LTT is About to Change

[Kilrah]

3 minutes ago, Luscious said:

Negotiable salaries are one thing, and I get it if LMG is fine with revealing the numbers when asked. But I don't find it very confidence inspiring when hiring officers only want to look at how "little" a person is worth to them in dollars.

You must not have watched the video where it was mentioned that (supposing qualifications etc work out) they'd do their best to make the applicant happy. It might not work out for a whole host of possible reasons obviously, but what I'm saying is that assuming it won't because there's no published range makes no sense. 

 

 

[leadeater]

17 hours ago, LinusTech said:

sure, but the cost of that compared to what it would have cost us to implement some of the dumb shit "pros" have recommended to us over the years (if I had a dollar for every time some wanna be consultant told us to buy an off-the-shelf SAN, I could use it to buy  one) is not even close.

 

It's fine though I won't take it personally. I know why you do it the way you do 

 

P.S. So glad you worked a bit with Patrick from STH, super supportive of you working with them

[Lurick]

5 minutes ago, leadeater said:

 

It's fine though I won't take it personally. I know why you do it the way you do 

 

P.S. So glad you worked at bit with Patrick from STH, super supportive of you working with them

100% agree, as a network "pro" while it pains me in many ways to see them not use the off the shelf stuff I also understand it's not always fun/easy/cheap/etc. to do it that way either and there are cheaper ways to get the same result, albeit as jank as they might be

Also, love STH as well and would love to see more collabs!

[Lurick]

Forgot to mention, sure I'd LOVE to see them get their hands on a couple Nexus 9364D-GX2A boxes but I also know that wouldn't be nearly as fun or entertaining as seeing them try to build a 2 or 4 RU 400g switch or something for the lulz

Or see them build an off the shelf VxLAN solution but I know the audience isn't there for that and that's fine.

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, Lurick said:

100% agree, as a network "pro" while it pains me in many ways to see them not use the off the shelf stuff I also understand it's not always fun/easy/cheap/etc. to do it that way either and there are cheaper ways to get the same result, albeit as jank as they might be

Also, love STH as well and would love to see more collabs!

All the file server videos have gotten really good views from what I remember and also very high community engagement which for a YouTube/Video Publication business is critically important, more than a couple hours outage once or twice a year.

 

And honestly some of the attempts weren't so jank, just not quite on the mark either due to a single poor choice of one part or an issue with a part they simply could not have easily been aware of ahead of time. The Intel 750 SSD's were a mistake and not fit for purpose, lesson learned, so they moved to Intel DC SSDs but unfortunately went with a model that had a flaw. So there were two chances I can think of right there that could have gone a lot smoother, like a lot.

 

I still personally consider DC/Enterprise SATA or SAS SSDs would have been perfectly fine for them, more than enough, but everyone wants to see NVMe so NVMe it must be 

 

Next iteration I want to see for their server infrastructure is SDN distributed storage underpinning hypervisor layer so the storage and servers are all HA and resilient along with being scale out. Many options support tiering that actually work well too so they could have 3 SSD servers and then 3 HDD servers and not have to worry about moving project files between different server shares for active and archive and simply rely on hot blocks and new data staying on SSD.

[leadeater]

6 minutes ago, Lurick said:

Forgot to mention, sure I'd LOVE to see them get their hands on a couple Nexus 9364D-GX2A boxes but I also know that wouldn't be nearly as fun or entertaining as seeing them try to build a 2 or 4 RU 400g switch or something for the lulz

Or see them build an off the shelf VxLAN solution but I know the audience isn't there for that and that's fine.

I mean there is a reason you watch STH lol. Other than they don't really do the actual showing of configuring these and showing them in use, but you'd see that there before on LTT 

[Lurick]

2 minutes ago, leadeater said:

All the file server videos have gotten really good views from what I remember and also very high community engagement which for a YouTube/Video Publication business is critically important, more than a couple hours outage once or twice a year.

 

And honestly some of the attempts weren't so jank, just not quite on the mark either due to a single poor choice of one part or an issue with a part they simply could not have easily been aware of ahead of time. The Intel 750 SSD's were a mistake and not fit for purpose, lesson learned, so they moved to Intel DC SSDs but unfortunately went with a model that had a flaw. So there were two chances I can think of right there that could have gone a lot smoother, like a lot.

