Hi, I am the "Keyboard guy" everyone's been talking about. I haven't messed with those TI boards, they are actually going to dkarguth because I met him at tanners after and we talked for a bit about the warehouse and had a nice conversation, he mentioned he wanted the TI board and I said I wouldn't want to part with it for cheap. Didn't know I was a "jerk" until after my third trip. Because I was banned after I went the third time and to this day have had no further communication from the organizer.
He messaged me on Deskthority after and I offered to desolder the rare brown alps switches and solder back in less rarer ones. He didn't want to do that and since he has a TIPC I decided to part with the parts board for next to nothing compared to what I'd get from selling the rare switches. Which is cool, since I got a lot from the trip and didn't want to deprive other people from using their systems.
The rare switches I sent off went in fact desoldered, but I still have the complete assembly and internals from the Tandem board. They were not thrown away so if someone needed it I could just solder in some new switches to make it usable.
I do not only buy the boards to sell or scrap, barely any of my boards are just desoldered for the switches, only one so far has been desoldered and that's because it had rare switches someone wanted to use for their custom(modern) keyboard.
I enjoyed going to Computer Reset for multiple reasons, not only because I could get ahold of some stuff that would be a PITA to acquire online, but I was meeting all kinds of new people and stepping into a place full of history. I talked to dkarguth several times and learned about retro systems and he explained more to me on discord after we messaged on Deskthority. I always thought retro systems were cool, but didn't know enough about them to get into the hobby. Talking to all the people at Computer Reset definitely gave me some interest in setting up a IBM system for myself, since I would have the resources to actually get it to work and people to talk to that would help me find cool things to do with it. It also made me get back into mechanical keyboards as a hobby more and start completing projects I put off before. I like to convert the vintage keyboards to USB, and restore them to working condition when they are broken and/or filthy.
I also have quite a few people on that forum(Deskthority) asking me to look for certain things for them and especially manuals and whatnot so they can make their keyboard goals come to life and make their systems work. I remember awhile ago I grabbed an IBM model M13 trackpoint keyboard floppy drive before Computer Reset I sent the files to someone who really needed it. I now have to tell all these people who were hoping I could find them boards and documentation that it isn't going to happen because I have been banned.
I have also started learning programming with my brother this July, and have an even greater interest in Computer Reset due to the fact that I can appreciate more of it since I am learning about logic gates and computer architecture. There is a plethora of other projects I want to do that could make use of stuff found in Computer Reset. My brothers house is very close to CR so it's starting to become impossible to ignore the warehouse and its a constant reminder that I got banned and is a very unpleasant feeling that sticks with you throughout the day.
I also offered to help the organizer with moving and sorting things in the warehouse, I sent him some ideas I had and some suggestions but was surprised to find myself banned before I could get a response. On one of my trips to Computer Reset, my father came with me and we enjoyed our time there, and he is now banned from going as well(even though he had NOTHING to do with my mess) which I feel is incredibly unfair. I did in fact leave a mess. I was high on the pallets looking for neat stuff under the piles and I moved some of what was up top to the floor. In my mind I was helping people get to stuff that was up high. That way they wouldn't have to climb like I did to get to it. Not a single person told me that I was making a mess when I was there. Not one. So it was surprising to find out after that I was this menace that ruined the warehouse for everyone. This is the main thing that bothers me about the whole experience, I thought I was helping people out moving things as I went up on shelves to grab stuff for people but all at once I learn I was making a mess, being rude, and other things that don't make sense after I get banned with no chance to defend myself. I didn't get a warning, an outright ban out of nowhere.
So now I'm just frustrated, because I not only have to realize stuff I wanted isn't going to happen but the people that were counting on me online won't get the things they were after either. The organizer hasn't responded to any of my attempts to contact him, and I doubt I'll ever get back in. I want to make things right and I don't think I'll get the chance.