LateLesley

I really wished Linus talked more on his childish and immature response. He clearly wasn’t sorry.

It wasn't an apology video. It was a standard LTT video. They did an intro, a segue (fake one though), then plugged LTT Store, FP, their screwdriver, threw in a 69/420 joke, and placed a very deliberate segue to Dbrand at the end. And it was monetized, with affiliate links and all. It's clear they are in crisis-mode and are not making good decisions right now. They need someone, not Linus, to stop the hemorrhaging of the LMG brand, and to put out a rational response to all of this bs, and actually take the time to reflect on what they have done over the last ~48 hours.

It doesn't matter if the cooler was the greatest or the worst. Someone might have wanted exactly that product or one like it and it's wildly unprofessional to not review it properly. 

Linus still failed to address the frequency on which they release videos as this was brought up as the main issue with the channel and the time needed for each video to be precise and well made. Looking forward to that.

=> So you have Billet's e-mail at least, right? They asked for it, back. Not sure how you're defending yourself now with this, as I see that private conversations don't really do much. You sold (cough - sorry - auctioned) it anyway, even though they asked to send it back. 
TRUST ME BRO, come one. Nope. Nope. Nope. 

I believe in second chances, in third chances even. So whatever you & LMG have to do, make it right. Do better, be better.

and so he should, it was a good video that deserves appreciation for his no bullshit attitude.

"Why didn't he give us a heads up that he was going to call us out on YEARS of bad data and testing that everybody on the LTT forums knows happens?!"
 
Seriously? How long did you think that you'd be able to skate by with the asterisk notes done in the video itself before somebody finally had enough of your shoddy work and called you out on it? Why should ANYBODY try to contact you privately to "resolve" things that YOU YOURSELF have caused?
 
Most of the tech people on the internet don't come to your channel for facts. They come to it for entertainment. Numerous comparisons of LTT being "Top Gear but for computer geeks" done over the past decade+ is proof of that. You can't start crying about being called out on it "out of the blue" when it's been your modus operandi for an extremely long time...
 
I'll still continue to support LTT and Floatplane, but trying to cry foul here when you've finally been called out over bad testing, inaccurate findings, misleading representation, and a host of other things which you've done NOTHING to try to prevent when chasing some arbitrary metric of videos per week.

Please look at GN's response to the response.  It's well worded and pretty much shows why you wouldn't contact someone like Linus before.
 
Linus completely mischaractized the Billet situation, so if GN had approached Linus before Linus could have easily done what he currently did and essentially "made it right" before the GN video got released...at which point it's a lot harder to show that Linus only did it because he knew the storm was coming.
 

Linus 2015: "Remember guys, there's no excuse for taking shortcuts that result in a shitty product. Period." 
 
Linus 2023: "Guys, just listen to all the excuses I have for taking shortcuts that resulted in a shitty product!" 

@LinusTech You know what this whole situation reminds me of the spirit of? The events that lead to creation of the dick shaped logo of the PC building company 😄 Let me explain.
 
First- the response was way too fast. It's not thought through and it clearly was done in a rush. Regardless of what you think about what GN did here, the simple fact is that their video is factual, and you really should have gone: "We saw it, we want to take out time and figure out the details and our response, please give us a few days". 
 
Second - you just committed a cardinal sin of "I have shit to do, I don't have time to deal with this". This is how your whole response and handling comes off here.
 
Three - the "dragon energy" - yup, that's the worst possible application of it here. This requires anything but that and frankly, as the owner who now has a CEO that runs day to day operations, you should have dropped all things but the most critical stuff and look into things as the owner properly and take your time to fix shit. I will be honest here - as a fellow, albeit far far smaller, but still a person who has been in business world for past decade and have had to manage a lot of people (most I had was an IT dept of 100+ people), I would be making some hard choices right about now. And not just fire someone (albeit that is subject to a review and if the fuckups are really piling up due to the specific person(s) - it might have to happen) - I would be pressing the big red "STOP FUCKING EVERYTHING" button and freeing up some people from projects to decrease the clearly unsustainable load that leads to way too many mistakes. 
 
