Gamers Nexus alleges LMG has insufficient ethics and integrity

[SomeSin]

I dug up my forum account to write a short summary about content I enjoy for 8 years, I think? And yes, I supported by buying some merch.

 

When I saw things I didn't like in the vids, I brushed it off,  it's entertainment

When I thought "trust me bro" was distasteful at best and disrespectful at worst (and I still cringe hard when they reference that) I was literally gaslighted by Linus "What, you thought so bad about me? You don't trust me? I'm so offended" reply.

When Linus told a long story about the company and how it goes, I didn't like it, but whatever, who am I to judge at all

Questionable sponsored videos, questionable sponsors - I get it, everybody wants money, not the Raid SL situation at least

 

But this is some shit I can't and won't tolerate. Yet another "never meet your heroes" type of situation. Literally lying in the angry rant about raised ethical concerns - we can't be more ironic. And when the owner of 100$mio corp tries to guilt-trip me, he can go f himself.

 

[JoshuaScholar]

Just now, DerKleine said:

Based on recent WAN Shows we already know that they are evaluating different processes for making videos more reliable, but that doesn't really change the fact you can't guarantee with absolute certainty that all future videos will be 100% reliable. 

 

Saying "All our future videos will be reliable" is a meaningless statement that is essentially impossible to fulfil unless you don't plan on releasing future videos.

Saying nothing is the same as saying "we have no intention of improving" especially after Linus went on the WAN show and refused to apologize for making a deliberately wrong video on Billet.

[harls]

3 minutes ago, VisibleXela said:

It could be Billet is telling the truth, and Gamers Nexus have done their due diligence, and Linus continues to stay quiet because he knows if he tells the truth (i.e. that they only agreed to pay back the prototype after shit hit the fan) it'll make him and his company look worse.

 

Or maybe this is a diabolical plot by Evil Tech Jesus, conspiring with Billet Labs to take down one of the biggest tech YouTubers on the planet. LMG hasn't posted receipts deconfirming the timeline because Steve has sent an army of evil unicorn fairies to keep every single LMG employee away from a computer or smartphone. The already existing dogshit responses from Linus have been from an evil clone of Linus who got into his LTT forum account (he knew the password on account of being programmed with all of Linus' memories in the cloning process) as part of the plot.

 

Until we get a(nother) response from Linus it's impossible to tell which it is, really.

Again.  Your argument as well as Steve's is Linus did not contact Billet Labs until after the GN video.  Linus never said he did.  I am not saying that makes what Linus did better in any way.  I am just saying Steve said he doesn;t need to see if there is another side of the story because he know LMG is bad does not make anything factual.

 

[WillHeard]

Just now, Legitsu said:

If people can't understand the sheer arrogance of what Steve and gamer Nexus are doing, it boggles the mind let me phrase it to you this way. The arrogance of assuming that you are the sole person on the entire internet, responsible for holding others accountable for things you think they did wrong while simultaneously benefiting from posting those things. That's not a conflict of interest? where Steve's journalistic principles I don't see them

There’s nothing that could convince you LMG is in the wrong here. you’ve made that clear

[Cl0udK1ller]

Just now, DerKleine said:

Based on recent WAN Shows we already know that they are evaluating different processes for making videos more reliable, but that doesn't really change the fact you can't guarantee with absolute certainty that all future videos will be 100% reliable. 

 

Saying "All our future videos will be reliable" is a meaningless statement that is essentially impossible to fulfil unless you don't plan on releasing future videos.

It is meaningless when Linus refuses to slow down making new content to improve accuracy.

 

If we find more inaccuracies and LTT is still pumping out daily videos than no one will believe they have change. 

[VisibleXela]

Just now, WillHeard said:

There’s nothing that could convince you LMG is in the wrong here. you’ve made that clear

They're a troll, they don't care about anything happening they just want a response. I advise you ignore them.

