Gamers Nexus alleges LMG has insufficient ethics and integrity

[sjwatt]

26 minutes ago, PressleyPress said:

It obviously doesn’t, it’s a symptom of the pace Linus has set for their releases. That pace is necessary to remain relevant on YouTube, relevancy on YouTube is necessary to affect change in the tech products industry. To make money. In this case: the ends justify the mistakes.

 

There, fixed it for ya. The YouTube algorithm pushes channels to a crazy pace. I can only imagine the pace required to maintain a channel of 5M subs, and pay for 100 salaries.

Who cares how much money he makes? If he can contribute to keeping nvidia from ripping everyone off every release then maybe it’s worth it. Linus isn’t the problem here, or the enemy. The system that only rewards fast-content and only allows popular people an opinion in the market is to blame for the not-so-great choices that have been made at LMG. We either accept the style he has put forth, with all its flaws, or we abandon it and hope someone else comes along with as much reach and influence to help defend us from a polyopoly of mega corporations that don’t care one iota about your measly bank account or your dignity as a consumer.

[wanshow]

39 minutes ago, wanshow said:

I don't really expect LMG's content to change, if they are chasing what they perceive to be the algorithm's preference (and mass appeal), growth, higher frequency, lower quality, etc. is probably what you will get.

On the note of accuracy, I am curious... To those who have been around a while, what would it take to be convinced there is an actual improvement, rather than the words of commitment? Surely the N'th "sorry + we will do better", is somewhat meaningless after a few repetitions, and you'd want to see the results speak for themselves?

 

I get how how labs can help with better precision and accuracy with higher end equipment and that there are growing pains. To me, it like the equipment will have to pay for itself, the most obvious strategy would involve quantity of data, scaling up published videos and articles, etc. It's not clear to me that there's a business direction for converting accuracy to revenue. Maybe not applicable, but having worked in automation, it's tricky when you haven't even refined the process manually, especially with so many configurations, data validation, etc... 

[trustmebro16]

1 minute ago, GarmsMarius said:

Auctioning off a working prototype of another company is a massive oversight. Saying that you just need to tighten documentation seems like your just brushing off the severity of the issue. Either procedures were broken or they are not robust enough to begin with. While I understand people make mistakes. A mistake like this would seem to require a cascade of failures to happen in an sizable organization as LMG. I don't think just tightening documentation is going to be the answer that people are looking for.

Or maybe documentation refers to the exact procedures that need to be tightened up to address.this once in 10.years problem and you're reading too into it?

[suits]

32 minutes ago, Zodiark1593 said:

There is a bit of a harsh truth to face, that was told by a lawyer (source: Steve Letho). There does not have to be actual impropriety, to have the appearance of impropriety, and the appearance matters a lot, potentially more so than the facts. 
 

I don’t have a horse in this particular stretch of race, but figured I’d put in an FYI. 

In America, which Linus is not in, yet he follows all the rules, he tells us he is invested in framework in every laptop video.

 

I have no horse in the race either. LMG done messed up a bunch. But GN and these comments are so self-righteous about the framework thing, to which I respond 3 fold and add a 4th, they always disclose it. 

[Pyroteq]

I agree with many of the points Steve makes, I've noticed A LOT of corrections constantly in videos that should have prompted a re-take or at the very least an audible correction instead of just a flash of text on screen you barely have enough time to read.

 

The rush to get content out the door, eg, the mouse skates thing is insane. If you notice a product isn't performing as expected that should have prompted an immediate stop to shooting and then contact the company. Then they could have just mentioned they needed to contact the company in the video regarding the film and point out the protective film was nearly impossible to see and they need to package the product better and continue on with the shoot.

 

I've also been really frustrated trying to watch their DIY projects that are constantly unfinished, unprepared and rushed. As a DIY guy myself I love the concept of the videos but watching a bunch of amateurs try to daisy chain a dozen fittings together because they didn't buy the right stuff before the shoot is a massive waste of LMG's time as well as a waste of the audiences time. Sure, it's good to show issues you had to solve along the way, but forgetting the right stuff from the hardware store isn't entertaining for many people I'd suspect.

 

With all that said, Steve seems VERY biased against LMG for some weird reason and it felt like a very personal attack (Again, cutting in WAN show clips). I feel like Steve is trying way too hard to be some arbiter of truth, except him reporting on a competing tech channel isn't really "balanced" journalism to begin with as there's no real way to be unbiased in this situation.

 

LMG is a competitor to them and Steve is talking about ethics while he spends 45 minutes bashing another tech YouTube channel. I don't think "yeah but they're a bigger company" is a valid excuse for this. While there is merit to many of the claims, that's besides the point. Are we now expecting all tech channels to start blasting each other publicly every time a mistake is made from now on? Doesn't seem like a healthy way to go about things but if every other outlet followed GN's lead that would be the end result. Don't forget Gamers Nexus isn't just competing for views, but they also have their own online store that sells screwdrivers and mouse pads, etc, which competes directly with LMG's store.

