Gamers Nexus alleges LMG has insufficient ethics and integrity

[jitteryzeitgeist]

2 minutes ago, Skipple said:

See this is what is a bit confusing for me. Typically would there be some type of written agreement for something like this? I can't imagine prototypes are loaned out simply on good faith like this if the expectation is that they will be returned.

Then who is truly at fault?

 

The company for asking, or LTT (the large company who frequently touts how above board and by the book they are) for accepting an unsolicited device with no agreement?

 

If it is unsolicited, which I'm not sure it is since Billet made a Reddit post several months ago pointed directly at LTT asking if they wanted to "play with it."

 

Either way, it's basic business sense.  If the shit ain't yours you don't sell it, because regardless they have opened themselves up to at most very expensive litigation, or at worst public scrutiny that permanently damages the brand.  And this has the potential to damage the brand.

[IndustrialBananaBread]

1 minute ago, itsdeonLOL said:

This whole thing is so confusing to me...

TLDR:
GN video > community backlash > classic linus response > community unhappy > GN makes another video > here we are

[JoshuaScholar]

Linus Language Model?

Large Linus Model?

 

[ImorallySourcedElectrons]

2 minutes ago, itsdeonLOL said:

This whole thing is so confusing to me...

Welcome to self-expanding internet drama!

[gottahavit]

1 minute ago, jitteryzeitgeist said:

Then who is truly at fault?

 

The company for asking, or LTT (the large company who frequently touts how above board and by the book they are) for accepting an unsolicited device with no agreement?

 

If it is unsolicited, which I'm not sure it is since Billet made a Reddit post several months ago pointed directly at LTT asking if they wanted to "play with it."

 

Either way, it's basic business sense.  If the shit ain't yours you don't sell it, because regardless they have opened themselves up to at most very expensive litigation, or at worst public scrutiny that permanently damages the brand.  And this has the potential to damage the brand.

"Trust me Bro'!!!

[lyeuhm]

2 minutes ago, JoshuaScholar said:

Oh God, what are Linus' words on unions?

(1) LTT isn't a great employer, has a lot of anti-labour practices, and I know because I worked there. : LinusTechTips (reddit.com)

 

And just to be open with the alternative responses (1) What actual proof do we have that Linus is an asshole employer? : LinusTechTips (reddit.com)

 

 

And then this from the WAN Show (1) Would LMG ever unionize? - YouTube

 

[DrHax34]

8 minutes ago, jooroth18 said:

LMG never asked Billet for an estimate, they made an assumption based on a prior email that billet sent with a ball park number. when someone is mad at you for doing something, do you really think everything in that email will be 100% true and not estimation? Billet labs email was intended to indicate the severity of the situation, so that further emails can be made discussing compensation. THOSE EMAILS DID NOT OCCUR WHEN LINUS'S POST WAS MADE.

 

an agreement is made between two people. If you really think that the agreement was between LMG staff, do you really think he would have worded it the way he did?

No, he would have worded it like this:
we are planning to compensate Billet labs for damages, and are in talks with them right now about the situation.

 

Here is an unbiased third party review of the words:


and since you want to make sure im not doing biases, here is a full link to the chat:
https://chat.openai.com/share/b96d29c9-177e-4cdb-bc6f-f951c26a1dac

AI is more than biased depending on the user's prompt. Heck, just by continuing your conversation by just telling it to do an "Emotional analysis" on the text, the AI actually says Linus took accountability: https://chat.openai.com/share/94b6dfa4-9fc3-4a77-be6a-424cdaa234c0

[Icedman181]

1 minute ago, tbonedude said:

Why is everyone fixated on billet labs? Seems like a predictable mistake by the team. Too many cooks in the kitchen as it were. Doesn't change some of the more damning aspects of this such as the ability to shadow edit videos in place without requiring reupload or any other recognition, or the more serious issues such as LMG/LTT employees complaining about the video schedule which has lead to the need for corrections. And then you've got Linus' own words on unions. 

This is very concerning as a fan of both, as well as HUB and others. 

Agreed. The billet labs issue might be a touchstone event but the selling of it was probably a procedural error handled poorly after. A one-off.

