Gamers Nexus alleges LMG has insufficient ethics and integrity

[Cantisque]

The big errors and questionable lab results have been noticeable for a long time.

 

It seems to me they are having to make a choice between meeting a video production quota and sacrificing quality of reviews. Each time you have the presenter make such basic mistakes reflects badly on your company as a whole, regardless of whether a correction is made in post production or in a pinned message.

 

Also Linus's response felt completely unhinged at what was harshly worded, but still totally valid criticism. People who sub to tech youtubers are very likely going to be subbed to both, GN has nothing to gain from this and may very well lose subscribers if anything. This should be enough to tell you they are speaking out of a place of genuine concern.

[Tollermine]

5 hours ago, Haxaclappa said:

GN'S response: 

 

Today's video from GN was particularly intriguing. I had read Linus's comment yesterday and was struck by the comment about the pitchforks. It underscores that these concerns have been shared by many in the community for some time.

 

If the issues GN highlighted were truly insignificant, the community's reaction, especially here, would be different. After reading Linus's statement, I felt even more strongly that he is losing touch with his followers. He appears to be isolated in his ivory tower, failing to grasp the community's dissatisfaction.

 

After today's GN video, I must admit that I overlooked many points in Linus's post, and their significance only became clear to me now. It's unfortunate that Linus felt the need to personalize the issue and portray LTT as the victim. It's also disheartening that the majority of erroneous data was largely dismissed by Linus, with excuses about striving for improvement.

Especially after GN highlighted so many glaring errors in the data, this would have been the perfect opportunity to acknowledge the issues and commit to a concrete plan for immediate improvement. I don't expect LTT to present a detailed plan instantly; that's unrealistic in such a short timeframe. I hope they were already addressing these concerns behind the scenes, but a clear signal to the community that they were heard would have been appreciated.

 

The situation with Billet Labs is more concerning. However, I wouldn't immediately accuse anyone of lying until someone, perhaps Linus, clarifies who authored specific emails. It's common in larger companies for emails to be sent on behalf of the CEO by other staff members. We can't be certain about when and what information Linus personally received.

 

Regardless, this situation is either an attempt to manipulate the community's perception or a clear failure of management.

 

I'm not entirely surprised, but I am disappointed by how many people are criticizing GN's approach and would prefer a private resolution behind closed doors. As Linus often emphasizes, companies are not your friends. This applies to both LTT and GN. Primarily, GN criticized LTT as a company. It was Linus and a significant portion of the community who shifted it to a personal level. I believe media outlets should gather facts and present them. It's problematic to give companies a heads-up to clean house before any publication. As Linus himself stated, a company's true nature is revealed during crises.

 

I've been watching LTT since its inception and Linus since his NCIX days. It's disheartening to see what LTT has become. I don't think Linus is inherently bad, but as I mentioned in my initial post, I fear his position and surroundings may have made him somewhat detached. I hope someone grounded, like @Slick, will have a heart-to-heart with @LinusTech about this and discuss why he shouldn't respond to community criticism with disappointment and take everything so personally.

 

LTT has an incredible team, but it seems they no longer have the structure to ensure that the team can perform at its best. I genuinely hope the new CEO will bring about positive internal changes.

 

This is the first time I'm seriously considering canceling my OG Floatplane subscription. I hope a team at LTT seriously addresses these concerns and is empowered to implement necessary changes.

 

[Retire]

1 minute ago, WolframaticAlpha said:

Imagine what they'd do once the discover targetted status updates and PMs.

I Might be a troll, but i am a fair troll, that would be crossing the lines

[whatsEJstandfor]

It's been pointed out already, but Steve teed you up, PR-wise, and you could have just admitted to mistakes, apologized, and laid out steps LMG would take to mitigate errors in the future. Somehow, you whiffed it so hard, your bat slipped out of your hands and hit a toddler in the stands.

 

The company you're building, with LTT Labs, can't afford to have these kinds of credibility issues. You can't both be known for "lol we just like being janky tech guys" and "we want to be the go-to for accurate tech information". This criticism should have been extremely welcome and eye-opening. Instead, you took it as a personal attack.

