deceptive reviews and shoddy advertisement practices being cracked down on in youtube re Machinima/xbox 1

[LinusTech]

Some of those expecially the 4K thing also the titan's were really cool and stuff I would have liked to look into myself. heck video encoding in general interests me.

I would actually be surprised if Nvidia would want that video done

Are you really going to trust Dennis with handling a Titan X???

 

We have a really cool piece of content coming (not something that was part of the arrangement with NVIDIA, but we found an unexpected use for the Titan X cards) about video encoding and content creation workflows. Stay tuned.

 

And yes.. Dennis built his editing workstation.. It was terrifying.. Stay tuned. That video is going to rock - whether it was "sponsored" or not.. It's not an editorial piece, so I don't think it matters.

 

The truth of the matter is that whether people like it and think we deserve it or not, we have a large audience and lots of influence (something I don't take for granted, and work very hard to maintain) and if I ask for handful of video cards from pretty much anyone to feature them in a video they will provide them.

 

I chose NVIDIA cards and sent them a proposal because that was what I wanted in our editing workstations. I didn't receive an offer from NVIDIA, then, having no other options HAVE to go with them. They were my first choice.

 

So many assumptions get made about how desperate we are for a video card or a phone or whatever. We don't care.. Unless it's really cool.. in which case, we do care, and we talk about how cool it is BECAUSE WE THINK IT'S COOL!

[ColonelChocomel]

A few things i'd like to say about the conversation above:

 

• Free review units != sponsorship: Sending a product to a reviewer is not like paying the reviewer. They usually cant sell the product either. They get sent the product in order to make a video and give their opinion. If they think the product is bad, they're free to say so. Of course companies like nvidia can sponsor Linus's videos, but that will not be a part of a review. It's either a pre-roll ad or product placement. 
• Linus can't get away with lying about a product: He's not the only person reviewing it either. If the product is shit people will find out one way or another. Whether that's other reviews or feedback from consumers who bought the product. If Linus makes a positive review about a crappy product, people will find out and he will not get away with it. 

[Quincy15]

Good points by Linus and this topic has been (mostly) fairly well handled by every poster. You can never say that Linus censors content on his channel and credit to him.

 

What you basically have here is two camps, those who love the Channel and think that they are always great and those who think that the company generates infomercials for products. These camps will always disagree.

 

However companies like Nvidia dont give anything away unless it thinks it generates them a competitive advantage. So why did they give away for free 6 x £815 Titan X Graphics cards to Linus business for nothing? (Current Amazon UK pricing). Why do other companies hand over multiples of the same hardware products? I can understand one motherboard for testing and review but 2 or 3 and six highend Graphics cards for nothing?

 

Anyway I admire Linus and his team, these young people have created a great business

[Helio_Vice]

Lots of fanboyism going on here. Everyone seems to worship you these days Linus, that's great.

Fanboyism, or just your negative bias against anything Linus says/does, making it out that any supporters, are "blind"? If my assumption is anywhere on the mark, you're already a hypocrite for being here. You'll win no favours joining a forum to disgaree with everyone and everything, don't be a negative nancy...Or rather, an attention seeker.

 

But here's my issue, you're not the same person you were 8 years ago, today you only sell out. Yeah I said it. Your audience also tend to be blind, ignoring most blunders without or little criticism which ends up buried by hate posts. 

You didn't know Linus 8 years ago, don't make personal assertions and make a blind (heh, irony) call-out to him, his forum/video viewers. Just because you "said it", doesn't make it so. His content is exactly how it was when I first started watching him. I'm so sorry that a progressive, growing business can afford more, has wider influence and has become a trusted name in the tech industry, that you feel he's "shilling" to the masses.

 

Right before you made the switch to Vessel most if not all videos you put out were fun to watch even if some were not relevant to my interests such as laptop reviews. Now 9/10 videos are cringe worthy, yeah fine I get it you used to work in retail but that doesn't mean every new video has to be a shilling video.

Sounds like you don't like the content and just want to complain for the sake of it. Kind of childish, don't you think?

 

What happened to the interesting content that made the channel what it is? I don't see it anywhere anymore. Just advertisements that I get enough of on both Youtube and Vessel.

"If it isn't to my standards, then the whole channel is a failure, anyone who disagrees is a fanboy." 

 

How about releasing something that isn't sponsored by a huge corporation once in a while? Thanks.

