it's not an ad. It's a helpful notification on a solid product and a means by which to acquire it for very little money. That's like saying a product review is an ad. Yes, it does have a similar effect, but that is by no means the intended message of the content.
Well it's certainly an advert in my eyes. Are they going to put a story up when amazon are offering 15% off a 4tb harddrive as well? My opinion is that 1. it is an ad, and 2. if they want to put a story up for this, then they should put a story up for every single worthwhile promotion that is out there for good products, if not, then i can in no way consider anandtechs opinion on this keyboard as unbiased.
Sorry if you feel this is an ad, but as someone that used the keyboard and reviewed it, I thought some of our readers might be interested in knowing that it's available for quite a bit under the regular price (assuming you're patient). Commodity products that are available from a ton of sources are quite different than a specialized keyboard that you can only buy from... well, the manufacturer's site or Massdrop.
It might have sounded like an ad, but you did it wrong. You said "this other product of the same type, which I find better than this product, might be available soon".
Clearly you need to work on your advertising! Remember, when advertising, you're not supposed to say something else is better!
My issue being that this seems to be one of very few promotion based stories. where was the article for the 20% off the nexus 7? Instead we get a story about a good product, but one that clearly has a need for some market adoption.
Doesn't that make our notebook, smartphone, CPU, GPU, etc. reviews ads as well? Pretty much anything where someone references a product becomes an advertisement in that case. Not that it really matters what you call it; it's not like I get a bonus for mentioning a product like this.
Yes, technically reviews are ads as well (in particular the positive reviews). There's a reason manufacturers hand out review samples to the media, it's good advertising (again, assuming a positive review). But so what? Ads aren't inherently evil. Obnoxious ads are.
Sorry, I used to work in advertising, and you really did sound exactly like people I worked with, so it struck me as funny. I personally don't object to ads as long as they're truthful.
This isn't an ad. Jarred has done reviews on all of these ergonomic keyboards over the last year or so, and this is a quick note to all the people who read those reviews and were interested, but were turned off by the pricing. What's the difference between this and listing cheapest available prices for computer hardware, oftentimes through Newegg or Amazon? The only difference is these are much more niche products and go on sale far less often. So much less often and through such a (comparatively) unconventional channel as to warranty a quick heads up on an otherwise slow news day.
So I don't see any reason to bash Anandtech over this as it's really just a follow-up for already established, quality reviews.
I think this post is different than just a post about a 15% discount because it is about a group buy for a low volume product. A group buy requires people to know about it, and since a review was done on this product it would make sense to post this message about a group buy to people who might be interested in buying it. And every post on this website is about some sort of product, so they are all about product promotion and if I didn't want to know about products then I wouldn't come to a site that only posts content about a products. I'd love to know more about discounts on products reviewed on the site. It only benefits me. I ended up buying a Surface because of a deal posted, and while I like my surface but feel a little buyers remorse as more and more products are announced, that doesn't mean I don't want to hear about more price reductions because price is always a factor in how something is reviewed. There are no bad products, just bad prices and AMD knows that well. If the price of an FX6300 goes down to where it's now in a different price class, that is part of a review and I want to know about it.
So long as you're not getting paid by TECK to post this, I see no problems. But if you do get paid for this post, then this is an ad and should be disclosed as one.
In the future, you can include a disclaimer that no one in Anandtech is receiving any payment for these posts. That should clear up any misunderstandings and suspicions.
This is the whole purpose for our Pipeline section -- rarely do full reviews go into Pipeline; it's for little stuff including press releases, product launches, other news, games, etc.
Thanks for posting this in the pipeline section. Guys complaining in the above comments: why are you behaving like retards? This is Group Buy of a niche product which seldom goes on discount, just don't click if you feel so bad about it.
Wow what a bunch of whiners. From the looks of this Jarred is doing two things: 1. Letting AT readers know there is an opportunity to purchase the keyboard at a discount price 2. Perhaps helping the Massdrop hit a better pricepoint. It doesn't look to me as an advert per-se just some useful info. I'll bet people would bitch and moan if they bought a keyboard at full price then found out later they could have got it cheaper if only AT had let them know!
