch preference, they may only be on the "extended" version of the survey though.

And thanks ohaimark.

HI GOUTY IM GRILL

First post updated. Anyone know who I should ask to get it stickied?

ALSO HI GRILL!

I think this survey is a very good balance between collecting lots of information and getting lost in too much detail. Thank you for making it.

Thanks for your kind words, it was a difficult balancing act!

In other news, busgamer7394 has kindly offered to give away a 60% resin case to one lucky survey participant. At the conclusion of the survey a random email address will be selected to receive a custom made idea23 low profile resin case.

It should look something like this:



But since these are sold he will work with you to create a new one.

Any previously submitted entry with an email address will be retroactively entered into the prize draw if you don't wish to be entered let me know. If you have already submitted your responses, but have not entered an email address let me know and I'll add you to the list (provided you can tell me something about your responses).

DO NOT ENTER ANOTHER RESPONSE IF YOU WANT TO HAVE A CHANCE AT WINNING THE CASE.

So we are 10 days in, we have already smashed my expectations in terms of responses with over 3000 so far. However! The number of Deskthority users in the dataset is very low, and I believe not representative. I know it is 10 minutes of your very important time, but please I ask anyone who hasn't taken part yet to fill it in and represent your community!

Guys... Just do it!

There's several possible reasons for the imbalance. Some of our members are dual citizens, so they may have identified as a GH or /r/MK user. We have a pretty small pool of active users to begin with.

The other is just that people haven't replied. They really should.

ohaimark wrote: There's several possible reasons for the imbalance. Some of our members are dual citizens, so they may have identified as a GH or /r/MK user.

Traitors! I make a point of clicking on the 'other' on IC forums and typing in Deskthority

In all seriousness though I don't think we have a big enough concurrent user base to make a sizeable dent in 3000 entrants.

Well I just filled it out, I am curious to see the results by forum.

Done. The dataset probably needed some buckling spring love anyway.

Completed as well!

just_add_coffee wrote: The dataset probably needed some buckling spring love anyway.

Thanks for the responses. As they have levelled off I am bringing forward the end date to the 21st



I've updated this in the first post.

Gouty wrote: First post updated. Anyone know who I should ask to get it stickied?

ALSO HI GRILL!

14 hours left to enter!

Survey finished, I will update the first post

Gouty wrote: Survey finished, I will update the first post

Great job Gouty, the results offer some interesting insights into the mechanical keyboard community. Thanks for sharing the results.

Oooh damn I was a little too skeptical it seems!
I thought this was just some scheme or trolling and never expected such a nice result presentation.

And I don't think the DT numbers look distorted. The people here usually hit rock bottom ...

I am also assuming the average age here is even a little higher than the results suggest. It's just that older people tend to be less excited about filling in surveys heh

Wodan wrote: […] I am also assuming the average age here is even a little higher than the results suggest. […]

off-topic-f10/keyboard-enthusiast-age-s ... 13274.html

In other words, we're older, prefer older keyboards, and have WAY more keyboards than everyone else xD .

Like you couldn't have guessed that anyway!

Yes, these results were definitely in the line of expectation xD . Still fun to see though .

All these lurkers need to stop lurking and join! The number of people that said that keyboard programmability is a must have or nice to have is refreshing.