I highly suggest you read something on business economics, or do you feel you understand how to handle a business such as Linus, that you feel it unnecessary to be sponsored by well-established corporations? Nothing in this entire "ramble" has made any lick of sense. You just sound disgruntled, why complain to Linus who more than once provided FULL transparency to what he does and how he handles business?

Replies in bold.

[cragger89]

The envy and level of stupidity of some of the viewers here (all of the ones being negative in this thread) just amazes me.

 

Carry on as you are, Linus. What these viewers don't understand is, they are effectively requesting that you lie and make content based on their personal opinions. What on earth would be the sense in that?

 

Shame on you all for sticking with your negative stance on content which you do not need to pay for. Disgusting.

[Quincy15]

The envy and level of stupidity of some of the viewers here (all of the ones being negative in this thread) just amazes me.

 

Carry on as you are, Linus. What these viewers don't understand is, they are effectively requesting that you lie and make content based on their personal opinions. What on earth would be the sense in that?

 

Shame on you all for sticking with your negative stance on content which you do not need to pay for. Disgusting.

 

Its a discussion forum. Just because you diagree with someone elses opinion that does not mean that they are less than you.

[cragger89]

Its a discussion forum. Just because you diagree with someone elses opinion that does not mean that they are less than you.

 

I'm not saying that they are, I'm merely writing my own opinion because as you say, this is a discussion forum.

[Quincy15]

I'm not saying that they are, I'm merely writing my own opinion because as you say, this is a discussion forum.

 

Really? Calling people who disagree with you "stupid" suggesting that the only reason why we question the channel is down to "envy" and that we are all "disgusting"

 

Lol I can clearly see that you dont think that we are less than you

[morbital]

Hate to be negative with my first post but wow... Some posters acting like a bunch of juvenile butthurt keyboard warriors who probably think the moon landing was faked along with attacking your credibility Linus. Ignore their BS, in fact you really shouldn't have even engaged their psychotic notions.

Every video I've seen always goes out of the way to disclose the source of review units.

This thread is just a flame war started by militant fanboys.

Again sorry for being so harsh with my first post, apologies if I stepped on anyone's feelings but seriously, grow up.

[Quincy15]

Hate to be negative with my first post but wow... Some posters acting like a bunch of juvenile butthurt keyboard warriors who probably think the moon landing was faked along with attacking your credibility Linus. Ignore their BS, in fact you really shouldn't have even engaged their psychotic notions. Every video I've seen always goes out of the way to disclose the source of review units. This thread is just a flame war started by militant fanboys. Again sorry for being so harsh with my first post, apologies if I stepped on anyone's feelings but seriously, grow up.

Again this is a personal attack on people who's comments you disagree with. Perhaps you should have used your first post more productively

[morbital]

 

Again this is a personal attack on people who's comments you disagree with. Perhaps you should have used your first post more productively

So calling a spade a spade is prohibited?

Not to get into a whole discussion but how are these posts not a personal attack against Linus, I mean come on!

[Quincy15]

   

So calling a spade a spade is prohibited?

Not to get into a whole discussion but how are these posts not personal attack against Linus, I mean come on!

 

How are they a personal attack. The OP and others have suggested that business links and multiple free products provided by companies act as an incentive for better reviews and opinions. 

 

The FCC and Advertising standards authority are starting to crack down on Youtube because of this.

 

I am not saying that Linus has ever done anything wrong but its not wrong to have a discussion.

 

Anyway this thread is getting far to personal and nasty for me I am out. Lets be friends and watch Jayztwocents drill through a motherboard

[LinusTech]

Personal attacks against members are not permitted.

I'm not really a member so much as an administrator and I welcome all constructive criticism.

If I didn't I could just delete this whole thread.

Please don't call people stupid for having a different opinion, however baseless it may appear to be to you.

[MrPleasant_exe]

Personal attacks against members are not permitted.

I'm not really a member so much as an administrator and I welcome all constructive criticism.

If I didn't I could just delete this whole thread.

Please don't call people stupid for having a different opinion, however baseless it may appear to be to you.

Honestly i couldn't care less about what happens, you run a business its as simple as that, personally as long as i keep enjoying your video's i don't care, keep up the good work Linus, i look forward to the WAN show mostly these days haha.