 

I still personally consider DC/Enterprise SATA or SAS SSDs would have been perfectly fine for them, more than enough, but everyone wants to see NVMe so NVMe it must be 

 

Next iteration I want to see for their server infrastructure is SDN distributed storage underpinning hypervisor layer so the storage and servers are all HA and resilient along with being scale out. Many options support tiering that actually work well too so they could have 3 SSD servers and then 3 HDD servers and not have to worry about moving project files between different server shares for active and archive and simply rely on hot blocks and new data staying on SSD.

Yah, engagement is key here and I definitely think the storage and networking videos definitely hit that on the head which is a great thing! Definitely know they've made some mistakes or overdid some of the other parts (like cleaning their fiber or running mm instead of sm fiber) but overall it's lead to good engagement which I love to see because it gets people interested even if half the comments are "my internet speed is only x" the other half a usually really good which I love!

 

I'm not great at storage myself and their videos have at least gotten me interested in learning more about it so I am more knowledgeable moving forward. I definitely agree that SATA or SAS SSDs are plenty fast but you need to give the people what they want

[Kilrah]

Not to mention that going to a pro is one thing, but finding a good pro to work with is another matter. Can't count the number of times that "pros" have either suggested jank or just advised me totally wrong.

And the thing is, by the time you've learned enough to sort the jank away and recognise the correct advice you basically know how to do it yourself and it only makes sense to hire the pro if you don't have the time and are ok with paying the extra to have someone else do it for you. If you have the time, or like LTT can benefit from the process of doing it you can be sure DIY with advice is what usually makes most sense.

[leadeater]

1 minute ago, Kilrah said:

Not to mention that going to a pro is one thing, but finding a good pro to work with is another matter. Can't count the number of times that "pros" have either suggested jank or just advised me totally wrong.

"Hey small business that runs a few YouTube channels I know what I'm talking about, buy this $2 million dollar EMC SAN" <-- lol

 

Those comments also make my day when I read them too.

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Beerzerker said:

And if you do, be sure to do us proud.
Just don't come after any of my FX records..... Or else.

You can keep your records, I don't need them for anything. I have my own.

[LinusTech]

5 hours ago, Kilrah said:

You must not have watched the video where it was mentioned that (supposing qualifications etc work out) they'd do their best to make the applicant happy. It might not work out for a whole host of possible reasons obviously, but what I'm saying is that assuming it won't because there's no published range makes no sense. 

 

 

The truth is that we are new to hiring in this category and have no idea what range of applicants and skill sets we will get. 

 

I've never published salary ranges when we've posted like this and I probably never will. 

 

Step 1 is finding people who want to work at LMG. 

 

Step 2 is figuring out if we want them to work at LMG. 

 

Step 3 is agreeing on the conditions of that employment. 

 

We've already had an applicant that wanted to negotiate salary before disclosing pertinent information that would have affected our offer. I'm glad we didn't offer anything. 

[LAwLz]

4 hours ago, leadeater said:

It's fine though I won't take it personally. I know why you do it the way you do 

And for those who don't know why they do things the way they do, it's because it gives them video material and views.

They want to make a video when they build their own janky solution. They want to make a video where they install their own janky solution. When things inevitably break they make a video about that, and so on.

And honestly, I think that's fine if that's the content you want to make. My issue is that I have seen a lot of "Linuses" over the years as a consultant, and they do not belong anywhere near an enterprise domain/network. I don't think Linus is very clear in his messaging either, and gives off the wrong impression to his viewers.

 

One customer I recently worked with, a school, had a "Linus" as their IT admin. The guy had built his own pfSense box and used that as a firewall. Except the only rule he had was allow any any. But hey, he built it himself so clearly it was better than some off-the-shelf box, right? If you build it yourself then it must be good and consultants are just trying to rip you off...

How did he solve needing more than 254 addresses for all the students, servers and teachers? He put them all in the same 10.0.0.0/8 network of course. Broadcast domains? What does that mean? Oh but no, clearly the network was segmented because his student SSID only gave students addresses starting with 10.0.X.X, while all the servers were statically assigned with addresses on 10.100.X.X... 

He built his own firewall, so clearly he knows what he is doing...

 

It might sound harsh when I say "I hope no current or future sysadmin looks up to Linus", but the reason I say this is because Linus and their entire channel is entertainment, not education. However, it seems like people treat it as educational. They see Linus build a pfSense firewall and they think that if they can do it then surely it must be better than some off-the-shelf solution, without understanding that Linus does it for views, not because it is good.

 

Even now I think Linus is sending the wrong message. My bet is that some person will read his post and go "wow, consultants are just trying to make you waste money on some expensive off-the-shelf solution when you can build it yourself".