[Markmjb]

Steve's says "LMG makes structural mistakes, probably because they are rushed. ". Linus rushing to respond in a post without double checking his stuff or just waiting to make an official response isn't really convincing me the man hasn't got a point.

[jitteryzeitgeist]

Just now, Thepyrodex said:

What do you want to hear then?

 

I just want to know the truth, I don't care whos right because at the end of the day, they are talking heads on your screen and this thread is full of people angry over a parasocial relationship they have with a MEDIA COMPANY.  

 

LMG has a lot to explain but come on, if you won't even listen then what's the point of caring as much as you do?

"We fucked up, and it wasn't anyone elses fault.  We constantly rush videos and our data is inaccurate.  It is our fault we auctioned the Monoblock."

 

Accountability, and future improvement.

 

People make purchasing decisions based on LTT videos, and most of them don't have the money and position Linus does to make a neverending series of LOOK HOW RICH I AM HERES MY HOUSE videos so they fellate their own egos publicly.  Most of them can afford one big component a year, and if their favorite Youtuber is putting out bullshit numbers then they're the ones who will end up wasting their money on the word of some half-assed charlatan.

 

Linus has and continues to ignore the problems with his channel and the merest notion that he handles shit badly.  Trust me bro.

[Yames]

1 minute ago, Legitsu said:

I'm sorry you feel bad for a two guy garage that got slammed but the product is the product and the product sucked regardless of any problems with the review. The product was nowhere near ready to see the public. Not even close and by the way, all of this drama centering around them has driven more traffic to them than they could possibly have ever hope for some out of pity some out of genuine interest

Do you think LTT ignoring what the product was made for and then basing the review on that is a good idea, look, or way to give an honest review for the product?

That's the criticism, nothing to do with the product from BL in this case.

[AlphaQ214]

My biggest complaint with everything is both are taken out of context. Listen to ALL of last weeks WAN Show. They address some of the things Steve called out in his original video there.

[the_real_ch3]

The monoblock was auctioned off in a silent auction at an event that required a ticket and registration to enter. So there should be a record via the auction of the name of the person who purchased the monoblock, then there is a list of conference attendees and their email addresses (at least). How hard is it to cross reference these two records to find the buyer and get the block back?

[fohatadri]

1 minute ago, TheEugeneKam said:

you and me both brother, but it was just shitty to call out someone for doing the same thing that's all.

 

The problem is it's a prototype that has no patents from my understanding and if a competitor purchased it and ever engineered that's a problem and legal issue. Also, the route to take is to not put it on 4090 and complain. In sure they had 4090 in the works, and it gives a cooling comparison with what people would pair this with, like a 240mm rad and states that no one should buy this last-gen thing and see what they have in the future or just scrap the video. 

 

For smaller startups like this, it's the R&D time and time to market that's the problem here, not just the value of the processing time. Think ROG beating steam deck to market because GN auctioned off the prototype that was sent. Its a far larger impact than just the financials of a prototype here. 

 

LTT has an accounting dep, I'm sure they themselves know how to calculate a value of such a blunder and the cascading impact it has on future business. 

 

 

But wouldn't such a big controversy affect everything in LMG negatively because of how Steve's handled it? Revenue is definitely going down, necessary changes won't be made as quickly as everyone wants or expects them.
And again, what would a very big "sorry guys" change? It's not going to undo anything. The fact that it is such a big deal now is only because of Steve and how he knew it would definitely do a lot of harm to LMG and it's employees. If he had at least one minute to think about how it will affect people actually working there, he would have changed his approach to this but since Steve doesn't actually care, he did what he thought would harm LMG the most. 

[Reclus]

25 minutes ago, Legitsu said:

years of research?

you gn guys sure like pulling numbers out of your ass

might want to link the accual reddit thread and not some youtube reacts video

and the communtiys reaction is mesured and just .... for once  the post reads like a rant by somebody with a axe to grind 

beeteadubs: linus mentioned on one of the wan shows prior to this post that he had some probates that where likely not going to be seen again. 

 

coincidence you tel me. 