 

All i'm seeing is a reviewer who gets a products and most of the time they are good so i don't see the problem, Linus has always been honest during reviews, hell he gives you a sort of warning at the beginning if its sucks.

 

Also people going on about moving over to Vessel was bad.... no it wasn't, it provided LTT with a lot more opportunities and to be honest i prefer Vessel so much.

[morbital]

Personal attacks against members are not permitted.

I'm not really a member so much as an administrator and I welcome all constructive criticism.

If I didn't I could just delete this whole thread.

Please don't call people stupid for having a different opinion, however baseless it may appear to be to you.

Fair enough, I'll keep it civil, needless to say I disagree wholeheartedly with some of the assertions in this thread.

[Edgeofmadness]

I mean the following without any prejudice:

 

But i think the people who think that Linus is a sellout, make me sick, and they all probably covet the perks of his success, without any of them being willing to put in the thousands of  hours of hard work that happens of screen.

 

And for those people thinking that Linus tints our views of products in his reviews: Think again, hardware reviews are factual, they are based on numbers; Actual benchmark results for graphics cards and CPUs; Phone or watch Batteries have a measurable charge length; A Cooler's performance is measured in degrees; Products are sold at fixed price in $ not set by Linus; I can go on with this list... But the point is, whether you watch LTT or read the info on Tom's Hardware, it doesn't matter, true hardware review are factual, and you choose your vendor for the info based on a presenter, or presentation style that relates to you. And unless you can prove that Linus or LTT have altered their test results based on actual measurable info, Back off!! Linus and LTT, have in the past even avoided situations where they could be seen as biased, by clearly stating that they can't comment on, or review certain aspects of a product, because they don't have the equipment or methodology, to produce the factual numbers that all hardware review are made of. LTT have to my knowledge, always shared their testing methodology with us the viewers, even when they add new games to GPU test suite.

 

And as for the people stating that Linus and LTT obviously sway peoples opinion why else would they label the company Linus Media Group, I somehow don't think that those people made the the debate team in High School. The 'Linus' part is for his(founder) name, the 'Media' part is for the product they produce, and 'Group' is for the plural, either because it is multiple people doing it, or because he wants to produce multiple media types in an umbrella type company structure with Techquicky, ChannelSuperFun, LinusCatTips, LinusTechTips, and who knows what more in the future. And if one looks at the LMG website, you will see that they not only produce videos for the web and themselves, but also offer video production service to companies.

 

I know that the internet makes it easier for every person to express their basic human right of 'freedom of of speech', but sometimes we need to use this right to also think, and then choose if what we are saying is right before we speak. 

[cragger89]

Understood, Linus.

 

If you are selling out; good troll, by the way. Haha

[TheProfosist]

We have a really cool piece of content coming (not something that was part of the arrangement with NVIDIA, but we found an unexpected use for the Titan X cards) about video encoding and content creation workflows. Stay tuned.

 

And yes.. Dennis built his editing workstation.. It was terrifying.. Stay tuned. That video is going to rock - whether it was "sponsored" or not.. It's not an editorial piece, so I don't think it matters.

 

The truth of the matter is that whether people like it and think we deserve it or not, we have a large audience and lots of influence (something I don't take for granted, and work very hard to maintain) and if I ask for handful of video cards from pretty much anyone to feature them in a video they will provide them.

 

I chose NVIDIA cards and sent them a proposal because that was what I wanted in our editing workstations. I didn't receive an offer from NVIDIA, then, having no other options HAVE to go with them. They were my first choice.

 

So many assumptions get made about how desperate we are for a video card or a phone or whatever. We don't care.. Unless it's really cool.. in which case, we do care, and we talk about how cool it is BECAUSE WE THINK IT'S COOL!

You and your crew are tech enthusiasts at heart and that's what im here for! PS Edzyl needs more video's

Im going to assume that it has something to do with cineform based on how that has changed your workflow.

I assume its going to be the kind of cringeworthy were you almost want to look away or do but you peek.

I really would love to be at the point but itll take some time to get there and though you only need a hanfull I would be plenty happy with one. I am only one person though.

This is what anyone would want to do and given your place your able to do it. To me this is understandable.

If you really want it all you would have to do it buy it. This is what I do and still share my thoughts. You guys have done this as well for certain things that you felt you had to cover. I have a list of stuff like that myself. I should really get around to doing them one by one. Kinda little nuggets that not many people dont know about. However being an everything enthusiast they are not always tech related. I love sharing stuff like that to people who understand it and will use it. Its actually why im on a forum like this and have what 12K+ posts.

