LTT Enterprise and Networking content

[.:MARK:.]

So I have noticed that for several months, there have been many LTT videos that are related to enterprise grade networking and servers. And after watching most of them and seeing the community response, I would like to ask Linus to stop making videos like these for the time being.

 

As I'm sure most are aware the channel has a wide variety of content, and networking and server content is welcome, but unfortunately it is mostly poorly executed.

 

I have a few issues to point out first, before I suggest possible ways of improving the content.

 

Stop the click-bait video titles. As shown by some of the responses from viewers on the forum (which I might add, is a small percentage of viewers in total), the titles are misleading and sometimes just silly.

Stop the condescending attitude on follow-up videos where you tell people who criticize you, that they are wrong. It is likely that if a video is badly received, you had something to do with it, not your viewers.
To those who do possess the knowledge of the subject, you sound like a prick (sorry). And you are in a way, suppressing the viewers opinions.

Stop doing videos on stuff you really don't know. This is less of a problem to me, because it's more the presentation format that's wrong here. It's not bad to not know something, but don't present in an instructional format.
A way around this is to document experiences with a device, or system. A video on how YOU go about things, not how TO go about things.

 

My ideas

 

You seem interested in enterprise gear, but before you inadvertently mislead people into buying stuff and driving up return rates because people don't know how to use it, perhaps build a solid grounding on which to build on.

 

I would suggest a new series of videos which revolve around a rack. An initial video where you look for a cheap used rack and with (proper) prior research, explain the jargon and what to look for.
Then (with proper prior research) some affordable, maybe even used UPSs, where you again explain the jargon and what to look for. Show the viewer how to test the batteries to see if they work OK. Talk about PDUs too.

When you eventually get to servers, talk about virtualisation, and all of the open-source software you can deploy.

 

You also have a forum of people to consult, and I can personally say that some of the moderators on here are very skilled with servers and networking, and I'm sure they would help you if you asked them.

 

And honestly you get what I'm saying from here.

 

TL;DR Do proper prior research and learn before you instruct. No more 25km WiFi! and 10Gbit local network! Which are either factually wrong or give the wrong idea of a proper implementation.

[Guest]

I disagree, I am highly interested in their server and networking videos. I have learned a lot from them and I believe they should continue to keep up the good work. 

[Guest]

Honestly I might get a strike for this, but you really do sound "butthurt". 

[Ddave]

Well the "silly titles" and "poorly execution" is part of their videos. /jk

LOL.  

[.:MARK:.]

Just now, Yames said:

2 minutes ago, Yames said:

I disagree, I am highly interested in their server and networking videos. I have learned a lot from them and I believe they should continue to keep up the good work. 

Honestly I might get a strike for this, but you really do sound "butthurt". 

I'm not butthurt,  but as someone who already possesses the knowledge on the subjects he makes videos about, I can say that you may have learned a lot of mistakes if you learn from his server and networking videos.

 

My point is to encourage Linus to make videos with the knowledge to present them effectively and prevent others from being mislead.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, .:MARK:. said:

I'm not butthurt,  but as someone who already possesses the knowledge on the subjects he makes videos about, I can say that you may have learned a lot of mistakes if you learn from his server and networking videos.

 

My point is to encourage Linus to make videos with the knowledge to present them effectively and prevent others from being mislead.

I will agree with your last statement as it seems to have defined your point of view better. I'm pretty sure I get your point now. It's because of not going into proper detail I assume? 

 

I will agree that they probably could go into proper detail better but for those that are generally interested, often I will go to the forums for small bits of clarification and that's usually where all of my issues become resolved. 

[chromed343]

6 minutes ago, Yames said:

I disagree, I am highly interested in their server and networking videos. I have learned a lot from them and I believe they should continue to keep up the good work. 

 

4 minutes ago, Yames said:

Honestly I might get a strike for this, but you really do sound "butthurt". 

Why would he? It's a valid issue - we've seen this beforehand too - Fiio E10 video, next thing you know everyone is recommending them.

 

The issue is that with enterprise grade equipment, it's not simply plug, play and you're good. There is complex setup to be done beforehand. For example the reasoning behind his speed issues with the Powerbeam equipment - that will be due to a poor radio configuration over short range.

