You mean like a Kinesis Advantage2 (and its predecessors)? Monoblock, 20 degree built-in tenting, thumb keys and key wells.

(The linked keyboard looks quite bad from an ergonomics perspective. It has quite large positive tilt, which is bad for your wrists.)

Thanks! The confusing thing in the original message is that, in context, hotswap socket makes you think of a hotswap socket for the microcontroller itself, not a switch.

I’m deep in the rabbit hole now, though, on a Corne, as I found besides ulnar deviation, right pinkie overload was the next cause of pain.

Also two of Corne’s thumb keys are far too much inward 😬, known to cause thumb issues.

I had wrist pains every now and then over the years. They never felt bad enough so find a doctor, so it never had a specific diagnosis.

Then I had a worse brush with wrist pain I decided to try several split keyboards (Microsoft Sculpt on and off, Kinesis Freestyle Edge, Ferris Sweep, Kyria) and they didn’t really improve things and sometimes gave me new pains. Only after switching to a Kinesis Advantage2 I saw large improvements and wrist pains mostly going away.

I also started to be more mindful of taking breaks (sometimes it works out, sometimes I am so focused that time flies by) and do some hand exercises during breaks. I also got an easily adjustable standing desk (just a press of the button), so I can tune it to have exactly the right height and switch between sitting and standing.

You missed the original contoured keyboard, Maltron: http://www.maltron.com/store/p20/Maltron_L90_dual_hand_fully_ergonomic_(3D)_keyboard_-_US_English.html

I have/had a Dactyl, Advantage2, and Advantage360, but the Glove80 is definitely my favorite!

Yeah, IMO the promotional posts really got out of hand on the old subreddit. A certain manufacturer (who do make lovely cases) posted pretty comparable pics every 2 days or so. On the one hand I think we should nurture our vendor community, on the other hand I’d rather see this happening organically with users sharing their experiences with builds that they buy. I agree that a sticky thread would be a good solution, people who are interested could just follow that thread. To give it more freshness, maybe it could be a monthly Vendor news in [August, …] thread where vendors could post.

I think the only exception should be made for announcements of things like new case files or GitHub repos with Gerbers (which can include a link to the vendor that made it). Only permitting that type of vendor posts outside the vendor thread would encourage vendors to make new source files available.

The Advantage360 does not really improve over the Advantage2, in some respects it’s a step forward (variable split/tenting), in other respects it’s a step back (tiring switches, Bluetooth connectivity issues), and in many respects it’s stuck in a 30 year old design (same key wells, same thumb cluster where I can only reach 2 keys per thumb without weird stretches or moving my hand).

The Glove80 is really a step forward in many aspects — better key wells, better thumb cluster, better portability, etc. It’s a contoured keyboard that takes all the lessons of the Kinesis Advantage and improves over it.

Great to see this on RTINGS! I don’t agree with their assessment of the build quality though. The Glove80 is very light, which may give an impression of subpar materials, etc. But I was surprised how sturdy and nicely built it is. Also, looking at the competition, at least it’s not a (literal) echo chamber like the Kinesis Advantage2 and even though the 360 Pro might look more robust, it quickly gets scratches from the original palm pads.

Contoured boards are great. Once I had my first Kinesis Advantage, there was no way back to flat keyboards.