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Tech Youtubers accused of not disclosing Computex Sponsorships

6 minutes ago, Lathlaer said:

No, it's ok this part I get. It was just a segway from the conversation about disclosing sponsored content and this vacuum video happens to be one of the better described as sponsored, hence the confusion.

Ok I bring it up, repeatedly, because it struck a nerve with a lot of people because of the very obvious transparently and yes, also because of Steve Burke's constant jokes about it as well ironically enough given how he's named on this "scandal" now.

 

It basically showed a fairly big lapse in judgement on how loyal their audience was and how undiscerning, turns out they were not so undiscerning at all and were not happy to see that most of their favorite youtube personalities could be so easily bought into a frivolous and annoying advertisement, one that shows up as content in their subscription box, content they possibly support heavily with referral links or even directly on fund raising campaigns.

 

People love ad blocker for a reason, and that video perfectly summarized why. They simply must do better than to be pulled aside to do irrelevant and stupid content their audience do not care about and honestly neither do them if it wasn't for the money.

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So, some guy on the internet makes some claim, without any proof or fact and people take his word for it, and no one questions 1 thing.

Ok.

 

Apple is buying Microsoft, Alphabet (Google), Nvidia, AMD, ASUS, ASRock, Gigabyte, MSI, and more. Plans to close them all down, so that Apple is the only computer you can buy, and the only OS you can use is iOS. MacOS will be gone and blocked via firmware to be installed.

Believe me, I am some guy on the Internet. It's from the Internet, it must be true!

 

What happened to critical thinking?

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1 minute ago, Misanthrope said:

How can you not get it?

 

A vacuum cleaner IS NOT A TECH CONSUMER ELECTRONIC. Barely even tech related why the fuck was it on LTT? Why was it not just a sponsor to a video instead of a sponsored video?

 

Why did it follow the exact same pattern of other tech actual tech products releasing the same day on several channels at the same time as if it was a very important product embargoe date except it was a fucking vacuum cleaner? I mean come on do you honestly live under a rock? You never heard the door-to-door jokes about vacuum cleaner salesmen?

 

Yet a good chunk of the people on that list on the opening page deliberately took the money from these Dyson guys, threw their core audience under the boss and tried to shamelessly and carelessly sell them fucking vacuum cleaners, just like those pesky door-to-door vacuum cleaner salesmen of old.

serious question. did you even watch the entire thing? or did you just see what it was and see other tech channels talk about it and leave outraged because you thought a vacuum cleaner cannot be tech? There is actual legitimate technology in the robot dyson vacuum cleaner whether you think so or not. Dyson most likely had an NDA with all of the reviewers to not release their reviews until a specific date and every tech reviewer that did a video on it most likely thought that there was enough tech in it to do a showcase on it. Tech doesn't just have to do with computers.

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1 minute ago, Misanthrope said:

Ok I bring it up, repeatedly, because it struck a nerve with a lot of people because of the very obvious transparently and yes, also because of Steve Burke's constant jokes about it as well ironically enough.

 

It basically showed a fairly big lapse in judgement on how loyal their audience was and how undiscerning, turns out they were not so undiscerning at all and were not happy to see that most of their favorite youtube personalities could be so easily bought into a frivolous and annoying advertisement, one that shows up as content in their subscription box, content they possibly support heavily with referral links or even directly on fund raising campaigns.

 

People love ad blocker for a reason, and that video perfectly summarized why. They simply must do better than to be pulled aside to do irrelevant and stupid content their audience do not care about and honestly neither do them if it wasn't for the money.

I don't disagree with you here and they paid for that video with the dislikes and (probably) some unsubscribes. Not to mention some pretty harsh words on the forum and YT comment section. 

 

It's funny though that you mentioned Steve because he laughed at the vacuum videos but also kind of commended LTT's business model of not getting revenue from ads directly related to consumer tech (like the T-Shirt company or Dollar Shave club or whatever) because yeah, it is annoying to watch a T-shirt ad before tech video but it minimalizes their dependance and potential conflicts of interest.

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4 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

I take back my comments about the tech audience being discerning.

I look at this from an engineering perspective. Their mistake was thinking people would think its cool like they do. They probably thought a robot vacuum cleaner that actually did its job well and mapped the room was cool tech. Its fine if you think that its not worth being on the channel but that doesnt make it not tech.

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1 minute ago, kting15 said:

I look at this from an engineering perspective. Their mistake was thinking people would think its cool like they do. They probably thought a robot vacuum cleaner that actually did its job will and mapped the room was cool tech. Its fine if you think that its not worth being on the channel but that doesnt make it not tech.

Wrong video my friend.

 

You are thinking this:

 

Whereas we are talking about this:

 

 

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I think I'd like to weigh in on this and maybe hope that people realize or..... dare I say respect that I've been here a while. Even if I don't post every day on here (let alone several times a minute like I used to) anymore.

