Gamers Nexus alleges LMG has insufficient ethics and integrity

[osgalaxy]

Linus Media Group response:

https://youtu.be/0cTpTMl8kFY

 

 

 

From the video

«The Problem with Linus Tech Tips: Accuracy, Ethics, & Responsibility»

 

„This video is not monetized. This video covers our serious concerns regarding the data accuracy of Linus Media Group, including Linus Tech Tips, ShortCircuit, and TechQuickie, particularly as it relates to rushing content out the door to favor -- by staff's own admission -- quantity over quality. As the company continues to expand into its LTT Labs direction, the importance of accurate data increases; however, even as 'only' entertainment, there are still certain responsibilities to the consumer and the manufacturers to report fairly (and to have defined corrections processes in place). We tried to approach this as objectively as possible and hope that viewers are able to listen to the evidence we present, particularly as it relates to significant and frequent data errors that now present in nearly every technical review video.“

 

While GN has some good feedback, sometimes it feels like they are disingenuous and create a narrative that does not resonate with what I see from LMG.

 

Read:  I agree with most of the problems raised in the video, but not everything is 100% the way it is portrayed. 

 

Furthermore, I have the impression that some points, such as statements that lead people to believe that Linus is railroading creators or that the Chief of Labs is utterly unfit for the job, are probably not accurate and not deserved.

 

To reiterate:  I am not discounting some other points that Steve has made.

 

Some other uninformed criticism is about alleged conflicts of interest when reviewing laptops while the company is an investor in Framework.

 

This insinuation is also not entirely accurate. 

 

 

In trying to set the record straight, GN has fallen prey to inaccuracies in some of their claims. «The pot is calling the kettle black» situation. 

 

I believe that the issues that GN raises are valid and should be taken on board to improve the quality and accuracy of the content.  

 

There are some other allegations that, if true, are very concerning.

 

We need a frank official response from LMG. The next WAN show is going to be spicy. 

[Levent]

You mean to tell me you watched a 44 minute video in less than 10 minutes?

Spoiler

 

[igormp]

So, LMG content is rushed, inaccurate and focus more on being "funny" rather than accurate?

 

I guess there's no news here lol

[trotski94]

Quote

I think that while GN has some good feedback sometimes it feels like they are a bit disingenuous and create a narrative that does not resonate with what I see from LMG

Maybe you should watch the entire video with the full reasoning before cementing your opinion

[Dominik W]

For the large majority, GN is correct. The thing that sticks out to me has been the extremely large increase in * corrections. * this and * that. They need to let their foot off the gas a little. They're moving too fast and breaking things too quickly, catch my drift?

 

However, in my personal opinion, part of the video, in regard to sponsorship, seemed a bit more personally driven, rather than fact-based. But besides that, LTT needs to ensure accurate data. I will 100% back that. 

 

Hopefully, Linus and LTT will take a moment to reflect before rushing to any statements or any off-handed remarks on the WAN show on Friday. 

[osgalaxy]

17 minutes ago, trotski94 said:

Maybe you should watch the entire video with the full reasoning before cementing your opinion

I said that I agree with most points though not all. 

 

I read the whole transcript before posting.   @Dominik W

[Agall]

On 8/14/2023 at 12:02 PM, Levent said:

You mean to tell me you watched a 44 minute video in less than 10 minutes?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

 

 

*edit* I actually got to watch the video when I got home, and its pretty rough. I've seen a few inaccuracies in LTT videos the last few months that were small, some GN didn't even show, obvious QA issues, but the kind of errors GN shows go beyond basic QA.

 

Everyone knows GN's the goat when it comes to actual data, LTT's forte into data is really secondary to the entertainment priority the channel has always had.

 

GN's accusations are valid here.

 

*another edit*

The response was well done in my opinion. corporate, but that's probably for the better. We'll see what the results are in their next videos, which'll be a solid week away for good reason.

[Dominik W]

7 minutes ago, Levent said:

You mean to tell me you watched a 44 minute video in less than 10 minutes?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

Doesn't GN touch on the community defense at like the very beginning of the video? lol

[hassam222]

The part where it is alleged LTT auctioned off a prototype water block they promised to return is troubling. That requires an official response.

