Tech Youtubers accused of not disclosing Computex Sponsorships

[rawrdaysgoby]

17 hours ago, LinusTech said:

We've already had someone cancel his/her floatplane membership over these allegations. 

 

It's amazing how damaging this kind of thing can be. 

 

Might have to do a stream tomorrow... 

What were you planning on skipping the Wan show today or something lol

[rawrdaysgoby]

Noooo I can't believe he didn't included Austin in that List lol 

[Syntaxvgm]

40 minutes ago, rawrdaysgoby said:

What were you planning on skipping the Wan show today or something lol

I believe that was the joke, noting that he said subscriber singular.

[Reavantos]

17 hours ago, GoodBytes said:

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?

 It's a societal fail in general. Further perpetuated by a increasingly terrible public education system.

Let's call a spade a spade, and not tip toe around the issue.Thats why its so easy for some random idiot on the internet to gaslight these kind of things. In addition, people with inferiority complexes love to jump on things like this. As they are jealous of others success and want something to lessen the significance of their accomplishments or damage said person's success. This makes them feel better about their own situation. "Yeah, he's got my dream job. But, he has no integrity because he did it X way, so it makes me better!" 

I am very grateful and enjoy the content that (most) of the larger tech youtubers do. I appreciate their hard work, But: I would never do it myself. Anyone who willing subjects themselves to it and all if its pitfalls on a regular basis has a Iron will and must truly love what they do. This situation further illustrates that.


Also: for the people bitching about linus and the dyson video. at least he rolled a studio tour into it etc. Really the dyson wasn't  the focus (Shit, better clean something real quick since they are paying for this!). As for gamers nexus, his whole "holier than thou" attitude is why i don't even bother with his channel anymore.I do acknowledge he has great ideas for content and is a knowledgeable person. But he can be very off putting at times.



 

[Brooksie359]

16 hours 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”... ;-)

Yeah not all engineers think the same but there are alot that like new tech regardless of what it is. I can somewhat see where they were coming from when they said engineering perspective but not everyone has the same interest and the same opinion. It is problematic when people assume things. I mean people automatically think I love cars when I say I'm a mechanical engineering when I really don't. 

[Misanthrope]

2 hours ago, Syntaxvgm said:

LTT was a victim of circumstance.

Hehehehe, no: they were very likely written a decent check for it they are no victims.

 

Don't misunderstand me I get your point but given their very extensive experience with NDAs and embargo dates they should have at least asked to clarify and it should have tip them off so sorry but I don't really buy they were sandbagged by Dyson here. And if they were I wouldn't be inclined to admit such a mistake for the aforementioned reasons.

 

And even if I concede all that it still doesn't address the core concern about presenting a mostly irrelevant product to a tech audience. Now it's not the first time that LTT does that but it certainly doesn't excuses it for me.

[NMS]

File a lawsuit. If I had the resources and was on the list, I would.

Basically do what Jay is doing right now.

[Syntaxvgm]

6 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Hehehehe, no: they were very likely written a decent check for it they are no victims.

 

Don't misunderstand me I get your point but given their very extensive experience with NDAs and embargo dates they should have at least asked to clarify and it should have tip them off so sorry but I don't really buy they were sandbagged by Dyson here. And if they were I wouldn't be inclined to admit such a mistake for the aforementioned reasons.

 

And even if I concede all that it still doesn't address the core concern about presenting a mostly irrelevant product to a tech audience. Now it's not the first time that LTT does that but it certainly doesn't excuses it for me.

no I mean they were a victim of the obvious non disclosed shilling from the other channels and them getting lumped in it. Some channels and publications didn't even disclose it was a sponsorship and were caught only because everyone did it at the same time.

[Brooksie359]

8 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Hehehehe, no: they were very likely written a decent check for it they are no victims.

 

Don't misunderstand me I get your point but given their very extensive experience with NDAs and embargo dates they should have at least asked to clarify and it should have tip them off so sorry but I don't really buy they were sandbagged by Dyson here. And if they were I wouldn't be inclined to admit such a mistake for the aforementioned reasons.