 

I'd also like to point out my own personal insight.

 

To start with, my father is a 35 year veteran of the service industry. Namely servicing corporate sized customers. Specifically for a product that I can say with some certainty, none of you has ever purchased (maybe stolen depending on your housing situation) but has handled at least once a week if not once a day for some of you. A product that certain companies, ranging from small to multi-national, buy.

 

He has maintained his status in that industry across multiple employers for various reasons. BUT, across those employers, his customers have happily jumped ship to follow him. Why? Because they know he gets the damned job done, as quickly and efficiently (see: cheaply) as possible. He under-promises and over-delivers. He doesn't view the customer as something to bilk for money, but as rather someone to have a working relationship with. I like to think this is why he occasionally gets thrown under the bus. Because he focuses on long term profit and developing a smooth running infrastructure with the capability to handle the unforeseen, rather than immediate quarterly profits. Because he goes out of his way to help the customer spend less money.

 

And his customers have followed him from employer to employer.

 

I have witnessed this for the last almost 30 years now. I have spent more hours than I care to count, in the truck with him, listening to him conduct business with his employees who he treats like family, and his customers who he also treats like family.

 

I like to think I have a little insight on good vs. bad business persons. Even though I've never operated at that level myself.

 

 

Now, I've had interactions on this forum with both @LinusTech and @Slick. Not very much, but I have had them.

 

I view Linus as a more forward thinking businessman of today's world. Not only do I believe that he has a passion for what he does, I believe he has a lot more foresight and self awareness than most business people I've ever interacted with. While that's a small number, I honestly can say that Linus is what I would like to see become more commonplace in businesses.

 

I believe he wants to grow his company not only for his own success and his passion, but because he wants more for his people and his customers. I think that unlike most "business people" I've ever met, he puts his relationship with his customers well above immediate profit because he understands the long game. I think he has what I consider to be a far more intelligent business strategy, of creating long term customers that have a well founded trust in him and whatever he does. A healthy relationship and not a parasitic one like some businesses seem to have today.

 

The point being, if any of these allegations were true, we would already have this information. He would have told us up front, at the beginning of the videos that they were sponsored by the people who's booths he had visited. Not to mention that it wouldn't matter, because IIRC one of Linus' tenets is that "I will review your product, and if it's crap, I will call it crap" basically. So paying him gets you nothing but a review and his honest opinion.

 

I completely believe this. I really do. Mainly because I respect @Slick a great deal and don't believe he would be associated with Linus if this weren't the truth.

 

Also because Linus has been up front about this kind of thing in the past, and as far as I know continues to do so.

 

Linus, Slick, feel free to disagree with me completely if you in fact disagree with anything I have just said.

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1 minute ago, Lathlaer said:

Wrong video my friend.

 

You are thinking this:

 

Whereas we are talking about this:

 

 

shit im sorry my bad.

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@Lathlaer Ill say this in slight (very slight) defense of them in that its cramming a lot of power in a small form factor. Beyond that though I can see why people did not like that video.

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1 minute ago, Lathlaer said:

I don't disagree with you here and they paid for that video with the dislikes and (probably) some unsubscribes. Not to mention some pretty harsh words on the forum and YT comment section. 

 

It's funny though that you mentioned Steve because he laughed at the vacuum videos but also kind of commended LTT's business model of not getting revenue from ads directly related to consumer tech (like the T-Shirt company or Dollar Shave club or whatever) because yeah, it is annoying to watch a T-shirt ad before tech video but it minimalizes their dependance and potential conflicts of interest.

All ads at inherently annoying, but it's because of regulations that they are. If it was up to the people paying for those sponsorships, there wouldn't be any disclosure whatsoever and not even a different video to suddenly inject the product they want to sell.

 

Failing that the next best thing under the law is to grab someone's attention and try to at least have some good faith while doing so. Linus has done this successfully by turning the otherwise extremely invasive and annoying advertisements into jokes involving awful puns so you forget you're about to be shown an ad.

 

And Burke was mentioned probably because it hurts him the most, because he has made it a point to be almost brutally honest and condescending to other youtubers about their business practices, his whole shtick is basically being the "stand up tech youtuber" kinda guy (who also happens to present himself as competent towards testing methodology but that's besides this point) and that's probably why he was among the first ones, along with Jay, to openly say they're considering a lawsuit.

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Jay did a video about this basically saying it was all bullshit, and for most tech youtubers on that list, it is.

 

BUT

 

if you look at the comments in that video, you have people like techsyndicate who are saying "we dont charge to visit their booth, but if they offer us money, then we make sure to prioritize visiting their booth over everybody that didnt give us money."

 

which can easily be seen as charging to visit a booth.   i can easily see how it can be taken wrong.