Why don't those concerned with keyboards take a look at the AEIOU Keyboard. It is a complete departure from QWERTY and overcomes the main problem of QWERTY: it is a random arrangement of letters that is difficult to learn. The AEIOU Keyboard is now available as an App and will soon have a hard keyboard. The idea is not to switch users from QWERTY, but rather to first institute the keyboard on peripheral devices such as Apps, GPS devices etc and then start with young people first learning to type and introduce them into a much easier system. Not an easy task. www.aeioukeyboard.com Paul Streitz Inventor
Now *that* is how you write an advertisement. Why use QWERTY when we could use your patented layout, that doesn't even have a physical product, based purely on your assertion that it's easier to learn? "Alphabetical left to right is most logical, but we can't patent it. I know, lets just put the vowels first and go top to bottom!" Innovation at it's best. I doff my hat to you, good sir.
I cannot recommend this keyboard to anyone due to the lack of customer support that I have received stemming from issues with this keyboard. I have had issues with the z, c, v, b, n, e, t, left space and enter keys since I have started using this keyboard last month. These keys either do not register when pressed or register multiple presses when trying to type with this keyboard.
I saw the technical support faq about the keyswitches needing to "break in" for thirty days, which was never an issue with my Rosewill or Razer Cherry MX boards (why would their keys be different?), but I decided to slough it through anyways. The keyboard still has issues with key presses!
I have been through three RMA requests over the past two weeks (two via website, and one via email). My last email request was on Friday and I just opened up a paypal dispute today because I have received no responses back from Truly Ergonomic.
Just to let you know that I am not the only one who has suffered from lack of communication with this company - if you check geekhack.org or read some of the keyboard reviews out there other people have this issue as well.
It's a shame because I really enjoy the keyboard design too - I think having the enter, tab, backspace keys centered makes a lot of sense and the small size is perfect for me. Just disappointed that there are so many issues with the keyboard design and support.
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GoSharks - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
What is an ad doing in the AT newsfeed?Hrel - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
it's not an ad. It's a helpful notification on a solid product and a means by which to acquire it for very little money. That's like saying a product review is an ad. Yes, it does have a similar effect, but that is by no means the intended message of the content.hughlle - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Well it's certainly an advert in my eyes. Are they going to put a story up when amazon are offering 15% off a 4tb harddrive as well? My opinion is that 1. it is an ad, and 2. if they want to put a story up for this, then they should put a story up for every single worthwhile promotion that is out there for good products, if not, then i can in no way consider anandtechs opinion on this keyboard as unbiased.JarredWalton - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Sorry if you feel this is an ad, but as someone that used the keyboard and reviewed it, I thought some of our readers might be interested in knowing that it's available for quite a bit under the regular price (assuming you're patient). Commodity products that are available from a ton of sources are quite different than a specialized keyboard that you can only buy from... well, the manufacturer's site or Massdrop.Lonyo - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
It might have sounded like an ad, but you did it wrong. You said "this other product of the same type, which I find better than this product, might be available soon".Clearly you need to work on your advertising! Remember, when advertising, you're not supposed to say something else is better!
hughlle - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
My issue being that this seems to be one of very few promotion based stories. where was the article for the 20% off the nexus 7? Instead we get a story about a good product, but one that clearly has a need for some market adoption.JeffFlanagan - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
>it's not an ad. It's a helpful notification on a solid product and a means by which to>acquire it for very little money.
LOL, spoken like an ad-man.
JarredWalton - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Doesn't that make our notebook, smartphone, CPU, GPU, etc. reviews ads as well? Pretty much anything where someone references a product becomes an advertisement in that case. Not that it really matters what you call it; it's not like I get a bonus for mentioning a product like this.Gigaplex - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Yes, technically reviews are ads as well (in particular the positive reviews). There's a reason manufacturers hand out review samples to the media, it's good advertising (again, assuming a positive review). But so what? Ads aren't inherently evil. Obnoxious ads are.JeffFlanagan - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Sorry, I used to work in advertising, and you really did sound exactly like people I worked with, so it struck me as funny. I personally don't object to ads as long as they're truthful.garadante - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
This isn't an ad. Jarred has done reviews on all of these ergonomic keyboards over the last year or so, and this is a quick note to all the people who read those reviews and were interested, but were turned off by the pricing. What's the difference between this and listing cheapest available prices for computer hardware, oftentimes through Newegg or Amazon? The only difference is these are much more niche products and go on sale far less often. So much less often and through such a (comparatively) unconventional channel as to warranty a quick heads up on an otherwise slow news day.So I don't see any reason to bash Anandtech over this as it's really just a follow-up for already established, quality reviews.