 

You can still turn it around, but you're now in a far deeper hole than you started. I've been watching religiously since the NCIX days and I've been a pretty avid defender during the various controversies, but I've got nothing for this one. I'm not mad; I'm just disappointed. And, if I'm honest, I actually am a little mad.

[Forbidden Wafer]

1 minute ago, Taf the Ghost said:

I like Linus and LMG (note how long I've been here). But don't defend catastrophic personal and systematic incompetence. 

Yup, and why wasn't it marked with a sticker with "loaned sample/not for sale. To be returned until year/month"? The inventory guys should have marked it upon receival to prevent this. 

 

This is the kind of change that prevents this from happening again. 

[Abraxaz]

27 minutes ago, ben025 said:

I wasnt talking about Steve, he has done the right thing. the LMG employee that was in charge of the prototype is at wrong and there is no way that he didnt tell Linus about that.

you need to stop thinking that Linus is a saint that cant to wrong.

You have to realise how many people Linus has working under him.

 

Do you tell the CEO every time you fuck up?

[WolframaticAlpha]

1 minute ago, aka473 said:

Which basically means he did not have to do anything. Since contacting LMG would have had an impact on the story, as we can see from their actions post video release

Jeez. Linus isn't a mafia gangster who'd organize a hit in Steve(yet). They should've asked them for comment. It is a standard practice and yes, target parties often pre empt announcement, but that is just a part and parcel of when you run such stories.

[Wintyr]

11 minutes ago, SimonShipperd said:

More than likely that was an emotional response. I doubt they aren’t either gonna make a video or address it on the WAN show. They know the space to good for that.

mmmhmmm sure when was the last time you saw linus choose not to MALD over a simple comment let a lot an attack on his brand that is actualy costing him a lot of money and more every few min people drop from floatplane

[VascoM]

2 minutes ago, Leksi T said:

AFAIK, the transfer of responsibilities isn't even done yet, which makes it even more of a mess.

 

2 minutes ago, Leksi T said:

AFAIK, the transfer of responsibilities isn't even done yet, which makes it even more of a mess.

Actually it’s said the transfer was on July 1st …so I really don’t get it .

[Drazil100]

3 minutes ago, SmittyShmee said:

Heh, new CEO in for a helluva first test of his leadership.

I would be interested in a response from the new CEO (written and PR filtered would be fine). Linus has always been the face of the company but I think part of the transition NEEDS to be that the CEO gets a voice when stuff like this happens. I want to hear it from someone other than Linus that things are going to get better.

[Monolithic]

Just to add my two cents here, I was willing to overlook everything in GN's first video out of loyalty and love for LTT......but with the proof of intentional lying to the communities face about a deal struck with Billet Labs, that is something I cannot overlook. 

 

If he is willing to lie to our faces about this, what else has he lied about? How much bias has there been that we are unaware of? Everything he has ever done is now under scrutiny in my eyes.

 

I think Linus needs to address this in an official setting and not just here, not everyone subbed on YT visits this forum....there needs to be a dedicated video of this, and if Linus has proof of a deal struck with Billet PRIOR to GN's video, it needs to be included as much as privacy allows.

[jooroth18]

2 minutes ago, PandaSasquatch said:

Yes, Linus' response was not 100% all encompassing of the entire video, but that does not mean he twisted the truth in his forum response.

Linus said he agreed with billet for compensation, when billet didnt even reply to his email asking for an agreement yet at the time of posting. Linus sent the email asking for agreement after the post was made also.

[f222]

Just now, Abraxaz said:

You have to realise how many people Linus has working under him.

 

Do you tell the CEO every time you fuck up?

I personally don't but I tell my superior who will tell the ceo if the f*ck up is really important 

[aka473]

10 minutes ago, PandaSasquatch said:

The word lie has a specific meaning, I suggest you look it up.

 

Linus did not implicitly or explicitly make the claim you are suggesting either.