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1 minute ago, Tsuki said:

Jay did a video about this basically saying it was all bullshit, and for most tech youtubers on that list, it is.

 

BUT

 

if you look at the comments in that video, you have people like techsyndicate who are saying "we dont charge to visit their booth, but if they offer us money, then we make sure to prioritize visiting their booth over everybody that didnt give us money."

 

which can easily be seen as charging to visit a booth.   i can easily see how it can be taken wrong.

Logan seriously said that? LMAO I guess there's not too many patreons that are still on board with his shitty ways.

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i find it funny how this guy can make a claim that is so easily proven to be wrong

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I find it kind of funny and disappointing how in all this drama people go with pitchforks and torches to the guy who named channels without better knowledge while the one who actually made the first claim and apparently has proof is just majorly being forgotten. GN isn't going only against this Sai guy from Fiji, but against Videocardz who made the first claim and has some invoices:

 

Quote

videocardz.JPG.381cd2becd7e17a8730c11d9cf8c470a.JPG

 

Videocardz doesn't want to name anyone because "it leads to finger pointing", but is actually making the most damage because is not naming anyone and so everyone got into the line of fire.

 

Sais Twitter is now unprotected, go and have a look. Guy is very salty nobody. Still I would really much like to see something more than laughing at his beard from Videocardz, who is probably still going that he has nothign to do with this Sai, but he knows and won't name anyone and plays victim because he didn't name anyone.

 

And as for the case, I don't really care if someone was to take money to prioritise some exhibitors at Computex. After all there was around 1488 exhibitors showing off their products (probably not all had their own booths/suites). That is a lot of tech to take a look O.o

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15 minutes ago, Tsuki said:

if you look at the comments in that video, you have people like techsyndicate who are saying "we dont charge to visit their booth, but if they offer us money, then we make sure to prioritize visiting their booth over everybody that didnt give us money."

 

Did he really say that? :-O

 

Then it isn’t difficult to understand why some people see this as “paid” brand exposure.

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6 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

Did he really say that? :-O

 

Then it isn’t difficult to understand why some people see this as “paid” brand exposure.

 

22 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Logan seriously said that? LMAO I guess there's not too many patreons that are still on board with his shitty ways.

i was going to get the exact quote, but looking back through all the comments on the video, i cant find his comment at all anymore. which makes me think he deleted it after realizing he basically just admitted to what he was being accused of.

 

i stopped watching his stuff a long time ago when i realized i couldnt trust literally a word that they said since it was all tinfoil hat nonsense.

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42 minutes ago, kting15 said:

I look at this from an engineering perspective. Their mistake was thinking people would think its cool like they do. They probably thought a robot vacuum cleaner that actually did its job well and mapped the room was cool tech. Its fine if you think that its not worth being on the channel but that doesnt make it not tech.

 

I definitely cannot follow your “engineering” perspective at all.

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3 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

I definitely cannot follow your “engineering” perspective at all.

then you don't go to an engineering school and have friends that are hired by companies like Dyson to design and improve products.

 

and looking at your profile, you do. so lets agree to disagree

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3 minutes ago, Tsuki said:

 

i was going to get the exact quote, but looking back through all the comments on the video, i cant find his comment at all anymore. which makes me think he deleted it after realizing he basically just admitted to what he was being accused of.

 

i stopped watching his stuff a long time ago when i realized i couldnt trust literally a word that they said since it was all tinfoil hat nonsense.

 

He might not be that clever... since posting that comment is indeed basically admitting the whole situation :-)

 

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7 hours ago, kting15 said:

then you don't go to an engineering school

 

Just turned 26...

4 university engineering degrees (and counting) by combining several years into one...

Now doing my PhD in nuclear engineering: particle physics... doing research and developing a future generation particle accelerator driven nuclear reactor system...

But hey... “I don’t go to an engineering school”... ;-)

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5 minutes ago, Christophe Corazza said:

 

Just turned 26...

4 university engineering degrees (and counting) by combining several years into one...

Now doing my PhD in nuclear engineering: particle physics... doing research and developing a future generation particle accelerator driven nuclear reactor system...

But hey... I don’t go to an engineering school... ;-)

clearly he meant mechanical engineering or civil engineering.  not your puny nuclear engineering  /s

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1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

What happened to critical thinking?

Where have you been for the past....I don't know.....millennia? 

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7 minutes ago, djdwosk97 said:

Where have you been for the past....I don't know.....millennia? 

you were paid to say that weren't you? 

 

I think critical thinking went out the window when everything became a conspiracy.

Grammar and spelling is not indicative of intelligence/knowledge.  Not having the same opinion does not always mean lack of understanding.  

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Jay did a really good response to this today, but he mentioned that lawyers were already involved. I'm assuming you can't post something like this through a news outlets, smear a bunch of companies, and get away with it?

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