A while ago Linus decided to reach a compromise with his audience, he'd still use the obnoxious thumbnails & titles because the current state of Youtube sadly favors that BUT he'd also include a - "what the video is actually about" identifier after the clickbait title so we can actually search for specific products/reviews/etc. While this solution isn't perfect, I was more than happy to have that compromise, and with Linus' promise I felt better about supporting the channel.
Commitment to that promise has been getting shakier over the past few months. Before it was just the odd 1 in 20 videos that didn't conform which is forgivable. But now, I fear that commitment is slipping even further:
Attached below is a simple screenshot of LTT's videos from today to about 3wk ago
Decided to use my amazing photoshop skills to make 3 symbols to show "title-promise" conformity.
Green check = perfectly serviceable, would be able to search & find with almost no hassle.
Orange dash = essentially clickbait purgatory. These aren't egregious offenses and with some annoyance & difficulty you could probably find a specific video if you were looking for it. Clearly room for improvement.
Red X = marking the spot for unambiguous clickbait. The titles serve no purpose other than to trick people into clicking by dangling a "ooOOOooo, what's in here I wonder?? HMMM?" thread hoping that random people will pounce at it.
I'm not including Linus' little Beat Saber because that's just a one-off fun video or the WAN shows because those encompass several topics and making a title that accurately portrays an hour worth of dynamic content isn't possible.
While I personally wish all this clickbait bs & obnoxious expression + overly saturated colors thumbnail trend would go away entirely, and I think its underhanded to exempt TechLinked from the whole "clickbait - actual title" paradigm. But I understand that doing this stuff helps LTT thrive in Youtube's little ecosystem. And I like Linus, been a fan since 2012, so I'm happy to see him succeed.
Whole point of this post is to just say "please keep your promise." When I only see 8 out of 19 titles in a 3wk span of videos that follow what Linus promised he'd do, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth. Feels like I've been lied to, and I have little interest in watching someone who makes me feel like that.