 

And even if I concede all that it still doesn't address the core concern about presenting a mostly irrelevant product to a tech audience. Now it's not the first time that LTT does that but it certainly doesn't excuses it for me.

Honestly it was a clearly sponsored video and it was done in a way that was supposed to make it entertaining. If you didn't want to watch a video about a vacuume because you aren't intrested in it then maybe don't click on the video about a Dyson vacuum. I mean if they got feedback that not many people liked the video then they will know in the future that not enough people are interested in that sort of thing to warrant a video. 

[Misanthrope]

1 minute ago, Brooksie359 said:

Honestly it was a clearly sponsored video and it was done in a way that was supposed to make it entertaining. If you didn't want to watch a video about a vacuume because you aren't intrested in it then maybe don't click on the video about a Dyson vacuum. I mean if they got feedback that not many people liked the video then they will know in the future that not enough people are interested in that sort of thing to warrant a video. 

What you mean the video "Ultimate Tour of Our NEW $100,000 Studio - Dyson Cyclone V10 Showcase"? The one that intentionally tied content regular viewers might want to see with the bullshit fucking commercial they might not want to see?

 

You are free to continue to reply about how there was nothing wrong being done here, I disagree and stated the reasons why sufficiently clear for the purposes of this discussion which I consider finished.

[The Benjamins]

3 minutes ago, Brooksie359 said:

Honestly it was a clearly sponsored video and it was done in a way that was supposed to make it entertaining. If you didn't want to watch a video about a vacuume because you aren't intrested in it then maybe don't click on the video about a Dyson vacuum. I mean if they got feedback that not many people liked the video then they will know in the future that not enough people are interested in that sort of thing to warrant a video. 

As a adult, It was a nice video and useful.

[Master Disaster]

21 minutes ago, NMS said:

File a lawsuit. If I had the resources and was on the list, I would.

Basically do what Jay is doing right now.

As I said earlier, once lawyers get involved they're the only ones that win.

[Brooksie359]

34 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

What you mean the video "Ultimate Tour of Our NEW $100,000 Studio - Dyson Cyclone V10 Showcase"? The one that intentionally tied content regular viewers might want to see with the bullshit fucking commercial they might not want to see?

 

You are free to continue to reply about how there was nothing wrong being done here, I disagree and stated the reasons why sufficiently clear for the purposes of this discussion which I consider finished.

And guess what they did give you a tour of the new studio so if that is what you were interested then mission accomplished. I really don't see the issue here. They tried to do a sponsored piece in a fun and entertaining way that way it is still watchable. This is what they do with all of their tech sponsored peices and nobody is doing an outcry about those. That is likely is due to people being more interested with those products than the Dyson one but the point being that if it was interesting enough people likely wouldn't have cared. This means that if Linus had assumed that people would actually be interested in a video of this type then it wasn't a problem. They may have misjudged this and as a result people didn't like it as much but that is what happens especially in the YouTube business. There is no way to know for sure how people will react to a video and if you misjudged then you have to move on and do better next time.  

[GoodBytes]

2 hours ago, Reavantos said:

Also: for the people bitching about linus and the dyson video. at least he rolled a studio tour into it etc. Really the dyson wasn't  the focus (Shit, better clean something real quick since they are paying for this!). As for gamers nexus, his whole "holier than thou" attitude is why i don't even bother with his channel anymore.I do acknowledge he has great ideas for content and is a knowledgeable person. But he can be very off putting at times.

I am actually fine with the Dyson vacuum sponsorship, even from other youtubers doing it.

Maybe I notice it more, as my father started a small business from nothing, but people forget that starting a business is SUPER demanding... as in: little sleep for days on end, it is really hard and so much things to do, and 1 wrong step, could collapse everything. That is why you have the "baby effect", where when a business is not doing well, founders are attach to it like it is their baby, and won't let go, when it should be let go due to, and many times, changing times, and failed or simply cannot adapt. So much time invested loss, but also great care and every penny spent is carefully thought out during the company growth.

