I stumbled across a link to the original “My iBook G3 Keyboard Smells Like Ass” thread this morning over at discussions.apple.com:
Terrible body odor type smell coming from keyboard that seems to increase with the machine temperature. It can be smelled when walking by the iBook when it’s on.
If you haven’t smelled it, it’s awful. New keyboards was the only reliable fix, even hardcore cleaning offered temporary relief.