Then they will be troubleshooting in the middle of the night repeating what Linus said about "How do I always seem to find the weird edge case errors" without realizing that they aren't the edge case. When you buy a solution from let's say Cisco UCS or IBM FlashSystem you are paying for their research and fixes for the issues you run into.

 

 

It's also worth mentioning that his whitebox solutions are only lower cost than the enterprise solutions because he gets hardware for free.

How many motherboards did he fry when he built his pfSense firewall? How many hours did he spend building it? What hardware did he have to put into it to get decent performance? A low end Fortigate would probably have as good if not better performance, been a fraction of the price and been more reliable. But he wouldn't have been able to make 3 or so videos from that. So he choice the hard and expensive route.

[Fizzle]

Was very tempting to get into an enterprise build vs buy conversation but not why I'm here and a bit too close to the day job!

 

I will say that there is nothing wrong with entertainment being a gateway to a career. There are thousands of scientists and engineers out there who got started on MythBusters for example.

 

Why I did jump in though is since you're expanding the LMG brain trust and lab space you need to fill a few more gaps especially around security/cyber/hacking. A lot of times recently I've seen Linus and others skirt around the topic or just come up with handwavy excuses (cameras in your house Linus, really? Let's threat model that, I'll show you why keeping it local and open source isn't the silver built you think it is).

 

Scaring Linus aside there is a show to be made that both demystifies the Cyber Security world, teachers people how to protect themselves better, helps them understand what a hacker can and can't do and maybe even get them started doing their own 'security testing'. It is all much easy than most think, hoodies not required. (but available from lttstore.com) ;)

 

Even if you don't want to make a show out of it with all this talk of developing in house and expanding, you should start thinking about getting the first Cyber Security hire just for that. Someone who can help you navigate everything from data protection, secure design, training, penetration testing and these days bug bounties too.

 

Unrelated, ever considered remote workers/guest writers or a London office? You're in the wrong Surrey!

 

 

[Jaesop]

On 11/18/2021 at 3:01 AM, LAwLz said:

4) LTT has already, in my mind, completely tainted their reputation by doing lots of shady business practices so I won't (and I hope others don't) trust them.

Linus investing in Framework doesn't mean that they're going to fudge benchmarks.

 

Quote

I find the whole distinction about what a showcase is, what a paid review is (which you claim you don't do), what a regular video is, what a partially sponsored video is etc, very confusing

Seems like you're trying to make it confusing. A showcase video is showcasing a product. Why are you pretending you can't understand that?

 

Quote

I mean, the definition of the word integrity is that you are inflexible and won't break your moral or artistic values. So I am not sure why we are arguing semantics so let's leave it at that.

I think when you're at the point where you're desperately trying to make a case for "making goofy faces in thumbnails lacks integrity", maybe you're not arguing in good faith.

 

Quote

Your post is very hostile towards me for no reason.

Probably because you said a bunch of half-if-at-all truths. You're trolling for this reaction, thus why you responded over like 5 posts - stop pretending otherwise. The only reason you're on this forum for a YouTube network you hate is to get reactions from people.

[LinusTech]

21 hours ago, Spotty said:

Should be interesting to see what comes of LTTLabs over the next year or so. I'm glad to see LMG investing in this sort of testing.

 

One thing that I'm curious about is what's the plan to monetise this? Looks like a pretty reasonable sized commercial property and with hiring so many specialists it isn't going to be cheap to run. Sales from LTT merch only goes so far. Banner ads on websites aren't worth much these days and I hope the website isn't full of those garbage "From around the web" sponsored pages that talk about teeth whitening and how some housewife makes $5000 a week working from home.

 

Is access to the reports going to be paywalled? Is the long term plan to sell certifications to brands like what 80+ and Cybenetics do for power supplies? Sell the test reports to other media outlets to publish articles with? Pay for it from the profits of the other youtube channels and run LTTLabs at a loss?

If sales from LTT merch really are enough to cover all of this then LTT must be shifting a heck of a lot of merch.

We've got a lot of different ideas.

 

1. A wellspring of content ideas for LTT. I don't doubt for a minute that as soon as we start testing products by the dozens, some interesting patterns and stories will emerge. Maybe someone is seeding golden laptop samples with liquid metal instead of standard thermal paste, or maybe a power supply from a brand no one heard of is the undisputed king under $70. Unlike written media, video is still immensely profitable, and this is a new way for us to draw in eyeballs and differentiate our content, which we are able to monetize very well.

