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[Sensei]

He's saying that steampunk doesn't work as entirely being baggage- it has to be attached to a functional device. As opposed to being like this guy

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

this guitar (admittedly, I think its awesome, it might not fulfill the aforementioned nonsense requirement)

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or this lot

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Notably, a search for steampunk fashion doesn't really turn up a lot of people wearing gears or other such nonsense. But I think I can visualize what you're talking about, although I'm not sure where you've seen it.
Somewhat off topic: Rat Bikes, although the majority of this is more inspired by Mad Max than steampunk.

[Aqizzar]

Rat Bikes (and the car form, Rat Daddy) are as old as motor vehicles, that guitar is cool as shit, and everyone knows cosplayers are retarded as a social class, but you're just jealous of how much fun they're having.

[Leafsnail]

My friend used an instructable to make a steampunk sniper rifle using this instructable.  It looked hard to make, but damn if isn't awesome.

[G-Flex]

He's saying that steampunk doesn't work as entirely being baggage- it has to be attached to a functional device.

Well, it's fashion too! I mean, steampunk to me can certainly involve you making yourself look all quasi-Victorian and putting a brass case around your computer, and that's great. It's when you start throwing the most superficial elements of it around like they're table salt that it starts to approach kitsch and nonsense. And even if something isn't functional, goddamn, you could at least make it look like it does something for the sake of style (see my "movie prop" analogy) rather than just slapping random parts on that quite obviously aren't connected to anything. Mechanical bits should at least look like they're there for a reason, or else you make yourself look like some sort of tribal person who's never seen a mechanical device in his life, took one apart in the forest, and decided that screwing cogs and springs into his clothing is going to make him run faster.

[qwertyuiopas]

If I understand it right, the key point of steampunk is lower technology with the ability of higher technology, and most importantly, with less regard of appearance when it would restrict efficiency.

You can even emulate it with a computer: Remove the case, and bolt the drives directly to the table. It leaves the components vulnerable, BUT, it improves airflow, and with decent wiring layout, it looks more high-tech. Compare the borg to the starfleet, the humans to the ori, and in all cases, one has a practicality of design that leaves more exposed that has a faint essence of steampunk in the lack of visual polish.

Babage's oversized and underpowered mechanical calculators are a great example, if you put it in a metal case, it would be just another machine, but since you can see it's internals, it can be considered steampunk in a way. Though if it had some sort of steam mechanisms internally rather than just as a power source option, it would be true steampunk.



Compared to



The first one only lacks steam.

[Areyar]

@sensei:

pic1: cool, or rather superheated!
pic2: looks awesome, though a bit nonfunctional and silly lego gears. I love the colours.
picd3: I'd probably want to kill these people should I ever meet them.
(if this was at a random event, if they created this stuff for a costumeparty, its pretty cool.)

@Qwertyuiopas: Exposed mechanics are steampunk, but so are baroque embelishments on the exposed machinery, which are utterly missing in modern design.
compare early to moder phone:
vs

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

and decided that screwing cogs and springs into his clothing is going to make him run faster.

Redz make dem all wunz go fasta!
Mechz bitz make me tougha! MOAR DAKKA!

[yamo]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8376028.stm