 

It's not the first time Steve did this. It was the same with the backpack situation which was blown way out of proportion and Steve then proceeded to include the controversy in a video when he very easily could have called Linus for comment and cleared things up without stirring up more drama.

 

The point about sponserships makes zero sense. ALL significant tech channels have sponsors including GN and LMG's track record has been very transparent. Any time a laptop comes up Linus disclaims his investment which he even ran by the community first. The investment BTW was for a sustainable laptop that results in less waste. I'd say those are much more important things to strive for then a maybe biased tech review... Just sayin...

 

So while I think Steve did bring up good criticism it also comes across as very unprofessional at the same time and feels more like YouTube drama than actual journalism when you don't reach out for comment or try to clarify things when you very easily could.

[DeerDK]

14 minutes ago, Kenro said:

Like who cares about GN journalistic practices. Just admit your wrongdoings, fix them and promise to do better. No one cares about what GN did wrong. Just fix the stuff that you legitimately screwed up, own up to it and move on. Community would love you way more for that.

 

Everyone makes mistakes, no one likes people who refuse to admit them and then try to attack someone else for deflection purposes. No one ever won or got any better as result of that.

GN clearly want to be viewed as serious journalism, if you look at their deep dive stories. So yes, let us uphold them to the integrity they talk so much about. 

Imo they have taken the wrong pages from the book in terms of a shockumentary effects, the Artesian Builds video is a good example, which I have just chalked down to being a cultural thing. 

But, Steve talks a lot of integrity. So yes, journalism 101 should be on his chart 

[ZombieMan762]

1 hour ago, VeryScary said:

So like I said, he didn't review the laptop? 

 

Also, you point out a video where the product is given a favorable review. Alex literally called it a great laptop.

 

He is still the director and producer who has MORE influence than a person reading a script.

 

Giving a positive review of a competing product does nothing to negate a conflict of interest. 

[iameatingjam]

10 hours ago, Cavalry Canuck said:

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.

That reminds me of a video GN did on gaming chairs that said something about them not having a research and development division. I'm thinking like... do your tshirts and modmats have a research and development division? Idk perhaps they do. But its a lot easier to print a picture on an already made tshirt than to develop... most of things Steve reviews, including chairs. Though Tbf, I suppose Steve's true product is the entertainment and those items are more, "buy this overpriced thing to support the show, which you get for free!"

But anyway on this particular issue, I agree with everything Steve said completely. And I believe the things he said, he said for the right reasons. Ie, not for clicks, or to be malicious.

I watched a Tech Quickie video the other day I think it was and I could not believe how many asterisk corrections they fit into a 2 and half minute video. Come on guys. You can do better. And Linus can learn how to accept criticism without deflecting. His responses come off as somewhat... immature to me. But who am I? Just another nobody.
 

[trustmebro16]

4 minutes ago, Blademaster91 said:

Where exactly did he apologize? His statement is a usual company very corporate sounding response, deflect the blame, and just say they're listening even though LMG has been ignoring their viewers for a while now.

The amount of copium the angry LTT fans are on is just amazing, if only the raging fans making accounts to defend Linus would realize if LMG would listen to the constructive criticism pointed out by GN and the things people have said for years now, if LMG would improve the quality of videos and make sure the data in videos is accurate, then LMG would be doing even better as a source that could be trusted with benchmarks and reviews.

Does LMG need to put out a techquickie on how to use ctrl f

 

Also,.it sounds like even if he did apologies, the apologies are too corporate. Nice goalpost moving

 

Wat do you want him to do to.make it less corporate? Bake you a cake? 

 

You realise he owes you no apology right. You are not a victim in all this.

 

And it's fine calling people who have differing opinions fanboys. Doesnt exactly strengthen your argument tho

[AlienMonopoly]

1st. Thank you Linus for your videos. I find them informative and entertaining “it’s electric” lol rotflmao.

 

2nd. You’re human right? ( AI say what? ) People make mistakes. Everyone makes mistakes. It happens. Hell, governments make mistakes, I don't see them posting anything close to this.

 

3rd. Are people only going on what LMG says about a product? Or are they using you as a source of informative information to consider?

 

Im not your demographic. I buy what I can afford. I use what is easiest. I have an iPhone lol. I have a 2005 Mac mini as my media center for my living room.

 

I watch you guys ( and gals ( I call everyone guys ) ) because you’re all funny, passionate, geeky group of people. My people. Not because I’m looking for a cool water cooler for my rig ( macs are cooled… right? ).

 

I hope you don't read this. Or any of the other comments on here. Just keep doing what you’re doing. 

[PulseTheDubdog]

6 hours ago, LinusTech said:

There won't be a big WAN Show segment about this or anything. Most of what I have to say, I've already said, and I've done so privately.

To Steve, I expressed my disappointment that he didn't go through proper journalistic practices in creating this piece. He has my email and number (along with numerous other members of our team) and could have asked me for context that may have proven to be valuable (like the fact that we didn't 'sell' the monoblock, but rather auctioned it for charity due to a miscommunication... 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). There are other issues, but I've told him that I won't be drawn into a public sniping match over this and that I'll be continuing to move forward in good faith as part of 'Team Media'. When/if he's ready to do so again I'll be ready.