I think what is happening right now is that due to the size of the company, the people that get hired are just not able to keep up and you have to really account for that. LMG can't run at the pace and speed as it was when it was 5-10-20 people any more. 
People also need to be given the KPI of "quality" as the primary goal and you seriously need to re-think the amount of time that's given to people to do their job.
 
Also - KPI's are not meant to be fulfilled 100%. IF you are hitting your KPI's to 100% completion - it's a bad KPI. In the software development world our KPIs are considered "done" if we hit 70% target, anything over it is a bonus and means everyone did an extraordinary job. It also should not be expected that next round of KPI's should be upped - you only up them IF the teams consistently outperform on a significant stretch of time (like a few months at least) to account for the fact that if you up them immediately, the result will be burnout and things will tank badly. My current feel is that the team is undersized or disorganised for the amount of work you want it to do and you are pushing them too hard. At it will make things only worse, do I really need to spell that out? I think I do, because for the past 2 years of watching every WAN show I get a distinct feeling that this is the mistake being made and there are literal company corpses by the hundreds that this mistake has killed in the software industry. The people resource management.
 
 
And in general all the errors GN pointed out I have noticed them all myself as they popped up and I will say this: The amount of corrections in the videos has got to a point where it started to really annoy me personally. I now have to second-guess everything LMG is posting with the reviews of anything. 
Want to also know something? At this point when I hear "labs spent time with the product" automatically puts me into the "doubt everything" mode as in with the current track record your reviews where the hard numbers are present are not to be trusted. At all. As far as I'm concerned until this problem is solved, you should not even post any review videos - just do other content.
 
I love the jank, but lately, the jank has been too much. The home improvement videos as of late have been more like "channel superfun" and less "Linus Tech Tips" main channel and that is a really bad thing. 
 
My 0.02$ rambling cents that nobody will read 😄 At least I got it off my chest.

From an optics perspective, does that actually matter though? Specifically when there are no LMG shareholders outside of Linus and Yvonne? 

Steve vs Linus cage match when?????

Many of the points made by GN are very valid I love LTT and there videos and I know the release a bunch of very good content, but there team is Huge now and given the concept of the lab I think its time they spend a little more time on accuracy, and making sure content is correct before posting, I just hope everyone can remain mature and take on bored the points of GN, and see it as GN trying to help LTT rather than just throwing shade and causing drama

The part where it is alleged LTT auctioned off a prototype water block they promised to return is troubling. That requires an official response.

*edit* I actually got to watch the video when I got home, and its pretty rough. I've seen a few inaccuracies in LTT videos the last few months that were small, some GN didn't even show, obvious QA issues, but the kind of errors GN shows go beyond basic QA.
 
Everyone knows GN's the goat when it comes to actual data, LTT's forte into data is really secondary to the entertainment priority the channel has always had.
 
GN's accusations are valid here.
 
*another edit*
The response was well done in my opinion. corporate, but that's probably for the better. We'll see what the results are in their next videos, which'll be a solid week away for good reason.

For the large majority, GN is correct. The thing that sticks out to me has been the extremely large increase in * corrections. * this and * that. They need to let their foot off the gas a little. They're moving too fast and breaking things too quickly, catch my drift?
 
However, in my personal opinion, part of the video, in regard to sponsorship, seemed a bit more personally driven, rather than fact-based. But besides that, LTT needs to ensure accurate data. I will 100% back that. 
 
Hopefully, Linus and LTT will take a moment to reflect before rushing to any statements or any off-handed remarks on the WAN show on Friday. 

This is a baseless accusation. There is nothing clear about Steve's intentions. None of us are Steve, and he hasn't said anything in the past to indicate the reason he posts drama is for views.

I just reread Linus's response, while he disagrees with Steve not reaching out, there was nothing in Steve's video he didn't own up to messing up on. Regardless of Steve's intent, we shouldn't get mad at someone for reporting on facts. It's a GOOD THING that he made that video and brought this to the community's attention. We WANT Linus to do better, and if they agree with Steve that they need to do better, then I don't see a reason to get mad.

So, according to the reply from Linus, LTT is not planning on addressing this matter publicly at all?
 
