Ask HN: What kind of whiteboard does not use dry erase markers?

In a previous apartment, I painted a wall with several coats of blackboard (chalkboard) paint and then used fancy chalk on it, and a chalkboard eraser. Worked pretty well. The landlord even let me keep it up when I moved out, because the next tenants liked it.

We did this when we renovated. Had a kitchen wall section chalk board painted for notes, as well as a much larger section of the kids play room wall.

The notes was useful space on the kitchen and the playroom one the kids just loved to doodle. Their friends were always impressed and loved to be able to leave a tag or doodle on it when they came over.

We tried a layer of magnetic paint too, but it didn’t work nearly as well.

I'm of the generation that had student labs (with eye-wateringly expensive computers) full of chalk dust. Chalk dust everywhere. I still have chalk dust trauma I guess and even with better housekeeping habits I'd think twice about it. Doodling opportunity so very tempting though.