Bobbyct

You just use the promo code that was sent to your email, as long as you're logged into the same LTTStore account you used to buy it, you'll be able to apply it.  Just earlier today an update email was sent mentioning the expiration date for the credits being extended so that the cable management stuff will be launched before it expires.

While the large majority of what Steve stated is true and in 'good faith', putting a video like that out without even bringing his concerns to the LMG team first is just not right.  The only thing a video like that does is cause drama, issues, and bad blood, at the end of the day it WILL NOT change a business's practices.  At a minimum, they should've reached out for comment and for a direct response from LMG, especially on the issues with sponsors where there's going to be communication outside of the public eye. 
Honestly, it's irresponsible and distasteful, especially since he made it abundantly clear that he knows there is going to be backlash in both directions, essentially putting communities against each other and attacking another media outlet. While again most of the allegations are true in full or in part, and should be called out, putting out what is basically an attack & shit-storm-starter without even getting a comment (aka failing to fact-check or make fully clear their own reporting on LMG issues with investments/sponsorships/partnerships) is just not how you handle it unless you're trying to cause an issue or tears between the two communities. 

The vast majority of inaccuracy had already been edited and the video already had evidence of their claims. All deleting evidence would have done is made LTT look worse or show that in response to the video they had taken the level of corrections that the GN was asking of them if the deleted videos then got re-uploaded with the corrections.

While the large majority of what Steve stated is true and in 'good faith', putting a video like that out without even bringing his concerns to the LMG team first is just not right.  The only thing a video like that does is cause drama, issues, and bad blood, at the end of the day it WILL NOT change a business's practices.  At a minimum, they should've reached out for comment and for a direct response from LMG, especially on the issues with sponsors where there's going to be communication outside of the public eye. 
Honestly, it's irresponsible and distasteful, especially since he made it abundantly clear that he knows there is going to be backlash in both directions, essentially putting communities against each other and attacking another media outlet. While again most of the allegations are true in full or in part, and should be called out, putting out what is basically an attack & shit-storm-starter without even getting a comment (aka failing to fact-check or make fully clear their own reporting on LMG issues with investments/sponsorships/partnerships) is just not how you handle it unless you're trying to cause an issue or tears between the two communities. 

Billet sent us a quote. I don't know or care how they arrived at the value. If they're good, I'm good.

As for what steps we're taking, you're talking about an outlier issue that has happened once in 10+ years of operation. There won't be a new SOP to ensure we don't accidentally auction stuff. We just need to tighten up some documentation.

There won't be a big WAN Show segment about this or anything. Most of what I have to say, I've already said, and I've done so privately.

To Steve, I expressed my disappointment that he didn't go through proper journalistic practices in creating this piece. He has my email and number (along with numerous other members of our team) and could have asked me for context that may have proven to be valuable (like the fact that we didn't 'sell' the monoblock, but rather auctioned it for charity due to a miscommunication... AND the fact that while we haven't sent payment yet, we have already agreed to compensate Billet Labs for the cost of their prototype). There are other issues, but I've told him that I won't be drawn into a public sniping match over this and that I'll be continuing to move forward in good faith as part of 'Team Media'. When/if he's ready to do so again I'll be ready.

To my team (and my CEO's team, but realistically I was at the helm for all of these errors, so I need to own it), I stressed the importance of diligence in our work because there are so many eyes on us. We are going through some growing pains - we've been very public about them in the interest of transparency - and it's clear we have some work to do on internal processes and communication. We have already been doing a lot of work internally to clean up our processes, but these things take time. Rome wasn't built in a day, but that's no excuse for sloppiness.

Now, for my community, all I can say is the same things I always say. We know that we're not perfect. We wear our imperfection on our sleeves in the interest of ensuring that we stay accountable to you. But it's sad and unfortunate when this transparency gets warped into a bad thing. The Labs team is hard at work hard creating processes and tools to generate data that will benefit all consumers - a work in progress that is very much not done and that we've communicated needs to be treated as such. Do we have notes under some videos? Yes. Is it because we are striving for transparency/improvement? Yeah... What we're doing hasn't been in many years, if ever.. and we would make a much larger correction if the circumstances merited it. Listing the wrong amount of cache on a table for a CPU review is sloppy, but given that our conclusions are drawn based on our testing, not the spec sheet, it doesn't materially change the recommendation. That doesn't mean these things don't matter. We've set KPIs for our writing/labs team around accuracy, and we are continually installing new checks and balances to ensure that things continue to get better. If you haven't seen the improvement, frankly I wonder if you're really looking for it... The thoroughness that we managed on our last handful of GPU videos is getting really incredible given the limited time we have for these embargoes. I'm REALLY excited about what the future will hold.
 