Hubb1e - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
I think this post is different than just a post about a 15% discount because it is about a group buy for a low volume product. A group buy requires people to know about it, and since a review was done on this product it would make sense to post this message about a group buy to people who might be interested in buying it. And every post on this website is about some sort of product, so they are all about product promotion and if I didn't want to know about products then I wouldn't come to a site that only posts content about a products. I'd love to know more about discounts on products reviewed on the site. It only benefits me. I ended up buying a Surface because of a deal posted, and while I like my surface but feel a little buyers remorse as more and more products are announced, that doesn't mean I don't want to hear about more price reductions because price is always a factor in how something is reviewed. There are no bad products, just bad prices and AMD knows that well. If the price of an FX6300 goes down to where it's now in a different price class, that is part of a review and I want to know about it.thinkwhy - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
So long as you're not getting paid by TECK to post this, I see no problems. But if you do get paid for this post, then this is an ad and should be disclosed as one.In the future, you can include a disclaimer that no one in Anandtech is receiving any payment for these posts. That should clear up any misunderstandings and suspicions.
JNo - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
We know you're not an ad man or specifically promoting this product Jarred. Your integrity is undiminished.Nonetheless, it just feels slightly out of place on a site of Anandtech's calibre which focuses primarily on *reviews*.
JarredWalton - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
This is the whole purpose for our Pipeline section -- rarely do full reviews go into Pipeline; it's for little stuff including press releases, product launches, other news, games, etc.BMNify - Monday, September 30, 2013 - link
Thanks for posting this in the pipeline section. Guys complaining in the above comments: why are you behaving like retards? This is Group Buy of a niche product which seldom goes on discount, just don't click if you feel so bad about it.nitram_tpr - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
Wow what a bunch of whiners. From the looks of this Jarred is doing two things:1. Letting AT readers know there is an opportunity to purchase the keyboard at a discount price
2. Perhaps helping the Massdrop hit a better pricepoint.
It doesn't look to me as an advert per-se just some useful info. I'll bet people would bitch and moan if they bought a keyboard at full price then found out later they could have got it cheaper if only AT had let them know!
pstreitz - Tuesday, October 1, 2013 - link
Why don't those concerned with keyboards take a look at the AEIOU Keyboard. It is a complete departure from QWERTY and overcomes the main problem of QWERTY: it is a random arrangement of letters that is difficult to learn. The AEIOU Keyboard is now available as an App and will soon have a hard keyboard. The idea is not to switch users from QWERTY, but rather to first institute the keyboard on peripheral devices such as Apps, GPS devices etc and then start with young people first learning to type and introduce them into a much easier system. Not an easy task. www.aeioukeyboard.comPaul Streitz
Inventor
overzealot - Thursday, October 3, 2013 - link
Now *that* is how you write an advertisement.Why use QWERTY when we could use your patented layout, that doesn't even have a physical product, based purely on your assertion that it's easier to learn?
"Alphabetical left to right is most logical, but we can't patent it. I know, lets just put the vowels first and go top to bottom!"
Innovation at it's best. I doff my hat to you, good sir.
phillyboy - Tuesday, October 15, 2013 - link
I cannot recommend this keyboard to anyone due to the lack of customer support that I have received stemming from issues with this keyboard. I have had issues with the z, c, v, b, n, e, t, left space and enter keys since I have started using this keyboard last month. These keys either do not register when pressed or register multiple presses when trying to type with this keyboard.I saw the technical support faq about the keyswitches needing to "break in" for thirty days, which was never an issue with my Rosewill or Razer Cherry MX boards (why would their keys be different?), but I decided to slough it through anyways. The keyboard still has issues with key presses!
I have been through three RMA requests over the past two weeks (two via website, and one via email). My last email request was on Friday and I just opened up a paypal dispute today because I have received no responses back from Truly Ergonomic.
Just to let you know that I am not the only one who has suffered from lack of communication with this company - if you check geekhack.org or read some of the keyboard reviews out there other people have this issue as well.
It's a shame because I really enjoy the keyboard design too - I think having the enter, tab, backspace keys centered makes a lot of sense and the small size is perfect for me. Just disappointed that there are so many issues with the keyboard design and support.
phillyboy - Wednesday, October 16, 2013 - link
As an update - got an RMA and an apology from them last night, so the keyboard is heading back for a new one.