 

2. Affiliate Revenue. If LTTlabs achieves my goal of creating an "alternate spec sheet" for basically every important consumer product with easy comparison tools that distill down the testing information into a digestible format, the site will generate a TON of organic traffic. The process for shopping for something like a laptop right now is *horrible*. We can fix that. That means clicks on our affiliate links, which can generate anywhere from a couple bucks to even $20+ for each sale.

 

3. Advertising on-site. This one is unlikely. I hate annoying banner ads, and the unobtrusive ones don't pay enough to be worth putting them in front of the viewer, frankly.

 

4. Certification program/3rd Party Validation. This one I feel is unnecessary and creates a pretty muddy-water situation with respect to conflicts of interest. How do we create an LTTLabs 'independent' data sheet when the manufacturer paid us to create it in the first place. On the other hand, we could potentially create internal silos - or even a separate company with separate equipment that uses the same lab and shares no data or something like that to mitigate it. I don't know. It's not my focus right now.

 

5. Turning our testing knowledge into product development processes. Creator Warehouse is absolutely interested in creating tech products beyond mouse pads and the equipment we need to test device batteries could be subsidized by using it to design say, a battery bank. This has its own conflicts of interest, but CW is already a completely separate company with its own payroll and its own KPIs. 

 

6. Paywalls. This seems unlikely, but nothing is impossible. If one were to ever be implemented it would probably still allow general consumers to research hardware, but block off more advanced measurements that only professionals would need or something like that. Hard to say.

 

7. Direct sales of products through the site. This is kinda ass-backwards. Most stores add reviews instead of review sites adding stores. Would probably end up having to be a separate e-tail operation that licenses access to LTTLabs data and has API access or something. This could also be done for 3rd parties and I could see it being a significant value add to e-tail shops that can't afford to validate things themselves. We could also have a fee structure set up so they could request that we test items they are looking to carry. This latter method is pretty interesting because it allows us to stay independent.

 

 

Non-Revenue Generating (but still positive) Outcomes

 

1. We can validate the claims of potential sponsors, improving the prestige associated with partnering with us. We already routinely drop brands for having poor customer service or shitty cancelation processes, but it's obvious we could do better. This will indirectly affect our advertising rates.

 

2. Improved consumer brand perception for LMG properties. As you can see in this thread there are some mixed feelings with respect to the accuracy of our content. Some of the criticism is clearly sour grapes, but that doesn't change the fact that there are some seeds of truth and we've reached a scale where there really isn't any excuse for us to be anything but the industry leader. 

 

3. More testing grunt to do things that are just impossible right now. If I wanted to look at the performance delta of every NVIDIA driver for the last 2 years for example across a suite of games I just don't have the manpower to do it. This could change all of that. I guess this is related to point 1 in the previous section, but I've already typed it and now it's less work to justify the redundancy than to delete this paragraph.

[leadeater]

29 minutes ago, LinusTech said:

Certification program/3rd Party Validation. This one I feel is unnecessary and creates a pretty muddy-water situation with respect to conflicts of interest. How do we create an LTTLabs 'independent' data sheet when the manufacturer paid us to create it in the first place. On the other hand, we could potentially create internal silos - or even a separate company with separate equipment that uses the same lab and shares no data or something like that to mitigate it. I don't know. It's not my focus right now.

Sounds quite similar to a potential area for this I had in another conversation in the mod chat platform. How interested are you and also industry vendors in working with 'LTTLabs' in a more official capacity during product development and testing? As you mentioned though quite a bit of a problem if heading down that path when also carrying out product reviews.

 

Seems like some decent mutual benefits along with better end products or at the very least more sensible product choices, laptop screens (sizes, resolutions, touch/non-touch etc) come to mind.

 

LTTLabs does seem like a really interesting idea but my only concern, not that I've thought about it much, is the profitability of it. I still see value in business units/sections that don't make a profit or a direct profit though, I dislike when good ideas get canned because they won't make money even if overall it can be afforded.

[Beerzerker]

19 hours ago, ShrimpBrime said:

You can keep your records, I don't need them for anything. I have my own.

You certainly do and those were well earned.

[Beerzerker]

The way I see it, if for example I were to become a part of the LTT business model then that's what it is and that's how it has to be treated.
Take care of the business and it will take care of you - At least that's how it's supposed to work.