 

 

stop cherry picking folks stop googleing for things to throw on the pile for the sake of throwing them on the pile it doesn't help your case it makes you look desperate 

on this we agree. there is enough of a mess to try and find off topic

[Beerzerker]

I have to say it - This is the most explosive thread I've ever seen on this forum..... Probrably on any forum I've ever been to.
123 pages in less than 24 hours.......

I will say I agree with some that's posted already, given enough time this will sort itself out but how and to what end, we'll just have to wait and see.

The whole "Thing" to me blew up and turned into a total cluster F of a FUBAR situation but at the same time, given that review sites like LTT and GM are both part of what could be called "Social Media" I'm not suprised at all.
And there were 16 new replies before I finished typing this too.
 

[LinusTechLies]

19 minutes ago, Dragonliger said:

I do think that GamersNexus is on the right here with their opinions. I do agree that not reaching out to LTT for comment was not a good thing because it shows it less as concern for LTT and more of an expose. Yet the feedback still stands.

 

Also I don't think Linus should be the one replying to this at all directly, he's not the CEO anymore and it is not expected that he is the one to solve all of the problems presented.

 

The billet labs thing was quite mean for sure, but that says more about the organization of the company than the character of it.

I don't think you understand what opinion means here. Me calling you a poopy head is a opinion. What Steve presented was cold hard facts backed up with actually evidence. Thats not a opinion.

[jooroth18]

2 minutes ago, Legitsu said:

That people can't understand the sheer arrogance of what Steve and gamer Nexus are doing, it boggles the mind let me phrase it to you this way. The arrogance of assuming that you are the sole person on the entire internet, responsible for holding others accountable for things you think they did wrong while simultaneously benefiting from posting those things

 

 

That's not a conflict of interest? where Steve's journalistic principles I don't see them he can demonetize the video all he wants. He's still going to profit from a massive bump and subscriber and comment and views which is going to affect his channel ranking which is going to affect his bottom line. So don't hand us any crap about demonetizing the video and how it's for the greater good ad nauseam

What a phenomenally bad take. And this is coming from a longtime supporter, frequent merch buyer, and floatplane member. Take some deep breaths, and watch the videos with biases aside. Its painful to watch, but its the truth.

[Orthusaku]

2 minutes ago, harls said:

Again.  Your argument as well as Steve's is Linus did not contact Billet Labs until after the GN video.  Linus never said he did.  I am not saying that makes what Linus did better in any way.  I am just saying Steve said he doesn;t need to see if there is another side of the story because he know LMG is bad does not make anything factual.

 

Are you making a legal claim that billet labs is lying about the timeline and will you make that claim in court that billet labs is factually lying?

[MotherboardsInThePark]

How people can still defend Lienus and LMG after the second GN video is beyond me. And some people are beyond stupid.

[Nachmanowicz]

"Reviewing" your competitor is never appropriate. I'm not saying he was biased when reviewing competitors. I have zero experience and interest in Laptops tbh. But it's just straight up unethical to do so.

[Calzz]

10 minutes ago, fohatadri said:

Well, sorry for not posting for the last 9 years. I don't understand how Linus or LMG apologising to BilletLabs are going to change anything? What is done is done.
It was obvious from the start that LMG would be compensating them NO MATTER WHAT. What is the big fuss here?
The fact that it was actioned off was a complete miscommunication and obviously would not have happened if Linus or more people at LMG knew about it.
People act like Linus specifically came out of his way to "steal it", then sell it and used that money to buy drugs. 

You really missed the point. Some things have more than just monetary value and can't just be paid back to make it ok, think of the brand damage for example. Nobody is saying that LTT has done anything here with malicious intent as there is no value of them doing that however it does highlight that too many things get passed the cracks at the moment and checks and balances need to be put into place or fixed if there are there as they clearly arent working, the biggest problem however is the poor response after the fact, you 100% get a chance to say no we made a mistake and here is what we are going to do to fix it and we are sorry however thats not what was given and really is the bigger problem here.