[MrCheapnoob]

I actually felt compelled to log in ND reply... I watch LTT videos for 1.5 year and they are awesome. Naysayers are trying to paint an image that Linus and Co aren't honest and are some kind of geek mafia that will just offer their service to the largest donor. If that sounds like pure BS, it's because it is. Linus has his flaws like all human beings, but is straight forward and frontal about what he thinks. He started this stuff from scratch with friends in his garage and turned it into one of the 3 most popular tech venues on YouTube. This is an achievement. He doesn't give scores in his reviews and actually explain their genuine experience with products. I bought a lot of products based on Linus and others reviews, but more importantly I learned a lot about tech on these channels which enabled me to start building desktops and setup servers. You don't like LTTs videos? Fine, dont watch them. But they do tremendous efforts trying to bring valuable original content on YouTube and I love it for that. And rather than criticising, why don't you go and create your own channel and become so much better and no biaised and impartial and not paid and produce original content only for products you will buy out of your own pocket. You guys just sound like butthurt mob on some kind of moralizing quest... Seriously, keeper and loaner is the inevitable business model of FREE youtube content. "buhhhhhhh all that free stuff fed down my throat for FREE is not reflecting my exact opinion, quick let's call the Spanish inquisition!"

[Mystic Mistro]

Wow reading theae comments is kinda hilareous... in short do i trust linus.. yes he's from what i can tell very upfront about sponsership (see most of the tech of under 100)

Am i still going to do research for buying somethung yes everyone should.

[burnttoastnice]

Shame on you all for sticking with your negative stance on content which you do not need to pay for. Disgusting.

 

Thank you. Some people are forgetting that this is free and if they don't like it they can watch another YouTuber's content. I thought this kind of negativity only existed in YouTube comments; but taking this over to the forum is just unnecessary imo. It's against the CoC to make threads like this anyway (causing unrest in the community). It's nice that OP has his open opinion but it was settled a few pages back by the man Linus himself and now people are just blatantly attacking Linus for no reason.

 

Hate to be negative with my first post but wow... Some posters acting like a bunch of juvenile butthurt keyboard warriors who probably think the moon landing was faked along with attacking your credibility Linus. Ignore their BS, in fact you really shouldn't have even engaged their psychotic notions. Every video I've seen always goes out of the way to disclose the source of review units. This thread is just a flame war started by militant fanboys. Again sorry for being so harsh with my first post, apologies if I stepped on anyone's feelings but seriously, grow up.

 

This.

 

Personal attacks against members are not permitted.

I'm not really a member so much as an administrator and I welcome all constructive criticism.

If I didn't I could just delete this whole thread.

Please don't call people stupid for having a different opinion, however baseless it may appear to be to you.

 

I respect how clear you have been with everything and would like to give my encouragement to you and the rest of the LMG team for doing such a great job.

 

OFF TOPIC: IT'S OVER 9000 900

[Lildirt]

God I was not expecting anyone to reply to this post at all. How wrong I was.

 

 

But i think the people who think that Linus is a sellout, make me sick, and they all probably covet the perks of his success, without any of them being willing to put in the thousands of  hours of hard work that happens of screen.

He's not the only one that works, mate. I've poured thousands of hours into my livelihood as well. It's how people are. If you become big, you simply get looked down upon. You always have, you always will.

 

The whole reason behind the charade is not jealousy. At least, not for everyone. I enjoy the content, I just joined in this discussion. I'll keep watching the content. I don't pay for it. I have nothing against Linus at all. I hold something against business in general, but that isn't leading into what I want to speak about.

 

 

And for those people thinking that Linus tints our views of products in his reviews: Think again, hardware reviews are factual, they are based on numbers; Actual benchmark results for graphics cards and CPUs; Phone or watch Batteries have a measurable charge length; A Cooler's performance is measured in degrees; Products are sold at fixed price in $ not set by Linus; I can go on with this list... But the point is, whether you watch LTT or read the info on Tom's Hardware, it doesn't matter, true hardware review are factual, and you choose your vendor for the info based on a presenter, or presentation style that relates to you. And unless you can prove that Linus or LTT have altered their test results based on actual measurable info, Back off!! Linus and LTT, have in the past even avoided situations where they could be seen as biased, by clearly stating that they can't comment on, or review certain aspects of a product, because they don't have the equipment or methodology, to produce the factual numbers that all hardware review are made of. LTT have to my knowledge, always shared their testing methodology with us the viewers, even when they add new games to GPU test suite.