 

YouTube doesn't make much money and sponsorship is needed. Yes Linus today makes a lot of money, but remember he has many employees, requires super expensive equipment, location, materials, and more. And what I like about the sponsorships, is that while, yes it is an ad, it is not your traditional TV ad or a stupid infomercial where you go "fake" at every step of the way, and find a million flaws. It has the personality of the creator, and they do they own thing showcasing the product.

 

Beside I got a Dyson, and they are actually excellent vacuums. Doing research, i quickly discovered that vacuums that actually do a decent job, cost around the same price or more. I just opened BestBuy flyer last week, and noticed a Miele vacuum for 1000$ Canadian. I could buy 2x Dyson on special (well, not the battery ones, but the normal ones). And that is not some exception.. at 350$ Canadian you still have crap vacuum that does, at best, and OK job once all its filters are cleaned/replaced, but not comfortable to use, and reduce in suction rapidly.  Of course, the best is central system, but that is a different market. Anyway, my point is that Dyson does decent stuff that is all. It's not some crap product that is being pushed into our face wasting everyone's time... granted most people are younger audience and don't care about vacuums, but isn't that Dyson wasting its money?

[corsairian]

This seems likes it's going to get blown way out if proportion and given more time than it deserves. 

[Freeks]

1 hour ago, GoodBytes said:

Beside I got a Dyson, and they are actually excellent vacuums. Doing research, i quickly discovered that vacuums that actually do a decent job, cost around the same price or more. I just opened BestBuy flyer last week, and noticed a Miele vacuum for 1000$ Canadian. I could buy 2x Dyson on special (well, not the battery ones, but the normal ones). And that is not some exception.. at 350$ Canadian you still have crap vacuum that does, at best, and OK job once all its filters are cleaned/replaced, but not comfortable to use, and reduce in suction rapidly.  Of course, the best is central system, but that is a different market. Anyway, my point is that Dyson does decent stuff that is all. It's not some crap product that is being pushed into our face wasting everyone's time... granted most people are younger audience and don't care about vacuums, but isn't that Dyson wasting its money?

A decent vacuum is worth a lot if you actually have to keep your apartment/house clean and don't just shift it to your Mum or partner. I found the Dyson part actually partly interesting although the focus was totally on the studio tour. If Dyson weren't that expensive I'd love to have one of those battery ones. Use one of those old ones and try to get into every nook and cranny without rearranging the whole room!!! Ah... old people problems ^^

[8uhbbhu8]

5 hours ago, Syntaxvgm said:

LTT was a victim of circumstance. They disclosed the sponsorship in a way more transparent way than everyone else, but dyson didn't tell anyone all that shit was going down same day. People like Austin Evans got caught with their pants down, and dont get me started on the written tech publications. The ltt video was literally like bold text "SPONSORED" at the bottom, so if anything that proved to be a positive sign for me.

Bullshit

A hell of a lot clearer than Austin Evans where he sucked the vaccuum's dick for the whole video, and irrc "dyson sent" is the closest to "this is sponsored" that he mentions.

Agreed. I have yet to see one of their (LTTs) videos where sponsorship is clearly labeled and acknowledged.Personally I love it that they do that. It's called ethics and a lot of other youtubers don't have it.

8 minutes ago, Freeks said:

A decent vacuum is worth a lot if you actually have to keep your apartment/house clean and don't just shift it to your Mum or partner. I found the Dyson part actually partly interesting although the focus was totally on the studio tour. If Dyson weren't that expensive I'd love to have one of those battery ones. Use one of those old ones and try to get into every nook and cranny without rearranging the whole room!!! Ah... old people problems ^^

YES. All these comments about vacuums keeps reminding me that my place needs new ones. If it werent for the price I would definitely get one of those Dysons as the actually work. I've seen them in person and they do a great job.

[mynameisjuan]

7 minutes ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

It's called ethics and a lot of other youtubers don't have it.

Its good but I dont know why people actually care about it. Doesnt change the video or the review. 

