Things that make us go... hmmm šŸ¤”

I think Melissa was trying to moderate it all by herself between all of her other duties, so Iā€™m glad to see Will post on there too now. It has a lot of potential, in the hands of someone with the time and social media experience to be more involved there.

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Will sounds like heā€™s an enthusiast first and foremost, but also has a background in entrepreneurship. As it happens he was in the right place to make this move although, even though I do love SP, this is pretty risky.

Iā€™m also super glad heā€™s in the Pacific Northwest, so not only is SP going to keep running, but ownership remains local as well.

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SP really sounds like they would benefit from a community manager and thats some of what these new guys offer.

I heard something recently too about them trying to get DCS sets in stock. Designs unique to them too. [IC] DCS SMRT - Possible SP In-Stock Sale, waiting to hear from SP - ā€œAs of July 2024, Signature Plastics has expressed interest in selling both DCS and SA versions (they were interested well before this IC; this was less about finding a vendor than fine-tuning the design) as in-stock offerings; with no group buy.ā€

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Yep, thatā€™s one of my designs! So yeah, a big frustration on my part, even though I love them, is that theyā€™re really overwhelmed and slow to respond to emails. Iā€™ve been trying to get an update on that set since July, when I sent them the ā€œfinalā€ kitting (barring changes they request). But I havenā€™t heard anything in over two months now.

I have another SA set in manufacturing that I havenā€™t heard about since July, either. I assume itā€™s finishing soon, but canā€™t say for certain without more info. That was one reason why I switched my latest design to MTNU.

Iā€™m hoping that now that the sale has begun, theyā€™ll have more resources. Iā€™m not mad at them at all, I just wish I had answers when Iā€™m asked multiple times a week where DCS and SA SMRT stand. I wish I knew!

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That was one of the points that Taeha asked Will, will there be an increase in community involvement. His response was careful, but generally it sounds like thatā€™s the goal. Plus, they also have a Discord.

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Not familiar with Will myself either, but like @Piperaceae said he did say a lot of the things I think we wanted to hear. Personally I am just glad SP didnā€™t gobbled up by some corporate entity looking to cash in on the community.

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Heā€™s actively reaching out to people on their Discord about meetups, thatā€™s a good sign

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Doesnā€™t even mention his time as 1B for the San Francisco Giants:

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Probably embarrassed that he built an entire career at 1B out of slapping singles.

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harsh. He had a career avg OPS of .880!

(or maybe Iā€™m missing a joke, probably more likely)

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Nah, Iā€™m mostly kidding as a fan of the 90s Braves. He was Hall of Very Good, but especially later on he did lack a certain power youā€™d want out of a truly great First Baseman.

In a related note, all sets from Signature Plastics will now be Skiidata or Carbon. no exceptions.

ah. gotcha.

I figured something like that since itā€™s a joke also made about a more recently ex-Brave 1B

Willā€™s LinkedIn mentions: ā€œFor 10 years I was the head of product at Goldstar, helping it to grow to $100m AGR.ā€ Iā€™m not sure what SP has for revenue, but itā€™s good to see a keyboard enthusiast with a design background and product experience at this level will be running things. Iā€™m cautiously optimistic!

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So, uh, whatā€™s up with Space Cables?

I was going to order JamĆ³n 2 extras but now Iā€™m not sure: are they having issues?

(Edit: theyā€™ve removed all the chat channels)

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Not sure, but youā€™re definitely not the only one.

https://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/comments/1epwmh8/my_experience_with_spacecables/

I think some of these micro-vendors treat the business like a gambling hobby and theyā€™re sure the next project will be the one that makes it all right so why not borrow a little from the current group-buy to fulfill the last one. I reckon most (but not allā€¦ e.g. RAMA) of the seeming exit scams happen out of desperation and shame. Whatā€™s the old saw? Never attribute to malice what can be adequately explained by incompetence?

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I sure hope they arenā€™t having problems because they finally got the Hubble65 cases from the other failed vendor delivered to Space Cables in Texas about a month ago. GODDAMNIT.

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Thatā€™s weird, Iā€™ve had emails from the recently as well. Iā€™ll be really disappointed if they crash and burn.

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guh, why did I have to get the keyboard from the bad batch (note this thing is new)

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also, when screwing around in toolbox, qmk just says ā€œi dunno, this thing weirdā€

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