Edited August 14, 2023 by hassam222

[Captain Chunck]

Many of the points made by GN are very valid I love LTT and there videos and I know the release a bunch of very good content, but there team is Huge now and given the concept of the lab I think its time they spend a little more time on accuracy, and making sure content is correct before posting, I just hope everyone can remain mature and take on bored the points of GN, and see it as GN trying to help LTT rather than just throwing shade and causing drama

[rcmaehl]

24 minutes ago, Levent said:

You mean to tell me you watched a 44 minute video in less than 10 minutes?

  Reveal hidden contents

 

You mean you don't drag youtube videos into VLC to skip ads and have more control over the video?

[Skiiwee29]

Just for clarity and clarification, it is Linus's personal money invested in framework, not LTT or LMG. 

[deblimp]

Steve vs Linus cage match when?????

[hassam222]

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Just for clarity and clarification, it is Linus's personal money invested in framework, not LTT or LMG. 

From an optics perspective, does that actually matter though? Specifically when there are no LMG shareholders outside of Linus and Yvonne? 

[Levent]

2 minutes ago, rcmaehl said:

You mean you don't drag youtube videos into VLC to skip ads and have more control over the video?

Not when this video is already rendered with more than 100% playback (Steve is like a MC getting ready to duke it out with his words in this video). 

[rcmaehl]

2 minutes ago, deblimp said:

Steve vs Linus cage match when?????

You're saying there's going to be a new ChannelSuperFun Video? 

[R_M_Renfield]

6 minutes ago, hassam222 said:

The part where it is alleged LTT auctioned off a prototype water block they promised to return is troubling. That requires an official response.

This is the worst thing in the video. If that truly is the case there is no excuse for that.

[deblimp]

Just now, rcmaehl said:

You're saying there's going to be a new ChannelSuperFun Video? 

Would be trending in minutes

[rcmaehl]

1 hour ago, Dominik W said:

For the large majority, GN is correct. The thing that sticks out to me has been the extremely large increase in * corrections. * this and * that. They need to let their foot off the gas a little. They're moving too fast and breaking things too quickly, catch my drift?

I agree. Having watched the new techquickie (especially at 2x speed because ADHD) the number of * corrections surprised me. And, thinking about it, I'm surprised I'm not surprised that there was a correction to begin with, which just goes to show how common it's become.

[coonwhiz]

2 minutes ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Just for clarity and clarification, it is Linus's personal money invested in framework, not LTT or LMG. 

Steve does say "Linus has personally invested $200k in Framework". But I don't think it really matters whether its LTT/LMG or Linus's own cash. Linus and Yvonne are the sole/majority shareholders for LMG (IDK if Luke/Nick/other C Suite has any). As such, utilizing LTT to promote a brand that he has a personal investment in, or any negative coverage of their competitor can be seen as a conflict since he personally stands to gain when Framework gets good press.

 

 

[Cavalry Canuck]

GN isn’t wrong. But, I feel this is a scenario where the pot is calling the kettle black, and it won’t end well for anyone involved.
 

The example I will lean on is GN’s modmat error, where they had mislabeled pins on their diagrams. I don’t recall if there was a money back option or not. What I do recall is that the one “fix” amounted to little more than a decal. There was no product-replacement option. Sure, it may make the current customer happy, but the mislabeled mats are still out there. At some point down the road someone may look at the mat from GN, a reputable source, and break something.
 

Now, compare that to GNs expectations of LMG over the backpack issue (what was it, carabiner issue?). While GN’s response to their own problems were acceptable (particularly given the costs to fix the error properly for an organization of their size), they weren’t ideal. They certainly didn’t meet the same standard they were holding LMG to.

Not trying to defend LMG, but I think it’s important to have the perspective that no one is innocent in this business. One creator calling out another, whether the intentions are honest or disingenuous, doesn’t mean that they themselves aren’t also in the midst of their own errors.

 

In for the intervention content, though. Would be something to see everyone in the tech community list their grievances with Linus, have him atone for them (or rebuff them), and we go from there with whatever the outcome is. Nothing good will come from the high-profile tech creator feud that this could easily devolve into.