Yes he did. Learn to understand tense. I am just going to quote my previous posts. Or at least I would, but one of them seems to have been deleted 

 

Quote

In Linus' original statement he said that "AND the fact that while we haven't sent payment yet, we have already agreed to compensate Billet Labs for the cost of their prototype". This statement has a connotation that the said act, being them agreeing to pay Billet Labs and Billet Labs agreeing to that form of compensation, was already done and agreed to by both parties, and that it was completed BEFORE the release of the GN video. However, we know from Billet Lab's own communications that this is patently UNTRUE. Billet Labs was never contacted by LMG about compensation until the GN video was published, and even then Billet Labs THEMSELVES hadn't responded to the email or agreed to the terms set out by LMG in that email. That original statement is at best a misrepresentation of the truth of the situation, and a down right Lie and lie by omission at worst.

Quote

Again, that is you taking a very kind, some might even say friendly, interpretation of the words that were written, but you don't use those words like that unless you are referring to all parties involved. If they meant LMG, then they should have said that explicitly, and even if they did say that, it would have still been a lie, because Billet Labs never agreed to any form of compensation offered by LMG at the time of the post. If Linus wanted to say what you are saying he meant, then he should have said something to the affect of "We at LMG are prepared to offer monetary compensation or any other kind of compensation that may be requested from Billet Labs." But Linus is the one who left ambiguity to what he meant, and the most common reading of that would be to assign we to refer to both LMG and Billet Labs.

 

[Drazil100]

2 minutes ago, VascoM said:

 

Actually it’s said the transfer was on July 1st …so I really don’t get it .

I think what they meant is that he is officially hired as CEO, but he is still getting up to speed on everything he is responsible for. Linus still has to spend time with him and fill him in on all of their processes etc.

[Kisai]

7 minutes ago, WolframaticAlpha said:

Jeez, I think invision might crash with the number of posts people. Calm down. 

Yeah, it's already done that a few times.

 

Here's the thing that I find really really suspicious. I can reply to this thread, and by the time I finish a two sentence reply. TWO MORE PAGES appear. I've never seen this particular forum, let alone a single thread this busy before.

 

The last reply in the thread, 200 posts were made by the time I finished writing it. At this point if you write more than two sentences in this thread, nobody can read it because the thread is growing faster than people's ability to read it.

[JoshuaScholar]

2 minutes ago, whatsEJstandfor said:

It's been pointed out already, but Steve teed you up, PR-wise, and you could have just admitted to mistakes, apologized, and laid out steps LMG would take to mitigate errors in the future. Somehow, you whiffed it so hard, your bat slipped out of your hands and hit a toddler in the stands.

 

The company you're building, with LTT Labs, can't afford to have these kinds of credibility issues. You can't both be known for "lol we just like being janky tech guys" and "we want to be the go-to for accurate tech information". This criticism should have been extremely welcome and eye-opening. Instead, you took it as a personal attack.

 

You can still turn it around, but you're now in a far deeper hole than you started. I've been watching religiously since the NCIX days and I've been a pretty avid defender during the various controversies, but I've got nothing for this one. I'm not mad; I'm just disappointed. And, if I'm honest, I actually am a little mad.

To be fair, that toddler had a MEAN look!  Linus thought the audience would be into it!

[FRESHYLEMON]

3 minutes ago, PandaSasquatch said:

The word lie has a specific meaning, I suggest you look it up.

 

Linus did not implicitly or explicitly make the claim you are suggesting either.

Uhh... I highlighted the part where he said that. The other OP says Linus lied... because he did. He claims that they already agreed to compensate Billet Labs in the post, but GN's second video + Billet Lab's reddit post confirm that they did NOT already "agree" to anything. GN/BL exposed the fact that LMG contacted Billet about 30 minutes after the 1st video came out. But I guess maybe they contacted Billet a minute before making the comment, so in your eyes that's not a lie on technicality lmfao.

 

 

[jitteryzeitgeist]

1 minute ago, Cantisque said:

The big errors and questionable lab results have been noticeable for a long time.

