Editing The Pen Addict 670/transcript (section)

== Updating the top five pens list and its criteria ==

* And I can confidently say that because I've been thinking about it's time for a top five pens update. So, I have this top five pens page at penaddict.com. And it's time for an update. Like, the entire page needs to be updated. It's been two and three years since the categories have been updated. And it always takes a decent amount of time just because I have to think about it a lot and figure out what's changed, what hasn't changed but might move around, what's, you know, what is really standing the test of time. And this has been a good long-term project. I can't even remember when I first launched this page. I could probably archive.org it. Yeah. Yeah. But it's not as frequently updated these days because there's not a lot of change. But after a couple of years, like, there's things that need to go in there. So, I'm going to start looking into this and give myself a goal of a full-page refresh by the end of 2025. Okay. Like, this takes some time for me to do just because I want to, I have to think about how things compare and what am I missing? You know, what goes on the list, what comes off the list, what moves up, what moves down and what new stuff has happened since I previously wrote this. So, the first two categories I want to touch are the top five micro gel ink pens and the top five fountain pens for beginners. So, let's talk about the micro gel ink pens first. I'm starting to wonder if I should change the category name into the top five micro tip pens.
* And that might be leaning, that might be pushing it a little too far to what I want and then to what this page exists. This page exists for recommendations, right? This is more of a universal guideline, not Brad's favorite pens. This is not Brad's favorite pens page. This is what I would recommend to you in this category if you were going out shopping today.
* And I, I'm wondering about changing the name because a pen for one pen and one pen only, and this is a personal mission that I'm on and it's the, the jet stream 0.38 light touch. So, that pen has come out clearly since, you know, I've updated this.
* That pen would not have a place in my current categories. Um, it's not a micro gel ink pen. And for standard pens, the other standard pen category I use is top five pens in the store. So, the jet stream does go on that list. And what I mean is that's like, if you go down to the grocery store or to the office supply store and, you know, up there on the wall on the peg is this pack of pens, which one is a good one? The jet stream lives there, right? But that's a 0.7 millimeter pen that I'm recommending there. And it's the standard jet stream because the light touch doesn't exist there in that category yet. But the 0.38 millimeter light touch is one of my favorite pens going right now. And I think it deserves like a mention in this micro tip category. So, I'm thinking about doing that. Plus, I think there's definitely some, some movement on this list because the Uniball 1 is not in there on this list. And I think that's probably, um, an option for this list. It wouldn't be near the top. I think there's still some inconsistencies with the Uniball 1. But right now, the micro gel ink pen list 1 through 5 is the Uniball Signo DX 0.38, Zebra Sarasa Clip 0.4, Pilot Juice Up 0.4, Uniball Signo RT 1 0.38, and Pentel Energel Cleaner 0.3 or 0.4.
* I think one of the things I try to do with these lists, accessibility is a key, right? Even if it's only available online because it's imported, you know, like for the DX for a while was not in the US. It wasn't in, in Europe. It was just basically a Japanese only pen, but now they've kind of like spread it worldwide. Right. So, I like, I also want to have access to these products. So, um, like the Energel Cleaner, like it's not very accessible. And that's always one of the challenges I've had with that one because it's such a good refill, but they've, it's just kind of static and they've really never done anything with it. So like something like the Uniball 1, I need to think about putting on that list. Does the Jetstream Light Touch need a home? I think it does. I think it's as good as like the Pilot Juice Up or the Signo RT 1, right? Maybe it's not a Sarasa Clip or a Signo DX, but like, I don't know where else I would put it because there's not a category for that. So anyway, those are the type of things I'm thinking about for that. And the other, the other category is probably the single most popular category is the top five fountain pens for beginners, because we always have new people coming in and almost all, well, I'm not even gonna say almost literally all of these pens are great for experienced users too, right? These are fantastic freaking pens. They just happen to be at a price point. That's more, um, attainable for a beginner, right? They're willing to spend, you know, five to $20 on a pen, not, you know, a hundred to $250 on a pen, right? So, but we all know these pens and love a lot of these pens, no matter how many expensive pens we have.
