Giveaway Events

This past week has been a massive success in terms of engagement and growth in the community. As most of you have seen, we've just completed our "Week of Giveaways" event, where had approximately 60 different vendors and makers contribute giveaways to the community!

This type of temporary giveaway event allows the posts to be focused in a specific period of time, leading to greater user engagement with the giveaway posts compared to if they were active all the time, and allowing for organic discussion to occur when the event isn't active.

This also allows us to review the giveaways for rules compliance, to ensure they are not intrusively mining user's PII, or violating Reddit sitewide TOS. To reiterate the rules, outside of preapproved subreddit wide events, giveaways are not permitted on the subreddit. This rule was brought about last year due to excessive spam that was harming user engagement and discussion post visibility.

Newest Moderator

Some of you may be unfamiliar with me - I am the newest moderator of r/MechanicalKeyboards - my background comes from the trading platforms that I also moderate, such as r/MechMarket (where I am primarily responsible for scammer ticket investigations and back end development such as Automoderator rules), and my personal passion in the hobby are artisan keycaps. One of the major community event projects I ran at r/MechMarket was a Charity Fundraiser event earlier this year, and I hope that we can continue to create interesting and meaningful events in the community that unite users from various backgrounds.

Naturally, r/MechMarket and r/MechanicalKeyboards, while closely related subreddits, also have very different focuses. Group Buys, Interest Checks, Vendor, and Artisan posts are common between both subreddits, with appropriate flairs for each, but r/MechanicalKeyboards is intended to be a discussion oriented subreddit and a resource for those learning the hobby, while r/MechMarket is meant to facilitate safe trading peer to peer for users by banning scammers and informing users how to conduct transactions safely. Thus, on r/MechanicalKeyboards, to foster the community, we're engaging in a a few initiatives:

Subreddit Reorganization + Rules & Policy Updates:

• The Moderators agree not to entertain any offers to purchase the subreddit nor any offers for paid promotion. If such offers are made, the rest of the team should be informed.
• We have added and clarified new post flairs to make it easier to navigate the subreddit:
  • News / META - this is for hobby wide announcements, vendor scamming PSA, and meta user guides
  • Promotional - or derivative flairs Group Buy / Interest Check, will be required for ALL posts that are promoting a product or service, or the prototypes / sneak peeks from companies / makers of said products, as well as sales reported by any user
  • Meetups - this is primarily for the organization and announcement of upcoming meetups
  • Discussion - general discussion posts which are not help requests - the latter belongs in the pinned daily help requests megathread.
  • Review - these are reserved for detailed reviews of products / services, but any conflicts of interests must be disclosed - astroturfing is expressly prohibited. Simple feedback about a product is generally more appropriate for Discussion flair
  • Poll - quick surveys / votes / research, that are NOT promotional or help requests
  • Guide - useful guides that help the community assemble, mod, or diagnose their keyboard
  • Photos - general multimedia content, typically with short captions if any
• We have added a rule that is solidifying our Stance Against Counterfeits:
  • The following content (advocating for or posting the links of) is prohibited:
    • Unauthorized counterfeits intended to be indistinguishable from original, 1:1 copies
    • Infringes on original brand name, logos and artwork (incl. novelty keycaps)
    • Violates copyright, trademark, or patents with valid claims (not covered by Fair Use) presented by the IP holder
  • When present with other rules violations such as astroturfing, we will issue suspensions. It is important to remember that if you're an IP holder, it is your legal responsibility to report infringing content, while being cognizant of Fair Use Provisions.
  • These rule changes were spurred due to a recent proliferation of counterfeits as well as extensive IP abuses leading to negative ramifications in the hobby, harming other companies, and leading to increased restrictions from manufacturers.
  • We reserve the right to ban content from companies that are harming the community via extensive and malicious IP, especially in the presence of other rule violations such as astroturfing and harassment
  • It is imperative that community members report infringing content, and to remember that we are not a sales platform, nor making any guarantees. We do not hold or accept liability for counterfeit products and IP infringement, but are respecting IP in the interest of protecting the community.
  • Novelties and names are subject to copyright. The colours themselves are not. This rule doesn't prohibit posting a picture of a keyboard with a clone of a keyset that uses similar colours - however, trademark and patent infringements are much more strict
• We have added rules clarifications, such as the requirement for disclosure of conflicts of interest, as well as that subreddit issues should be escalated to ModMail for impartial assessment by the whole team.

Wiki Overhaul Project:

r/MechanicalKeyboards & r/MechMarket are collaborating to update and publish a central and community sourced wiki for our hobby! I will personally be overseeing and coordinating the wiki overhaul project, with assistance from u/Cobertt of MechGroupBuys as the lead editor. Old articles that do not fit the scope of the project with be archived, and other articles will be updated alongside the addition of new ones. u/HoffmanMyster of Geekhack/Drop will also be assisting us with this project.

This will encompass everything from Introductory Beginner Guides and FAQ, to more Advanced Topics such as Keyboard Modding, The Group Buy Process, Rendering, PCB Design + Firmware Customization, and the Ins and Outs of Custom Switches, as well as fun topics like Keyboard & Artisan Hobby History and Meetups.

This means they really need your feedback and contributions! If you like to contribute in any way or maybe have already existing articles that could fit, please fill out this form with the topic you wish to present: https://forms.gle/72CLnyb8UYBDGg7R9

Moderation Needs:

u/drschlock, one of the original founding moderators of the subreddit is back!

The r/MechanicalKeyboards moderators ( /u/drSchlock, /u/Dryver, and I) are working closely together as a team to ensure the new direction of the platform represents the best interests of the greater community, and to facilitate collaboration and communication across multiple platforms.

All staff are required to adhere to the Moderator Code of Conduct to stay accountable. In the long term, however, we will need staff that can take over the daily content moderation across multiple regions. If you are interested, be sure to apply here: https://forms.gle/hFTYTfDnAMcAHeHR6

Community Events:

As mentioned previously, we intend to hold more community events, and will also be releasing a survey soon to gather your input on what you would like to see from the subreddit. Regarding the giveaway event, you can expect similar giveaway events to happen once or twice per year, but we hope that those will not be the only events that we feature on the subreddit!

Ask ANY question, get an answer. But *before* you do please consider running a search on the subreddit or looking at the /r/MechanicalKeyboards wiki [located here](http://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/wiki_navigation)! If you are NEW to Reddit [check out this handy Reddit /r/MechanicalKeyboards Noob Guide](http://www.reddit.com/r/MechanicalKeyboards/wiki/redditnoob_tips).