 

The truly concerning part is the systemic errors and rushed content leading to compounding cycles of bad, inaccurate content. LMG can fix it but only if they acknowledge the true scope without the knee-jerk emotional response.

[nGran]

On 8/15/2023 at 12:30 AM, LinusTech said:

Billet sent us a quote. I don't know or care how they arrived at the value. If they're good, I'm good.

As for what steps we're taking, you're talking about an outlier issue that has happened once in 10+ years of operation. There won't be a new SOP to ensure we don't accidentally auction stuff. We just need to tighten up some documentation.

Lol, so the answer is "we are paying your way out of this, and we will take no measures for future" So that is the most Corporate answer ever. I had the impression that Linus actually cares about these things, but obviously he just wants all of it to get away, so instead of fixing the issue making sure it will not happen again, and take some time to explain that to the audience what steps are taken, he is paying the issue to go away. Really, really disappointed

[monster_mm]

I have decided to unsubscribe from Floatplane for now. Sorry Luke<3

 

Regardless of the Games Nexus revelations I have felt much of the same feelings depicted in Steve's main points.

 

• Videos feel rushed in production
• Staff appear burning out as per their wishes to slow down in their "Linus can't watch" video
• Quality is dropping in data accuracy
• Linus starting to appear out of touch from community sentiment at times
• I too felt the cringe watching the water block video, then seeing Linus say on WAN basically accuracy wasn't worth $500

I appreciate the goals of LMG and hope we can see The Labs and LTT being a great resource in the future.

I sure enjoy The Labs entertainment / tour style videos in the wearhouse. But need to learn to trust their data first.

 

 

[RockerBug17]

Everything s going according to Steve's plan 

 

[Needfuldoer]

5 minutes ago, JoshuaScholar said:

Oh God, what are Linus' words on unions?

He's said in the past that if his employees felt unionizing was necessary, he would take that as him and his business leadership failing them. 

[aka473]

3 minutes ago, plume said:

LLM = langue model. By design, they are created to make shit up as they go to fill words in a way that sound natural. Being accurate, fair, unbiased, etc. is just an accident if/when it appends. They were not designed for this

 

That isn't how LLMs work. They are trained on massive datasets, and can remember token keywords to be able to provide contextual understanding and responsiveness to a prompt.

[SethNW]

This is sad day, because, oh, how mighty have fallen. I was going initially write a rant to get myself banned and all, but I won't. Because you need to have some worth to be worth me bothering. This this situation and handling, is so low quality level that we got word for it that I won't speak. All this needed was for someone to take a day, write well thought response in how thing will be handled and apologize and that is it. It however highlighted disconnect between what LTT wanted to be years ago and what they are now, views driven corporation that figuratively is willing to walk over corpses to make profits and get more views. Without second thought about consumer, or anything else. And I recommended people to go to LTT. Out of all things, I don't really care if LTT collapses or not, I don't care about Linus, I do however care that I did send some people over to LTT thinking I am sending them to a good channel that cares about data accuracy, morals, or anything other than growth.

So I will just say one thing, I am disappointed.

 

And to those I told to go to LTT, I am sorry for leading you astray.

 

Ban me if you will, I am not coming back.

[lyeuhm]

1 minute ago, monster_mm said:

• Staff appear burning out as per their wishes to slow down in their "Linus can't watch" video

This is probably the most accurate take I've seen in a while.  Everyone at LMG just seems completely worn down recently. 

[HiTechLowSpec]

19 minutes ago, Monolithic said:

Then why is he responding to it here and accepting responsibility?

Because he knows he's ultimately responsible. That doesn't mean he's directly responsible.

[itsdeonLOL]

4 minutes ago, IndustrialBananaBread said:

TLDR:
GN video > community backlash > classic linus response > community unhappy > GN makes another video > here we are

So this is just a classic back & forth battle got it lol.

[jitteryzeitgeist]

2 minutes ago, Needfuldoer said:

That if his employees felt unionizing was necessary, he would take that as him and his business leadership failing them. 