Support the guys you work with and remember if it doesn't succeed, neither do you and that's why if I'm part of anything like it I'm "All In".
That's how it has to be for me if I'm part of anything like it.

I know it takes alot of time and effort to start, build and grow such a thing, it's a never-ending but that's how it has to be, there is no such thing as the business situation of it being and remaining static.

Those that know can appreciate all the time, sacrifice and all else Linus and the rest of the LTT staff has put into this and even now it's a real commitment to what he wants.  Bear in mind there is a cost to be paid to obtain it, he's paid it....
And look at the rewards obtained in return.

If nothing else LTT can be a lesson to others that may one day have such vision for themselves, nothing is free and frankly anything that's worth something isn't because it has worth in the first place.

Mind you that's just my personal take of it but I believe it's the truth and anyone, if they do the same can have it too.
You just gotta be willing to do it to have it.

[fbdfbdfdfndf]

On 11/19/2021 at 7:50 AM, LinusTech said:

Long salty post

For context, I only came on here to see if there was any extra info on this testing lab, only really watch the videos.

 

Jesus Christ dude, this is how you respond to criticism? By insulting, putting words in people's mouths, and generally acting like a mid-2000s IRC troll, then acting as if they have an attitude problem? I don't care about the actual argument, and they were seemingly misinformed about a lot, but wow. There are ways to refute people who are incorrect, and there are ways to be an abrasive jackass. Guess which this is?

 

You're starting a testing lab, man. The hardcore techies are gonna look at every bit of minutiae to see if the results are trustworthy, and they're gonna ask questions. If this is how you respond, I don't see it ending well.

[LAwLz]

6 hours ago, Jaesop said:

Linus investing in Framework doesn't mean that they're going to fudge benchmarks.

I never said they would fudge benchmarks. Lying in benchmarks is not the only way to be biased though.

 

6 hours ago, Jaesop said:

Seems like you're trying to make it confusing. A showcase video is showcasing a product. Why are you pretending you can't understand that?

Okay, so what about the videos that aren't showcases but do highlight a product like the Oculus Quest 2 video? Apparently that's not a "showcase video" despite it being a video showcasing a product, and the video was sponsored by the maker of said product.

 

6 hours ago, Jaesop said:

I think when you're at the point where you're desperately trying to make a case for "making goofy faces in thumbnails lacks integrity", maybe you're not arguing in good faith.

But that's what integrity means...

 

 

6 hours ago, Jaesop said:

Probably because you said a bunch of half-if-at-all truths. You're trolling for this reaction, thus why you responded over like 5 posts - stop pretending otherwise.

No, I didn't say a bunch of half-truths. No I am not trolling for the reaction either. The entire conversation was basically:

Me: I hope this goes well but I am not sure it will. 

Someone else in a very hostile tone: I really want you to give examples because I don't see it.

Me: *Gives some examples*

 

 

6 hours ago, Jaesop said:

The only reason you're on this forum for a YouTube network you hate is to get reactions from people.

Are you seriously suggesting that I have spent 8 years on this forum making 16k+ posts just to try and troll and get reactions from people? There are very few people who has been on this forum as long as I have, that have made as many posts that I have, or have helped as many people that I have. I am not here to troll. I am here to learn, and to teach others. If you reread my posts in this thread I think you will notice that I stick to the topic, offer to give sources if people want, and give (in my opinion) thought out answers and note that it is my perception of things and others might not agree. If I wanted to troll I'd not post the way I do. 

If I wanted to troll I'd replied with "TLDR" to Linus' long post, not spent hour(s) responded to it line by line, and digging through 5 years of posts to find references such as the time he said he didn't disclose that dBrand was a sponsor because he didn't think it mattered.

 

I think this forum is one of the best consumer-tech related forums on the Internet and I really appreciate that Linus runs it. But just because I like the forum doesn't mean I like LTT. 

[LAwLz]

48 minutes ago, fbdfbdfdfndf said:

I don't care about the actual argument, and they were seemingly misinformed about a lot, but wow.

I don't think I was misinformed. I understand if you don't feel like reading the long-ass posts I made as a response but Linus makes a lot of strawman arguments and hand waving to "refuse" the things I said.

For example I made references to specific instances where he hasn't disclosed sponsors (not done it visually, or not done it at all).

He replied by pointing to some instance where he did it properly that I didn't have an issue with. If you do something right 90% of the time you can still be criticized for doing it incorrectly 10% of the time. (numbers pulled out of my ass). You can't pretend the 10% of times didn't happen just because you did it correctly some other times.