 

It seems to me they are having to make a choice between meeting a video production quota and sacrificing quality of reviews. Each time you have the presenter make such basic mistakes reflects badly on your company as a whole, regardless of whether a correction is made in post production or in a pinned message.

 

Also Linus's response felt completely unhinged at what was harshly worded, but still totally valid criticism. People who sub to tech youtubers are very likely going to be subbed to both, GN has nothing to gain from this and may very well lose subscribers if anything. This should be enough to tell you they are speaking out of a place of genuine concern.

The biggest among the community can set the tone, and the many other tech reviewers who strive for accuracy and clout are going to start to stink due to association with LTT.

 

Unbox Therapy is pure entertainment, but they also don't pretend to be anything but pure entertainment.  No charts, no graphs, no real percentages, just stream-of-consciousness.  Nothing tangible, nothing really concrete.  If LTT wants to be entertainment, then they should've focused more on production and scripts and less on a lab they aren't even going to use correctly.

[Abraxaz]

1 minute ago, f222 said:

I personally don't but I tell my superior who will tell the ceo if the f*ck up is really important 

Well good you.

I've worked with lots of people without the same morals of you, that hide their fuck ups until the shit hits the fan

[WolframaticAlpha]

Just now, Kisai said:

The last reply in the thread, 200 posts

Lol, that is indeed true. People are using this shit like it's discord. Maybe go the LTT server and vent there.

 

Or is that on fire too already

[LinuxGeek18]

On 8/14/2023 at 11:02 AM, Levent said:

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

  Reveal hidden contents

 

I spy a Watch Wes Work video in your recommendations. That's pretty cool.

[PandaSquawk]

Just now, jitteryzeitgeist said:

When he said they had an agreed-upon deal with Billet for compensation, that's textbook twisting the truth.

You mean this?

Quote

AND the fact that while we haven't sent payment yet, we have already agreed to compensate Billet Labs for the cost of their prototype).

Him saying LMG aka "we," greed to compensate Billet Labs, does not imply that Billet Labs had agreed to it, only that they were already willing and planning to make it right. In case this needs clarification, Billet Labs had, in-fact,  already given LMG an estimate of the value of the block.

[Leksi T]

Just now, VascoM said:

 

Actually it’s said the transfer was on July 1st …so I really don’t get it .

 

Just now, Drazil100 said:

I would be interested in a response from the new CEO (written and PR filtered would be fine). Linus has always been the face of the company but I think part of the transition NEEDS to be that the CEO gets a voice when stuff like this happens. I want to hear it from someone other than Linus that things are going to get better.

Linus has hinted that while the CEO job, on paper at least, is Taran's, it has been harder in reality for Linus to hand over all his responsibilities, and considering we've yet to hear from the new CEO, and considering all that's going on, it's easy to assume LMG's C-level is in a kind of limbo right now.

[XtraLarge]

Many of us watch & enjoy both channels, even after all of this. While the criticisms are valid, I actually like LTT referencing "growing pains" -- Linus & his team aren't perfect, but it doesn't appear like they have bad intentions. Miscommunication & oversight is certainly a thing we observe all the time, from every angle. Regarding the part with Jake favoring Asus, I can see what he meant -- he was basically saying Asus "in general" with their large market share, consists of high(er) quality components compared to a knockoff brand. Saying it is good simply for being Asus may sound a bit "unprofessional", but certainly a forgivable (in the moment) statement. I am simply just looking @ all this on a large scale, from all sides. A lot of the criticism regarding Linus himself could be narrowed down to being so overwhelmed with business, not having the time to think of all the context & every outcome -- for example: "not spending an extra $500" in regards to the water block testing -- I think what he really meant is that he doesn't know how to resolve the situation with the current flow, so he made a quick statement that doesn't actually pertain to the situation or his train of thought -- maybe he doesn't even realize how overwhelmed everyone really is? It is only logical Linus misspoken in the moment. I am sure he hasn't even had time to arrange his thoughts. Give it time.  To the people spreading hateful comments: such reaction(s) = blowing things way out of proportion! It's a tech channel, not a government running a country.