He personalizes a lot of this stuff to the point it feels unhealthy

[JoshuaScholar]

2 minutes ago, lyeuhm said:

(1) LTT isn't a great employer, has a lot of anti-labour practices, and I know because I worked there. : LinusTechTips (reddit.com)

 

And just to be open with the alternative responses (1) What actual proof do we have that Linus is an asshole employer? : LinusTechTips (reddit.com)

 

 

And then this from the WAN Show (1) Would LMG ever unionize? - YouTube

 

Welcome to late stage capitalism, where you're either an owner, the child of a rich person or LITTLE PEOPLE!

 

And little people don't get a voice!  Your point of view will never be allowed anywhere!

[jooroth18]

1 minute ago, DrHax34 said:

AI is more than biased depending on the user's prompt. Heck, just by continuing your conversation by just telling it to do an "Emotional analysis" on the text, the AI actually says Linus took accountability: https://chat.openai.com/share/94b6dfa4-9fc3-4a77-be6a-424cdaa234c0

well duh it did, the response linus made is deeply personal, as ive been saying for the past several posts. It also doesnt have the context of the whole situation, inculding what happened from billet labs side. 

IDK what you are trying to prove.

[aka473]

3 minutes ago, DrHax34 said:

AI is more than biased depending on the user's prompt. Heck, just by continuing your conversation by just telling it to do an "Emotional analysis" on the text, the AI actually says Linus took accountability: https://chat.openai.com/share/94b6dfa4-9fc3-4a77-be6a-424cdaa234c0

AI really isn't good at sentiment analysis. I wouldn't take it at face value, but asking for contextual definition and connotation of a specific phrase in context, that is something AI can do.

[jitteryzeitgeist]

8 minutes ago, PandaSasquatch said:

Quote: "to state (the current price or bid-offer spread) for a commodity, stock, or bond"
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/quote

Could this possibly be what Linus was referring to? No way! Clearly he's just a liar! /s

Please stop, you're embarrassing yourself.

[gottahavit]

• "Don't be a dick" —Wil Wheaton
• "Be excellent to each other" —Bill and Ted
• Remember your audience; both present and future

Shouldn't he ban himself?

[digitalscream]

4 minutes ago, Poagie said:

Well you made the point. They want the best of everything. Something that costs a lot should work right? Well LTT didn't even give it a chance to work correctly. They used it improperly and told everyone it doesn't work. So those people who would consider that block at what ever price now won't. All because a channel and company that is branding themselves as accurate, as ethical and against internal testing corporations use because of transparency issues. Just potentially broke all their own philosophies and could ruin a small company... And seemingly stole from them. Though how those agreements work on paper I have no clue

Ultimately, there are two things that leave a sour taste in the mouth over this.

1. A very basic principle of business is that if you can't afford to do something properly, you don't do it; anything else just hurts your own business and your partners. For somebody who's always lecturing everyone on how business works, it's quite amazing that Linus doesn't understand (or doesn't care about) this one basic point. 
2. He would rather complain about how he can't afford $500 to re-shoot the video properly five minutes after bragging about how he has spent millions on Labs (and yes - he always frames money conversations from $50 webcams to $millions buildings as though he's personally spending the money, so he's put himself directly in the frame there).

Like many, I've been an avid watcher of LTT for years and I've spent $plenty (including crazy international shipping prices) in the store, but the more I think back over recent videos and WAN shows, the less comfortable I'm getting with Linus' hubris running the show.

 

Moving on, though...while the numbers he chucks around seem big to the consumer, they're really not in the business world. At most, LMG is a small-ish company in terms of size, and a medium company in terms of turnover. I've worked for plenty of similarly-sized companies in the last three decades or so, and in every single one the CEO was easy enough to get hold of for anybody in the business unless the company was deliberately structured to insulate said CEO from criticism. I can't believe that there's never been a concern raised directly with him over the quality of videos and quantity of corrections that need to be done, and if he's genuinely never heard it from someone then massive questions need to be asked about the viability of the company structure, because just swapping out the CEO won't fix anything at all (especially since he's still beholden to the outgoing CEO).

[SamuthNBS]

2 minutes ago, SethNW said:

Ban me if you will, I am not coming back.

Very weird thing to say on your first ever post.