[Agonizel]

23 hours ago, Christophe Corazza said:

We have the basic principle that it's up to the accuser to prove the accused guilty, not the other way around.

But the USA doesn't work like that !!!

[8uhbbhu8]

13 minutes ago, mynameisjuan said:

Its good but I dont know why people actually care about it. Doesnt change the video or the review. 

Do.. Do you EVEN KNOW what ethics are?!!!

 

Without ethics NONE of the reviews or articles we see could be trusted AT ALL. You would have NO source of information that you could trust or use to gauge your opinions on and against. You would have no possible way to know if anything is true or not.

[mynameisjuan]

3 hours ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

Do.. Do you EVEN KNOW what ethics are?!!!

 

Without ethics NONE of the reviews or articles we see could be trusted AT ALL. You would have NO source of information that you could trust or use to gauge your opinions on and against. You would have no possible way to know if anything is true or not.

Ok so what if linus didnt put "Sponsored by Dyson" in the video? What would have changed? Oh yeah nothing. 

 

You know you are talking about the internet and peoples OPINIONS right? You build trust after many many reviews. Just because they put a sponsored by in the video mean jack shit to their reliability. 

 

Like the Verge, a big site with tons of reviews. At first they seemed reliable. After a year or two of reviews it was plainly obvious they had a huge apple bias in scores and pros and cons as cons of a non-apple devices were pros of an apple device. This hit them hard, destroying their community and backlash. They made an announcement and since then took a step back and took more time on their review comparing the product with its competitors. Bias is still there a tad but much better. 

 

So get the fuck out with ethics. Its takes time to build trustful reviews and if linus never put sponsored by it would of made no difference. Fuck, the fact that its in there introduces bias because they are being paid to promote their product and when that happened, reviewers go a tad easier. 

 

When will people just look at things in a realistic view. Jesus fuck. Take a single review with a grain a salt, read others, watch other then make your own conclusion. 

[Tsuki]

3 hours ago, mynameisjuan said:

Its good but I dont know why people actually care about it. Doesnt change the video or the review. 

what? thats exactly what it does. its the difference between a review, and an commercial.  one of them i'll actually watch. the other i wont even click on.

[mynameisjuan]

34 minutes ago, Tsuki said:

what? thats exactly what it does. its the difference between a review, and an commercial.  one of them i'll actually watch. the other i wont even click on.

If you dont watch it then it doesnt apply to you. The whole point is that the stupid text "makes the video more reliable" which is BS. 

 

Again, watch many reviews and make your own conclusions. 

[Misanthrope]

4 hours ago, 8uhbbhu8 said:

Agreed. I have yet to see one of their (LTTs) videos where sponsorship is clearly labeled and acknowledged.Personally I love it that they do that. It's called ethics and a lot of other youtubers don't have it.

YES. All these comments about vacuums keeps reminding me that my place needs new ones. If it werent for the price I would definitely get one of those Dysons as the actually work. I've seen them in person and they do a great job.

I actually went over how this was a fairly slow process of increased transparency possibly as their popularity raised along with the increasingly demanding public but as little as 2 years ago it wasn't nearly as absolutely clear cut acknowledged upfront and center:

On 6/14/2018 at 5:25 PM, Misanthrope said:

Ok That one seems fair I'll give you that.

 

But what if we go back 1 year?

 

It's still there sure, but I don't think you would argue that it's as prominently displayed. Well maybe it is a matter of interpretation really? So what if we go back further to 2 years ago?

 

 

Ok now we're down to a fairly contained legend, further away on the frame in fact very likely to get kind of obscured by the UI specially since this appears on the very beginning on the video.

 

Look maybe you think all 3 examples are extremely fair but I think we can obviously see this has been a learning process as time and in particularly, the public, has become increasingly discerning over the years.

 

EDIT: By the way I didn't catch your second reply until after posting this though.

 

[it_dont_work]

Bloke admits liability for defamation publicly? In the legal system we generally used to call those people fucking idiots.