I am entranced by the world of custom mechanical keyboards

destructoid.com:

As someone who spends a good portion of their day typing, I love a good mechanical keyboard. For a while there in the mid-2000s, it seemed like the hottest trend was to have the most minimal keyboards ever (looking at you, Apple), and for a minute I was afraid tech companies would lean full-tilt into touchscreen keyboards. Of course I went through one of those phases where I wanted a typewriter for no reason at all. Naturally, as I got into gaming, I was introduced to the world of mechanical keyboards, and the whole community that surrounds them.

For years now, companies that make gaming peripherals have really leaned into the whole “gaming aesthetic” (which usually consists of black plastic and red LEDs) since they discovered they could make a lot of money from marketing it. Of course, more feminine designs have also made their way into the mainstream, and showing off your elaborate, custom gaming setup has become a way for players to express their identity and interest in games as a hobby or lifestyle.

When one of my friends wanted to buy me a mechanical keyboard as a gift, he asked me what my favorite kind of switch was. I’ll be honest with you, I had no idea there were different kinds of switches in the first place. This moment is what really started me down a rabbit hole.

In case you don’t know, switches are the little mechanical parts that go under the key cap, and they determine what kind of “click” your keyboard makes. There are some that make your key presses softer and quieter, some that make them loud and sharp. I found that the brown switches were my favorite, because they had this really nice feedback when I pressed down on them.

My favorite switches I’ve ever come across by far, though, are called the