To LMG: On Fanboys and Trolls in YT comments.

[Bluuz]

It's come to my attention that in recent videos, you've increasingly acknowledged the fact that people in the Youtube comments have accused you of being paid off or that you're a "brand X" fanboy. 

This bothers me because it forces you into a defensive position where it seems you have something to prove against those trolls, where you have to clarify your testing methodology or reiterate a point where you criticized the product. 

 

I raise that rather than acknowledging these comments, you ignore them completely. The only way to deal with these people is to not even acknowledge their existence. The people who post these comments are not open minded individuals who are looking to be better informed on a product choice, they are people who have decided, for example, that AMD is superior to Intel, and anybody who does not acknowledge this is obviously part of a conspiracy that was bribed by Intel. No amount of evidence or convincing is going to displace them from this position, because they've already bought AMD products and for them to acknowledge Intel is superior would reflect poorly on their choices and themselves (it's how fanboys think). Obviously, this doesn't mean you ignore all negative comments, but understand there is a difference between comments trying to give you constructive criticism to help improve your content, and plain garbage. I don't speak for everyone, but as fans of your channel, we understand two things:

 

1) You do your best to be objective on your reviews and say things how you see it. It's one of the reasons we are fans of your channel. It's normal to subjectively favor one brand over another due to your past experiences. 

 

2) That sometimes you are sponsored or given an incentive to favor one product over another.  But as long as you give us a "sponsored by" message, we understand and expect that the video will be biased. We understand you would not take sponsorship from products you do not wholly agree with.

 

 

In summary, keep doing what you're doing, but stop feeding the trolls.

[Excon]

2) That sometimes you are sponsored or given an incentive to favor one product over another.  But as long as you give us a "sponsored by" message, we understand and expect that the video will be biased. We understand you would not take sponsorship from products you do not wholly agree with.

More on this point. In the past he mentioned that he will never use an ad that conflicts with what the video is about like a Corsair ad on a Cooler Master video.

[mansoor_]

I agree on the point of being completely transparent with the testing methodology and with precise details.

There may some tips we can suggest as to make the tests more fair, or just as context so uncontrolled variables can be noted. I realise in real terms it makes little to no difference but just for the OCD.

 

Regarding your fanboy comments, if someone feels linus has a bias towards a certain product then why watch his videos. They will, under that pretext just be a sales pitch for that product and give no real world value to your understanding of the product. This obviously undermines the whole enterprise. Evidently from the range of sponsers, anyone who doesn't realise that Linus media group is big enough not to require selling their opinions on products doesn't fully understand how this business works. 

[TheMissxu]

Are you payed off by Linus?

 

But in all seriousness, I think people can have bias and that's fine as long as they recognize it. Obviously doing a benchmark different ways to achieve better or poorer results for each party is simply not good.

People who watch these videos actually have confirmation bias; some watch the same video but call out different parts as evidence for fandom on the other side of a particular brand.

[lukeptba]

Unless google release some computerised form of chemotherapy, the youtube comments are a no-go.

[Imaginaerum]

Unless google release some computerised form of chemotherapy, the youtube comments are a no-go.

Wasn't that supposed to be Google+?

[IdeaStormer]

Man some people are missing the big or actually click picture. Any comment, even if bad counts as a click which actually benefits LMG so is you have looked into why some YouTube-ers don't block those nasty comments you need to look at not only the actual comment but the fact that the click counter increases and in turn brings people back to view the comments yet again increasing the click counter.

 

So don't go off on some crusade against the bad comments or it will actually harm LMG in the long run (why they don't do anything about it either).

[Bluuz]

Man some people are missing the big or actually click picture. Any comment, even if bad counts as a click which actually benefits LMG so is you have looked into why some YouTube-ers don't block those nasty comments you need to look at not only the actual comment but the fact that the click counter increases and in turn brings people back to view the comments yet again increasing the click counter.

 

So don't go off on some crusade against the bad comments or it will actually harm LMG in the long run (why they don't do anything about it either).

Nothing was said about blocking comments. 

[mr moose]

I wouldn't do anything different,youtubers like LMG will always have trolls, the fact is as soon as a product is reviewed and it doesn't performs well a handful of butthurt fanboys will come out and troll, that's the nature of the net. I would just laugh at them for being moronic and move on.

[ijKs Snow]

There was a WAN show where some people in Twitch chat called LMG a sell-out and it seems like Linus was extremely affected by it through out the rest of the show. Yeah, he should just ignore YT/Twitch comments as there will always be some bad apples in there. Then again, I don't really see it wrong to question tests and methods used in a public show as long as there is some sort of well-thought out argument in what they are saying. If it's something like "lel, LMG is bought out, yoloswag420", then it should definitely be disregarded.

 

To be honest, I don't really go to Linus videos to confirm my future purchases. I personally have better review sites to check testings/reviews. I enjoy LTT because it's entertaining to watch/hear LMG's OPINIONS on tech matters and products.

[lukeptba]

Wasn't that supposed to be Google+?

Google+ was the problem, not the solution

[LinusTech]

I really don't care if one person thinks I sold out or w/e and replying to those people often won't change their minds.. The only reason I really reply is that it gives OTHER folks reading the comments a chance to see both sides.

[the21robot]

I really don't care if one person thinks I sold out or w/e and replying to those people often won't change their minds.. The only reason I really reply is that it gives OTHER folks reading the comments a chance to see both sides.

Sometimes they get scared. If that makes a diffrence.