You kept saying the lab team is suffering major growing pain, and had been saying that for quite some time now, as I'm sure many people here know that. You and the lab team are clearly expanding too fast, harming your capability to manage and produce accurate and quality results. You need to "Slow down and think" - Linus.
 
You mentioned you couldn't retest the Billet Labs cooler because you couldn't test it with all the possible number of pumps and radiators configuration, but no one asked for that. People need you to properly test the cooler with the proper hardware it was designed for, and according to the GN and one of the founder's comments, they sent you all the manual and guides needed to complete the task.
You chose to ignore the guides and ignore its intended purpose, it's like trashing the Prius for it's performance at the race track then doubling down on that because you couldn't possibly test all the scenarios people could drive the Prius.
 
Also the auctioning of the cooler, according to GN emails with the Billet Labs, they didn't know anything about it until 3 days ago. Now, you provided a vague comment on the subject blaming "miscommunication", that's not selling it, we need details on how this happened and the correct timeline for the events. It's not helping your argument much if you only provided the compensation AFTER the GN video.
 
The report from GN about the cooler auctioning is one-sided and I it's not fair for you guys when GN publish the piece without contacting LMG for comment first. It's also not fair for Billet Labs when "It also comes across a touch hypocritical when some basic due diligence could have helped clarify much of it" - Linus, with the cooler. You did that many times before with many other products, why not this one?
 
Beside some rare "Hurr durr, LTT is going DOWN" comments, everyone here knows that "It was a mistake (a bad one, but a mistake) and they're taking care of it", and everyone is yearning for you guys to do better. Immediately using the word "pitchforks" for your most dedicated fans is not helping.
 
I know you guys are always trying to do the best. Honestly, I'm actually most disappointed by Linus' attitude toward the situation.

I too think the video quality has crossed the line a while back. Linus quotes that community suddenly had "pitchforks" against him, somewhat blaming the community for not listening to him first.
 
I think he had influx of responses because so many people were upset already regarding video quality, just like you and I. Which might have led him to believe that we are being sheeped into "pitchforking" against him.

I think there should be a proper response, I mean this is big, probably the biggest controversy for this company, you can't pretend it doesn't exist to avoid drama
I'm not holding a pitchfork, I am still a huge fan, and that's why I wish you guys do better
and honestly, even as a huge fan of LTT, that was a very weak response... clarify any misunderstandings, own up to any mistakes in detail (you can't say "Guys I told you I make mistakes, you shouldn't call me out), and one thing most people agree on, is please Quality > Quantity

I don't want excuses.  I want a "We fucked up.  We acknowledge we fucked up.  Here's how we will hopefully fuck up less."  That would be cool, and I think that's largely what LMG expects of the people they call out as well.

Specifically responding to this and while I don't expect a reply, this just is an excuse to me.
 
How many times have you done something extreme just for the sake of doing it? Or because you wanted the absolute best price be damned?
 
Whole home water cooling. Water chiller. Mineral oil PC etc etc.
 
If it was the best waterblock money could buy, someone will buy it.
 
You shouldn't have accepted the review if you weren't going to at least commit to doing it right. If you weren't comfortable with the expense of doing it right, then you should have declined.
 
All you did was damage a fledgling companies image.

While mistakes happen and it's good you're compensating them, I'm concerned about Billet's IP.
 
How much of that prototype was a trade secret? Now it's out in the wild.

Not returning the Billet waterblock and auctioning it.
So many people are calling it theft for some reason.
While occams razor would probably point to a HUGE fuckup but not intentional.
 
It's incredibly stupid and they need to make amends.
But think it's to early to get the pitchforks out.
 
I did dislike how Linus didn't properly test the block and said not to buy it.
You can buy equipment for the lab for thousands and ten thousands of dollars, but not spend 500 more per video to make them accurate?
 
The quality of videos has gone down over the time. They are funny, but a lot of times I wish a concept was better fleshed out into a video. 
 
I personally am  not a huge fan of the "going in blind videos", where the concept has been tested by someone but Linus then goes in mostly blind. A well constructed plan is more my thing but that's my opinion