Here is where I find a problem. I don't think anyone here is saying this. At least, I have not stated that he is fabricating anything. It is more of a social concept when we speak about, well, problems. Benchmarks? Yeah, those are probably legitimate. Do I care enough to check ever? No, I don't think I've ever gone behind him. I take his word for some things, but I do not let him sway my opinion when buying something. There is a passive bias to the entire channel but it is because of how his business functions. He obtains parts from X manufacturer and they usually make more and more appearances be they "given" or not. In one of the recent videos about video drivers, for instance, it was mostly about nVidia. Nothing else. That is why some feel there are a bias, and why I agree with them.

 

I'm not a "gamer". I play an MMORPG or two and that's about it (I don't understand the community), so I don't care. My hardware needs to be powerful enough to let me be the power user I like to be, run my compilers, and that's about it. I don't need an i7 Extreme Edition with SuperAwesomeTechnology to get my day over with, I just think it's neat that people are doing these things. If I were to sit down and build a system, it would be on the Red Team (and would probably have Linux on it, lol).

 

 

And as for the people stating that Linus and LTT obviously sway peoples opinion why else would they label the company Linus Media Group, I somehow don't think that those people made the the debate team in High School. The 'Linus' part is for his(founder) name, the 'Media' part is for the product they produce, and 'Group' is for the plural, either because it is multiple people doing it, or because he wants to produce multiple media types in an umbrella type company structure with Techquicky, ChannelSuperFun, LinusCatTips, LinusTechTips, and who knows what more in the future. And if one looks at the LMG website, you will see that they not only produce videos for the web and themselves, but also offer video production service to companies.

Yes, that is the point of LMG's existance.

 

 

At the end of the day, it is LMG's content. They can do what they want with it (legally). He's expanding his empire, that's good for him. I don't envy him, I wish him well. However, my TL;DR for this whole thread is nothing more than "there is a bias". That is literally all I am trying to convey here. The problem is with how the swaying seems to be done. The bias is leaning towards manufacturers yet almost completely ignoring others. Yes, they've been mentioned. I've explained above, business is business and so on.

 

As for those who say "we are complaining about free content", this is a discussion forum. It is a discussion. Get off of your high-horse. My OS is free and I complain about it. I have the right to do it, simple as. They have this forum here for a reason. If I don't like something, I'm free to say it! It's when it gets flat-out agressive and non-civil is when it becomes a problem. However, this is normal conversation.

 

 

 

EDIT:

 

Hate to be negative with my first post but wow... Some posters acting like a bunch of juvenile butthurt keyboard warriors who probably think the moon landing was faked along with attacking your credibility Linus. Ignore their BS, in fact you really shouldn't have even engaged their psychotic notions. Every video I've seen always goes out of the way to disclose the source of review units. This thread is just a flame war started by militant fanboys. Again sorry for being so harsh with my first post, apologies if I stepped on anyone's feelings but seriously, grow up.

 

You are literally missing the entire point.

[Helly]

Doesn't every reviewer ever receive most of the stuff he reviews for free? I'd say if Linus had to pay for everything he reviewed he'd be more biased since he spend his money on it and doesn't want to tell us not to buy it because he wasted his money on it....

 

So i am a bit more skeptic when Linus says he had to buy the product he's reviewing and says it's awesome then when he got it for free...

[TJStamp]

easy way to settle it though, strawpoll ... LTT reviews -  trust / do not trust / turnip

[skywake]

It's probably already been said but the problem with the XBOne dealeo, which is seriously old news BTW, was that they were being paid specifically to give positive reviews. And they were also given guidelines for how they should format what they were saying. The content they were to include and even were told to say specific things. And all of this without saying that it was a paid advertisement. This is not anything like what happens with LMG's content.

 

If anything from the reviews of stuff that I probably know more about than they do (having owned it for ages for eg)? The main criticism is that they miss stuff out. Or get things slightly wrong. Case and point the reviews about the Sonos gear and the Wii U. Which were both good reviews but... as a massive fanboy of both? It's kinda hard not to want to want those reviews to be a bit more... fanatical