 

I used the word "authoritarian" instead of "authoritative" which was a mistake (I am ESL so I probably make a lot of spelling/grammar mistakes) and I misremembered a poll that was 59/41 as being 41/59. That was pretty much it.

 

And please note that the issues I listed were just the things I could remember off the top of my head. If I start looking through my post history I can probably find way more, and probably better, examples of Linus doing shady things for money.

[Guest]

5 hours ago, Beerzerker said:

You certainly do and those were well earned.

Hey, you're going to participate the in house comp right??

 

I can't seem to get my board to post. Do you need any cpus?? I have a couple 165's for sure. Need anything, let me know. I'll send it right away.

[LinusTech]

7 hours ago, leadeater said:

Sounds quite similar to a potential area for this I had in another conversation in the mod chat platform. How interested are you and also industry vendors in working with 'LTTLabs' in a more official capacity during product development and testing? As you mentioned though quite a bit of a problem if heading down that path when also carrying out product reviews.

 

Seems like some decent mutual benefits along with better end products or at the very least more sensible product choices, laptop screens (sizes, resolutions, touch/non-touch etc) come to mind.

 

LTTLabs does seem like a really interesting idea but my only concern, not that I've thought about it much, is the profitability of it. I still see value in business units/sections that don't make a profit or a direct profit though, I dislike when good ideas get canned because they won't make money even if overall it can be afforded.

The industry certification angle is honestly very low on my priority list for the moment. 

 

More video content is the easiest way for this to pay for itself. 

 

Another idea I pitched internally is having a super low budget photography/video team that does some basic shots of the product in a lightbox and then uploads that along with the testing data and some on screen text (that can be easily translated). It could generate some additional revenue and also potentially help with licensing our product feed to resellers. 

 

Lots of different ways to be creative with it. 

[LinusTech]

3 hours ago, fbdfbdfdfndf said:

For context, I only came on here to see if there was any extra info on this testing lab, only really watch the videos.

 

Jesus Christ dude, this is how you respond to criticism? By insulting, putting words in people's mouths, and generally acting like a mid-2000s IRC troll, then acting as if they have an attitude problem? I don't care about the actual argument, and they were seemingly misinformed about a lot, but wow. There are ways to refute people who are incorrect, and there are ways to be an abrasive jackass. Guess which this is?

 

You're starting a testing lab, man. The hardcore techies are gonna look at every bit of minutiae to see if the results are trustworthy, and they're gonna ask questions. If this is how you respond, I don't see it ending well.

This is fair criticism, and you're right I shouldn't have allowed Lawlz to set me off. 

 

The context you're missing is that this isn't the first time they've dug into me about a bunch of shit that either isn't true or doesn't matter. 

 

The dbrand sponsorship, for example, either wouldn't be required to be disclosed or would be in a grey area at this point because it was a product placement for an accessory rather than a paid message disguised as editorial opinion about the product being covered. It's the latter that most influencer disclosure guidelines are designed to prevent, not the former, which has been prevalent in other media for decades. 

 

With that said, I clearly have moved on from that mindset and have gone out of my way to provide clear and better-than-required disclosure for *years* at this point.

 

The fact is we don't have to do any of it since the Canadian FTC equivalent has no fangs whatsoever. We do it because I agree that it's the right thing to do and I value our community's trust more than making an extra buck. 

 

I own that I've made plenty of mistakes in the past. My own post has these admissions, but I am also constantly working towards improvement. 

 

Lawlz would rather keep dredging old stuff up - even going as far as to acknowledge that we've admitted the errors, apologized for them and rectified the behavior - than engage in good faith, and my reaction was triggered partially by that. 

 

If I actually didn't value criticism, I would just block/ban Lawlz (and similar) from the forum and erase their post histories. This would not only silence criticism, but it would erase basically all searchable record of it since this is pretty much the only place where my business practices get discussed with both depth and regularity.

 

I bit back at a long-time critic who I felt (and still feel) was being unfair and not acting in good faith, but I hope my actions speak louder than my words.

 

I clearly chose (and continue to choose) to maintain transparency and a historical record of my own mistakes because I believe it helps me be better. 

[Rex Hite]

Bad-faith critics are a cost of engagement .

I think some well-chosen harsh words can be can appropriate response to bad-faith critics and don't need any apologies.

I think participants need to understand that engagement works both ways.

I think mistakes are part of the charm of LTT.

 

The announced plans are exciting and ambitious.