[ice_hiboy]

I agree with a lot of GN points. All the corrections are troubling, there need to be time for reshoots, voice overs or what ever to correct a mistake, not just an annotation or a pinned comment. I see LTT as a sort of Top Gear for tech as Top Gear was to car reviews. I watched Top Gear for entertainment not for actual reviews. The difference between LTT and Top Gear is that Top Gear knew that it was purly entertainment and did not hide it. LTT talks a big game about alle the employes and all the tests Labs can do and will do. I think they should proberly decide what type of content they want to make. Personaly I love the Alex and Jake type of content. Give me more wacky builds or projects, maybe long term projects. I stopped watching LTT GPU reviews a couple of generations ago because it was rushed, typicaly only a hand full of games and not really worth my time. Now I dont watch them because they are rushed and full of mistakes.

I wanna say I have watched LTT ever since the AMD Phenom 2 days, and will still watch them. But take the input and make better content instead of more.

Also why did short circuit change from a quick unboxing channel to 20+ minuts? 

[manikyath]

so.. steve is making a stink over something an LMG employee said, without the context of what they were talking about, and the environment they were talking in...

 

i feel like there's a strong vibe of "everyone is handling this the wrong way" here...

 

this is the point where i watch the entire GN video to make sure the above statement is correct...

 

there's a lot of truth here.. but the general tone of the video seems.. unnecessarily nitpicky and vindictive?

 

steve ripping on the framework investment being conflict of interest for doing laptop reviews.. is also just unnecessary. linus is aware of the potential conflict of interest, it has been brought up to the community at the time of him considering it, and is mentioned in each laptop review he hosts.

also this:

1 minute ago, Skiiwee29 said:

Just for clarity and clarification, it is Linus's personal money invested in framework, not LTT or LMG. 

is a very important distinction. you cant talk about the budgets of a corporation, and then talk about someone's personal investment as if they are one and the same.

 

i'm actually at the point where i'm getting annoyed at steve putting far too many out of context quotes into his video. it seems almost purposefully disingenuous on his part to cut things to make them seem worse.. when the full story is already less than favourable.

 

yes.. LMG makes a lot of mistakes, too many mistakes.. but saying that a "100 million dollar company" should not do this, is just factually inaccurate. that cash does not exist at LMG, and steve knows this. why make this argument if not to purposefully make LMG seem evil, rather than just careless.

 

it *could* have been a wakeup call for LMG, but instead the entire video just feels like steve going as hard as he can without openly hard cutting his own ties with LMG in case he needs linus to call someone at youtube for him.

 

actually.. this has been an issue i've had with steve's videos in general. i like steve, i love what he stands for, but every time i bump into a video of his he seems to be unnecessarily vindictive about everything. it's just exhausting at this point. steve's usually right, but he loses so much credibility to me by inflating facts almost into the field of alternative truths... life is crazy enough as it, let's not inflate things any more and try to fix things for once.

 

PS: a TL:DR here in case someone is gonna pop in to call me an LMG shill.. i 87% agree with steve on the topic, i just also 99% disagree with the way he voices his opinion on said topic.

[Ultraforce]

Just now, Cavalry Canuck said:

Now, compare that to GNs expectations of LMG over the backpack issue (what was it, carabiner issue?). While GN’s response to their own problems were acceptable (particularly given the costs to fix the error properly for an organization of their size), they weren’t ideal. They certainly didn’t meet the same standard they were holding LMG to.

This was pre-carabiner issue this was when asked Linus initially ridiculing the idea of a written warranty during the pre-sales of the LTT Backpack saying that it didn't matter.

With Linus saying that people should just trust me bro.

It's part of a longer term thing that Linus has done a few times of saying what I have interpreted as legal contracts and agreements don't really matter and what matters instead is the honour/keeping your word.

[schitzkrieg]

If Steve just wanted to "help", he would have chosen a more private setting to tell these things to Linus/someone at LMG.

 

Edit: Not that I don't agree with a lot said here. Could have been handled better I guess. 

Edited August 14, 2023 by schitzkrieg