[Legitsu]

4 minutes ago, WillHeard said:

There’s nothing that could convince you LMG is in the wrong here. you’ve made that clear

Right back at you. There's nothing that could convince you that what gamers Nexus did was a low blow and questionable journalistic ethics because he's the journalistic equivalent of YouTube's golden boy. He can do no wrong. There's no possible way he has an ego problem or an agenda this talking head on YouTube presents himself in such a genuine way. There's no possible way he's doing the exact thing. He's accusing others of it. That never happens right?

 

Here we run into the problems with absolutes folks there are no absolutes putting the troll hat down for a minute because honestly this is getting tiresome Linus absolutely handled this as poorly as humanly possible, but they were also completely blindsided by somebody that was out to get some reactions and cause some drama. Who is intentions were not genuine. If you need proof of that then again why what didn't gamers Nexus reach out? They didn't even give LMG a single full business day to respond to the bilillet labs issue they went behind their back on a weekend with an opinion piece so they could sell the rest of their video to their audience. That is about a scummy as you can get

[ebmusicman84]

My favorite part about this is the people making this a GN vs LMG issue.   It's two issues and neither of them involve GN, they just reported on it.  The real issues are LMG v Billet and a LMG v their audience.  @LinusTech response is absolute nonsense clownshoes, and exactly the kind of stuff he has ranted against in the past.

 

Pure speculation here, but it seems to me that the monetary strain of the backpack and the Labs roll out pushed LMG to the point where letting up on the volume of content was not an option, so they let up on the quality instead.  I've been kinda tuned out for the last year, and unsubscribed 2 months ago after the softball of a 4060ti review they lobbed, but Linus' response to GN's concerns has cemented that I will not give another dollar of my money or second of my time to LMG again for a goooood long while.

[Blademaster91]

1 hour ago, K4shira said:

I think Luke has given up at this point, at least that is how his reaction looked to me.

Yeah I don't get why Luke keeps going on the WAN show, unless he has some contract with Linus so he has to or something. His reactions when he disagrees with something dumb Linus says a lot, I'd like to see him actually speak up and make a point but he might not out of fear of Linus going off on him.

[TheEugeneKam]

For me, LTT missed the inflection point of where you get to be a good guy and apologize for clear blunders or take the position that LTT has criticized others for doing just this. For me, it is not so much the errors, even though as a manager myself, I would take,  and in fact, have taken actions on situations like this myself with quality of data in the past year even.

 

For me, it's the arrogant response and the billet labs situation that's the issue. On the last WAN show, Linus did mention WAN backpack he saw at the LTX and how you don't auction off or donate prototypes as it's bad practice as it puts them (LTT) in a bad light as it's still a prototype.

Having literally the same situation a week before that show with his backpack and not making the connection to similarities of the Billet Lab situations and public perception is just baffling. 

[Distinctly Average]

What a horrible thread. Full of bickering, negativity, anger and hatred.

 

Steve made some very valid points and LTT admit they made mistakes. Surely this is where criticism should become constructive. We should be talking about how thing failed and whether it made us make false purchases. We should be offering advice on how we think it is better to do things, and to how we would like to see any future errors addressed. All people and companies make mistakes, but the sign of a good company is how well they deal with the disasters that befall us all.

 

Like almost everyone in this thread, I don’t know the inner workings and procedures LMG have in place. However it feels like a company that has grown too fast. It feels like it has all the tools and people to do an amazing job, but lacks the maturity a company like LMG needs. Many companies go through this, it is not unusual in the slightest. It can break the weaker companies as reputations crash, the stronger ones come through but it is often a bumpy road. There have certainly been some bug bumps in the last two years.

 

I sincerely hope Steve & GN continue to do what they are doing so well. I also hope LMG can learn and grow from the mistakes they have made and it doesn’t dent from the enthusiasm the team obviously has. Maybe they need to slow down just a little so things can be more polished and more importantly, factually correct.