A dev scored some free Cloudflare keycaps at an event. They didn't know what to do with them, but the Reddit hivemind had some brilliantly toxic ideas.
Getting free t-shirts or stress balls at tech events is so 2010. Cloudflare is out here handing out custom keycaps to devs, because nothing screams "web performance" quite like a plastic square you mash aggressively when things go wrong.
Scrolling through Reddit, I stumbled upon OP showing off their latest loot from a Cloudflare event (apparently in Utrecht). It was a set of keycaps featuring that infamous orange cloud logo.
OP fully admitted they don't even have a keyboard build that matches the color scheme. But let's be real—with our dev hoarder mindset, free stuff is free stuff. So, they tossed them into a closet already filled with neglected, unloved keycaps, telling themselves, "I'll find a use for them eventually." I know half of you reading this have a similar drawer of tech junk right now.
The post blew up mildly, and the community responses were absolute gold:
Corporate swag is a trap, but it's a trap we all willingly dive into. But honestly, building a tiny macro pad specifically to smash when your cloud vps goes dark and you get hit with a 502 Bad Gateway is a brilliant coping mechanism for developers.
The takeaway: Always take the free swag at tech events. Mechanical keyboards are an expensive rabbit hole, so free keycaps are always a win. What would you do with a Cloudflare keycap? Spamming F5 during an outage sounds about right.
