Yes - they're inappropriate for open offices and there's a very good chance that you're bothering someone.

Best way to handle this is communicate. Last office mate I had asked if he could bring his in, and since it was something that's never bothered me I was totally fine with it... I brought mine in shortly after ;)

The dampening rings don't help much either.

The blame needs to get placed appropriately here: one shouldn't be bothered by the keyboard; one should be bothered by the horrendous office layout that allows trivial sounds to propagate so easily.

I use a mechanical, as the Apple keyboards gave me RSI. My pain has gone away since, and I've not had any complaints about noise. (Much of my office uses mechanical, and most of us do it for our wrists.)

I use some of the quieter switches; I'm not in mechanical for the noise, but for the feel & layout. That said, it's about on-par noise wise with an Apple keyboard, but people think mechanical == noise.

Ugh in my current open office the team next to me has entered a machismo fueled arms race for who can find the loudest clacky keyboard possible... even with the biggest and baddest noise cancelling cans I could find twelve hours of my day are just clack clack clack, I’m going slowly insane!

Your question made me think way back to shared terminal labs where the terminals made an electronic noise for each key press, either a short beep or a harder click. I imagined this feature was an already anachronistic crutch for people who remembered typewriters and typing pools.

At university, I shared an office with a student who made so much noise typing that I could only stop and ponder with amazement. This guy typed like the keyboard was a piece of meat, and his hands were basting mops. Somehow, his fingers mashed out whole words and phrases as he dragged his paws across the keys.

Yes, mechanical keyboards are noisy and inappropriate for a shared office.

I had one for a while until people told me to get rid of it. I guess there is a difference between you make yourself when typing and others having to listen to it...

It depends on the people, but it's safe to err on the side of yes clickety keyboards annoy some.

Nobody will be excessively interrupted/distracted by a quiet keyboard. The same is not true for the other direction.

At my last position, open office, a few people on my team complained about other members' loud buckling-spring-like keyboards. Since it was an open office and we were all complaining about noises well beyond some of the keyboards, like sales calls and constant conversations, it was somewhat moot and nothing was really done about it. But it definitely increased animosity within the team, it pays to be especially considerate of your neighbors, particularly ones you need to collaborate with.

Depends entirely on the "culture" of your team. I have pretty strong misophonia that's been nothing making my life very difficult since I was a kid but switch noises are actually satisfying to me. A lot of devs feel the same. Mechanical switches sound like concentration, good work, precise engineering. It's all about the consistency of the background noise and the mental associations.

On the other side of things, the sound of a door closing too strongly will ruin my concentration and put me in a mood.

Yes. Absolutely. It's distracting. Clicky switches, like blues and greens, should not be allowed in an open office. It's possible to type softly enough on non-clicky keyboards that they aren't loud, but most of my coworkers seem to love bottoming-out on every stroke. I use QMX-Clips to silence my keyboard. It's only slightly louder than a normal membrane keyboard.

I've never had any complaints but I use a keyboard with Cherry MX silent switches. Highly recommended if you are worried about the noise, although they are harder to find on keyboards than other switches.

The guy I sit next to uses a mechanical Logitech keyboard with their custom switches and I've never heard any complaints about that one, either.

I love my mechanical keyboard. But, even dampened with o-rings, I wouldn't use it in the office. I use an Apple keyboard instead.