With all of that said, I still disagree that the Billet Labs video (not the situation with the return, which I've already addressed above) is an 'accuracy' issue. It's more like I just read the room wrong. We COULD have re-tested it with perfect accuracy, but to do so PROPERLY - accounting for which cases it could be installed in (none) and which radiators it would be plumbed with (again... mystery) would have been impossible... and also didn't affect the conclusion of the video... OR SO I THOUGHT...
 
I wanted to evaluate it as a product, and as a product, IF it could manage to compete with the temperatures of the highest end blocks on the planet, it still wouldn't make sense to buy... so from my point of view, re-testing it and finding out that yes, it did in fact run cooler made no difference to the conclusion, so it didn't really make a difference.
 
Adam and I were talking about this today. He advocated for re-testing it regardless of how non-viable it was as a product at the time and I think he expressed really well today why it mattered. It was like making a video about a supercar. It doesn't mater if no one watching will buy it. They just wanna see it rip.  I missed that, but it wasn't because I didn't care about the consumer.. it was because I was so focused on how this product impacted a potential buyer. Either way, clearly my bad, but my intention was never to harm Billet Labs. I specifically called out their incredible machining skills because I wanted to see them create something with a viable market for it and was hoping others would appreciate the fineness of the craftsmanship even if the product was impractical. I still hope they move forward building something else because they obviously have talent and I've watched countless niche water cooling vendors come and go. It's an astonishingly unforgiving market.
 
Either way, I'm sorry I got the community's priorities mixed-up on this one, and that we didn't show the Billet in the best light. Our intention wasn't to hurt anyone. We wanted no one to buy it (because it's an egregious waste of money no matter what temps it runs at) and we wanted Billet to make something marketable (so they can, y'know, eat).
 
With all of this in mind, it saddens me how quickly the pitchforks were raised over this. It also comes across a touch hypocritical when some basic due diligence could have helped clarify much of it. I have a LONG history of meeting issues head on and I've never been afraid to answer questions, which lands me in hot water regularly, but helps keep me in tune with my peers and with the community. The only reason I can think of not to ask me is because my honest response might be inconvenient. 
 
We can test that... with this post. Will the "It was a mistake (a bad one, but a mistake) and they're taking care of it" reality manage to have the same reach? Let's see if anyone actually wants to know what happened. I hope so, but it's been disheartening seeing how many people were willing to jump on us here. Believe it or not, I'm a real person and so is the rest of my team. We are trying our best, and if what we were doing was easy, everyone would do it. Today sucks.
 
Thanks for reading this.

If Steve just wanted to "help", he would have chosen a more private setting to tell these things to Linus/someone at LMG.
 
Edit: Not that I don't agree with a lot said here. Could have been handled better I guess. 

GN isn’t wrong. But, I feel this is a scenario where the pot is calling the kettle black, and it won’t end well for anyone involved.
 
The example I will lean on is GN’s modmat error, where they had mislabeled pins on their diagrams. I don’t recall if there was a money back option or not. What I do recall is that the one “fix” amounted to little more than a decal. There was no product-replacement option. Sure, it may make the current customer happy, but the mislabeled mats are still out there. At some point down the road someone may look at the mat from GN, a reputable source, and break something.
 
Now, compare that to GNs expectations of LMG over the backpack issue (what was it, carabiner issue?). While GN’s response to their own problems were acceptable (particularly given the costs to fix the error properly for an organization of their size), they weren’t ideal. They certainly didn’t meet the same standard they were holding LMG to.

Not trying to defend LMG, but I think it’s important to have the perspective that no one is innocent in this business. One creator calling out another, whether the intentions are honest or disingenuous, doesn’t mean that they themselves aren’t also in the midst of their own errors.
 
In for the intervention content, though. Would be something to see everyone in the tech community list their grievances with Linus, have him atone for them (or rebuff them), and we go from there with whatever the outcome is. Nothing good will come from the high-profile tech creator feud that this could easily devolve into.

Thanks for the concern everyone. We are still in recovery mode over here and working with YouTube to get everything restored. Will hopefully have a video (or at least an update on WAN Show) to share with you all ASAP, but we want to make sure we get the details right since smaller channels may rely on our experience to help harden their own security.

Looks a bit squished, but I guess that is what a 3090 is gonna do to a case, otherwise I think it looks great.

Note about the post above, make sure the laptop you will be streaming off of has a better CPU for encoding, and USB 3.0 ports, as USB 3 is required for most capture cards.