* There's a little maybe change in here, but this is a category where I could sit here today and say, there's not a lot of new options I want to have. One thing I do on here is I'm not putting, I'm putting in also pens that I believe have, if you're buying these from a retailer, you're going to have a good like support, good, um,
* um, customer service. Like if you have an issue, like, especially for beginners, right? So like, I'm not going to put necessarily like a lot of Jen house or, or moon men's or some of the, you know, cheaper, good quality pens that you might just mostly buy off of Amazon, which I literally nothing wrong with that. Like I have a, like some that I really, really enjoy, but I'm generally going to put like big company, widely supported, um, good customer service options, types of pens. So you're going to get your Platinums, your Pilots, your Kawekos, things of that nature on here. So I don't know what changes on this list, right? I think I might be leaning towards, you know, there's like the Platinum Prefonte is, is a great addition. So right now I should say it's Platinum Preppy is number one, Pilot Metropolitan, number two, Cocoon, Pilot Cocoon, number three, Kaweko Perchio, number four, Faber-Castell Grip, number five. I really think the Metropolitan has fallen off some. It's, it's, it's gone up probably $10 since I've had it on this list. Maybe it stays on the list, but not at number two. I think that it's probably like Platinum Preppy one, Pilot Cocoon 2, and then everything else. Kaweko Perchio, the Platinum Prefonte is not on this list. That's a great pen. Um, I might bring back like the Kaweko Classic Sport. That's just a, that's a challenging one.
* Um, for a beginner because it's just a different shape as much as I love it. It's maybe not first fountain pen friendly being the smaller pen. I don't know. So yeah, those are the two that I'm looking at. Um, I think there's some change in the, in the micro tip category. I don't know that there's a lot of change in the beginners. Maybe a little reorganization. Like I think the Pilot Metropolitan might just fall off this list because I think maybe the Explorer is better, even though it's the same price. I don't know. The Metropolitan's a weird pen. It answers a lot of questions for beginners, right? It feels, it's, it's, it's like a dictionary definition fountain pen. Um, so I don't know. Maybe it stays on the list, but we'll see. So those are the things I'm thinking about. And the point I'm bringing this up is if y'all have any feedback or want me to consider some things or you need, Brad, you need to look at this a little bit more, you know, send me an email. Hello at penatic.com. Um, and, uh, I'd be happy to take a look because again, as I go through this, um, there's very few categories that's going to have wholesale change, right? Like I think we're in a pretty good place on the list, but it does need some freshening up and some new pens need to be listed in there.
* My, um, request to you when you refresh this page, uh, each category should have an image of all five pens. Okay. Yeah. I think that'd be nice. I think it would help break up the page a little bit. Totally. Maybe a bit more readable, maybe easier for people to be able to like scan it and see what they're looking for. True. Because, um, yeah, the visuals do matter. Like if you put the pilot metropolitan next to the Kaweco sport and you've never heard of either, you're going to have an instant reaction. Yeah. Right. To either love, hate, love both, hate both, something like that. So I think that's good information.
* If you would like to send in feedback about this episode, it's very easy. You can also send in your questions. We'll hit out some mass TPA in a couple of weeks. So as Brad mentioned, uh, next week is going to be a guest episode because Brad is traveling. So very, I'm very thankful that he recorded in advance and said, it'll be a fun interview. So we will be back the week after that. Uh, but you can always send in your feedback, follow up and questions by going to penaddictfeedback.com. And there's a link in the show notes. If you want those show notes, they should be in your podcast app of choice. It's where we put links to the products and things discussed in this episode, but you can also go to relay.fm slash penaddict slash 670 for today's show. Uh, talking of today's show, thank you to Squarespace and Pen Chalet for their support of this episode. If you'd like to find Brad online, go to penaddict.com, spokedesign.com, any streams at twitch.tv slash penaddict. Uh, I have a blog now, uh, that people can go and find it, theenthusiast.net. The enthusiast, I'm still like struggling to say it out loud, like in a way that is clear. Um, I learned this from psychic notepad, which people think I say instead of psychic notepad. Nice. Hey, I have a hard time saying Brad sometimes. Yeah. Broad, broad daddy. Broad. If you want to find him. Uh, yeah, you can also find us on social media too. We're there. It's too hard now. You'll find us. We'll be back next time. Until then, say goodbye, broad. Goodbye, broad.

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[[Category:The Pen Addict Podcast Transcript]]