 

The issue that then stems from this and is evident from the number of threads that are appearing is that people don't know what they're getting into. I've seen the number of 'help me with pfsense' and 'my unifi ap doesn't work' threads increasing dramatically.

 

Case and point is one I saw earlier - they've purchased point to point Ubiquiti gear and have no idea on how to configure it. I've seen a number of subsequent issues as well with people purchasing EdgeRouters because they saw the Ubiquiti logo and next thing you know, it doesn't work.

 

Enterprise equipment is called enterprise for a reason - it is not designed for consumers.

 

Don't get me started on the server situation...

[Blaxow]

2 minutes ago, Ddave said:

Well the "silly titles" and "poorly execution" is part of their videos. /jk

LOL.  

Totally rigth, they are a company and need the views. I watch them because I know what they do and stand for. 
But they need the titles to get new audience.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, chromed343 said:

 

-snip

I think a good example we would be looking for would be something like the "building a router" pfsense? 

[MrSuperb]

26 minutes ago, .:MARK:. said:

TL;DR Do proper prior research and learn before you instruct. No more 25km WiFi! and 10Gbit local network! Which are either factually wrong or give the wrong idea of a proper implementation.

Linus is not interested in proper guides, the same way Linus (with a few exceptions) never does real reviews ... there are tons of guides for almost everything out there already available. People watch LTT for their daily entertainment. All those "enterprise" videos are similar to those vlog-style videos people highly demanded.

For what it is worth Techquickie is the most technically accurate of their formats.

[LAwLz]

I completely agree OP.

The amount of pfSense threads, from people who would be waaay better of with just a regular plug-and-play router was driving me nuts.

 

The whole "let's just unbox the product and then go into this blind" approach might work for a lot of consumer grade products because they are designed to be idiot proof, but the same can not be said for enterprise grade things.

 

 

13 minutes ago, Yames said:

I think a good example we would be looking for would be something like the "building a router" pfsense? 

I think a better example would be:

1) Learn some basics of networking.

2) Decide if pfSense makes sense for your target audience.

3) Don't freak out on camera when the automatic detection doesn't work, and don't spend a chunk of the video talking to tech support because your audience will only hear you go "ehhh" "ahhh" while all the actual info is only being conveyed to you.

 

The videos might be entertaining, but it teaches people the wrong things. If someone were to listen to Linus then they would probably end up with the same amount of issues and headaches Linus has gone through recently, and it could have been avoided. I mean, in the end he just hired a consultant to do the things for him anyway, so the only thing we viewers were left with was his mistakes and not the proper way of doing things (but that would probably just have gone way over most viewers' heads anyway).

 

Edit: I can't really blame Linus either because he is trying to be entertaining and personally I think he accomplishes that. The problem is that a lot of his viewers will look at the videos and only learn the wrong way of doing things. They won't think "oh that was a fun video, now let's look up some books so I can study and learn to do this thing properly instead". They will think "well if Linus used this thing then it must be good. I'll get it too and use the video as a guide."

[chromed343]

1 minute ago, MrSuperb said:

Linus is not interested in proper guides, the same way Linus (with a few exceptions) never does real reviews ... there are tons of guides for almost everything out there already available. People watch LTT for their daily entertainment. All those "enterprise" videos are similar to those vlog-style videos people highly demanded.

For what it is worth Techquickie is the most technically accurate of their formats.

The issue with that statement is that the majority of Linus' viewers are young and almost take his word as gospel. What you end up with then is a whole pile of people who are terribly misinformed as to how things are done. Quite a few people are certainly mature enough and understand that it's more for comedic value than anything else but then again, there are those who do not.

[.:MARK:.]

7 minutes ago, Yames said:

I will agree with your last statement as it seems to have defined your point of view better. I'm pretty sure I get your point now. It's because of not going into proper detail I assume? 

 

I will agree that they probably could go into proper detail better but for those that are generally interested, often I will go to the forums for small bits of clarification and that's usually where all of my issues become resolved. 

The detail is not the issue, it's the fact that a lot of it is wrong, and would be remedied by proper research being done prior.

[.:MARK:.]

10 minutes ago, MrSuperb said:

Linus is not interested in proper guides, the same way Linus (with a few exceptions) never does real reviews ... there are tons of guides for almost everything out there already available. People watch LTT for their daily entertainment. All those "enterprise" videos are similar to those vlog-style videos people highly demanded.

