It needs an option to amplify the typing noises to "I work with developers who insist mechanical keyboards are better" levels.
They're no louder than a regular membrane keyboard, and much quieter than just using O-rings.
Regular: https://www.cherrymx.de/en/mx-original/mx-red.html
Silent: https://www.cherrymx.de/en/mx-original/mx-silent-red.html
I made my ergonomic, split keyboards from a kit[1], and chose Aliaz Silent switches [2]. It's around the same noisiness as everyone else's keyboard (Apple, cheap Dell one etc).
(There are almost certainly other options — the choice was a bit overwhelming when I decided to buy a DIY keyboard — but I'm not in the hobby of collecting many different keyboards. Various Reddit groups can advise.)
[1] https://github.com/omkbd/ErgoDash
[2] https://kbdfans.com/products/pre-orderaliaz-silent-switch-ta...
Sound test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWU9Sd_z9T0
Purchase: https://zealpc.net/products/zilents
// sent from MX blue
This has been the biggest complaint from my wife since the "work from home" started.
Honestly the biggest source of noise for basically all mechanical keys except buckling spring or cherry-blue style keys is the noise of the keycap or key stem hitting the bottom and subsequently the top of travel. Half of that is fixable with o-rings but that still leaves the noise at the top of travel which doesn't currently have any solutions as far as I know.
They have built-in dampening for the top of travel and for bottoming out. It's far more effective than o-rings and has a much better feel to it.
... that is not normal right? He was so casual about it ans no one seemed to be bithered which made me wonder if i am the weird one
Personally I find this kind dismissive commentary a little bit aggravating.
In my mind you're a "true" geek if you unashamedly enjoy the technicalities of something.
from Dungeons and Dragons to Train design.
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The parent is also a little distasteful. If you don't like the noise of a mechanical keyboard consult your manager; the issue is with poor sound isolation not with mechanical keyboards. Typewriters were a thing for many decades and people managed.
Keyboards might be a preference but the fact is that we're all human and we have our "sound vices"; whether it be being too loud when chewing or yelling into a mic mere inches away from your face all the way to nervously clicking your tongue when lost in thought.
Don't excuse those who have designed offices to be very poor w.r.t. sound isolation by blaming those who dare make noise.
Perhaps you weren't there. When typewriters were commonly used they were typically in the typing pool or in the secretary's own office and the noise didn't impinge on the rest of us. Of course it was different in offices where the principal activity was typing such as newspapers.
From '78 to '82 I worked as an electronics engineer in an open plan office that was so quiet you could hear a pin drop. None of us typed, instead we scrawled our documentation longhand and the department secretary typed it on an IBM Selectric in her own office next to the department manager's office. It sounds inefficient but in fact was not because revising documents was so time consuming that more effort went into keeping things simple and as far as practicable right first time.
If someone had made a lot of noise it would have been pointless complaining about the design of the office, the only practical remedy would be for them to stop being noisy.
I started working in an era when electric typewriters were still common. They certainly were not used in the common areas in any place I worked because of the noise.
Just to be clear, if you make a ton of noise in a common environment it’s your job to find a way to reduce your impact. If we have to go to the manager to make you change your ways ... well that answers the AITA.
One of my workplaces was a mainframe shop, some of the older devs still programmed their cobol/fortran iv code on sheets and took it to the data entry pool in another wing for input.
I recall a story about a developer who brought his mechanical keyboard to a job interview, to check if it is acceptable to other people in the office. That's quite considerable gesture.
It was a short quip which ended with a ":)". I'm sure it wasn't meant so seriously.