For what it is worth Techquickie is the most technically accurate of their formats.

I get that he doesn't do proper guides, then again he does seem keen on demonstrating things like connecting 2 computers together, but the specific parts of the video which are to INSTRUCT are completely inaccurate or just wrong.

[LukeTim]

To be honest, a lot of the Techquickie videos I have watched that are about areas of my own expertise have missing, misleading or even incorrect information too.

Then again I don't really take any of the LMG videos as gospel. They are pure entertainment for me. I just like watching people geek out over things that I also like to geek out over.

[LogicalDrm]

Biggest problem is that Linus isn't networking expert. None of LMG really is (the new guy is called one but idk). Actually only thing he has wide experience is building consumer grade rigs, unboxing things and talking nice to hardware companies. Its not like he's Qain or Wendell from Tek Syndicate (who would are real experts and would be perfect for this type of videos). He makes these videos because they are more vlog style than real guides (for the most part).

 

I've many times said LTT content is like TopGear. Them using things that consumers can't afford or they don't know how to use properly makes professional cringe and fans laugh. Its come to point where I don't watch these type of videos for information (I go for Tek Syndicate or OC3D for that). I watch them to see what bogus its about now, inside jokes and goofing around.

 

In short. I agree about them stopping making these video "for real". Or making clear difference between actual guides and vlog guides. Like with latest GPU revival video.

Edited February 23, 2016 by LoGiCalDrm
Added underline part

[.:MARK:.]

Here is an analogy I think works pretty well.

I don't know how to rebuild an engine from a car, so when I'm talking to someone about it, I don't act as if I know.

I'll also never instruct anyone on how to do it.

However I would document my experience of doing it if I have a fair idea of how to do it beforehand.

[KuJoe]

These kinds of videos are how I found LTT in the first place, getting rid of them will reduce the amount of their adult audience and thus impact the forum for those of us who live and breath this kind of stuff.

[.:MARK:.]

Just now, KuJoe said:

These kinds of videos are how I found LTT in the first place, getting rid of them will reduce the amount of their adult audience and thus impact the forum for those of us who live and breath this kind of stuff.

The point is not to get rid of them read OP

[KuJoe]

1 minute ago, .:MARK:. said:

The point is not to get rid of them read OP

Time for bed for me.

[Jon Trollston]

8 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Biggest problem is that Linus isn't networking expert. Actually only thing he has wide experience is building consumer grade rigs, unboxing things and talking nice to hardware companies. Its not like he's Qain or Wendell from Tek Syndicate (who would are real experts and would be perfect for this type of videos). He makes these videos because they are more vlog style than real guides (for the most part).

 

I've many times said LTT content is like TopGear. Them using things that consumers can't afford or they don't know how to use properly makes professional cringe and fans laugh. Its come to point where I don't watch these type of videos for information (I go for Tek Syndicate or OC3D for that). I watch them to see what bogus its about now, inside jokes and goofing around.

 

In short. I agree about them stopping making these video "for real". Or making clear difference between actual guides and vlog guides. Like with latest GPU revival video.

What's so bad about what they do? Just curious about what you have to say since my dad also thought they were crap and I disagreed so I'm simply curious as to what you think too. 

[LogicalDrm]

Just now, Jon Trollston said:

What's so bad about what they do? Just curious about what you have to say since my dad also thought they were crap and I disagreed so I'm simply curious as to what you think too. 

What do you refer exactly? I don't think LMG is crap in general. I just don't think their way of handling things that require professional touch in-house is very educating.

[Jon Trollston]

18 minutes ago, LoGiCalDrm said:

Them using things that consumers can't afford or they don't know how to use properly makes professional cringe and fans laugh. Its come to point where I don't watch these type of videos for information (I go for Tek Syndicate or OC3D for that).

 

Here this part of it. I'm assuming that you're reffering to their choice of components and set up style for their server grade stuff?

 

[KuJoe]

When I watch their networking/server videos it gives me a lot of ideas but I cringe a lot more than when I watch any of their other videos because of either the implementation is handled poorly or there's a much better/cheaper way to do what they are trying to do.

[Networking Wolf]

I'm wondering does anyone have examples?