To my team (and my CEO's team, but realistically I was at the helm for all of these errors, so I need to own it), I stressed the importance of diligence in our work because there are so many eyes on us. We are going through some growing pains - we've been very public about them in the interest of transparency - and it's clear we have some work to do on internal processes and communication. We have already been doing a lot of work internally to clean up our processes, but these things take time. Rome wasn't built in a day, but that's no excuse for sloppiness.

Now, for my community, all I can say is the same things I always say. We know that we're not perfect. We wear our imperfection on our sleeves in the interest of ensuring that we stay accountable to you. But it's sad and unfortunate when this transparency gets warped into a bad thing. The Labs team is hard at work hard creating processes and tools to generate data that will benefit all consumers - a work in progress that is very much not done and that we've communicated needs to be treated as such. Do we have notes under some videos? Yes. Is it because we are striving for transparency/improvement? Yeah... What we're doing hasn't been in many years, if ever.. and we would make a much larger correction if the circumstances merited it. Listing the wrong amount of cache on a table for a CPU review is sloppy, but given that our conclusions are drawn based on our testing, not the spec sheet, it doesn't materially change the recommendation. That doesn't mean these things don't matter. We've set KPIs for our writing/labs team around accuracy, and we are continually installing new checks and balances to ensure that things continue to get better. If you haven't seen the improvement, frankly I wonder if you're really looking for it... The thoroughness that we managed on our last handful of GPU videos is getting really incredible given the limited time we have for these embargoes. I'm REALLY excited about what the future will hold.

 

With all of that said, I still disagree that the Billet Labs video (not the situation with the return, which I've already addressed above) is an 'accuracy' issue. It's more like I just read the room wrong. We COULD have re-tested it with perfect accuracy, but to do so PROPERLY - accounting for which cases it could be installed in (none) and which radiators it would be plumbed with (again... mystery) would have been impossible... and also didn't affect the conclusion of the video... OR SO I THOUGHT...

 

I wanted to evaluate it as a product, and as a product, IF it could manage to compete with the temperatures of the highest end blocks on the planet, it still wouldn't make sense to buy... so from my point of view, re-testing it and finding out that yes, it did in fact run cooler made no difference to the conclusion, so it didn't really make a difference.

 

Adam and I were talking about this today. He advocated for re-testing it regardless of how non-viable it was as a product at the time and I think he expressed really well today why it mattered. It was like making a video about a supercar. It doesn't mater if no one watching will buy it. They just wanna see it rip.  I missed that, but it wasn't because I didn't care about the consumer.. it was because I was so focused on how this product impacted a potential buyer. Either way, clearly my bad, but my intention was never to harm Billet Labs. I specifically called out their incredible machining skills because I wanted to see them create something with a viable market for it and was hoping others would appreciate the fineness of the craftsmanship even if the product was impractical. I still hope they move forward building something else because they obviously have talent and I've watched countless niche water cooling vendors come and go. It's an astonishingly unforgiving market.

 

Either way, I'm sorry I got the community's priorities mixed-up on this one, and that we didn't show the Billet in the best light. Our intention wasn't to hurt anyone. We wanted no one to buy it (because it's an egregious waste of money no matter what temps it runs at) and we wanted Billet to make something marketable (so they can, y'know, eat).

 

With all of this in mind, it saddens me how quickly the pitchforks were raised over this. It also comes across a touch hypocritical when some basic due diligence could have helped clarify much of it. I have a LONG history of meeting issues head on and I've never been afraid to answer questions, which lands me in hot water regularly, but helps keep me in tune with my peers and with the community. The only reason I can think of not to ask me is because my honest response might be inconvenient. 

 

We can test that... with this post. Will the "It was a mistake (a bad one, but a mistake) and they're taking care of it" reality manage to have the same reach? Let's see if anyone actually wants to know what happened. I hope so, but it's been disheartening seeing how many people were willing to jump on us here. Believe it or not, I'm a real person and so is the rest of my team. We are trying our best, and if what we were doing was easy, everyone would do it. Today sucks.

 

Thanks for reading this.

Trust me bro doesn't mean anything anymore. 

[hysteresis]

11 minutes ago, trustmebro16 said:

Ain't nobody going to rip off an unproven niche product for a 2021 product line targeting a sub segment

Esp not after all this heat

Stop reaching

They might not rip it off directly, but a bigger company that gets a hold of it could have the resources to refine the design + adapt it to a newer card model and release it faster than billet would have been able to. 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

With the number of post-release edits and corrects made in the comments for LTT videos... you would've thought it was a live service. 

 

Oh wait... it feels exactly like that. Speaking of the store, have you heard of LTT Sto... <static>

 

[Blademaster91]

8 minutes ago, suits said:

He doesn't write the scripts, he just reads them. Why does it matter that he reads them...

I don't care if he reads the script or not, as for disclosure its probably legally fine if he discloses his investment with Framework, but I'm not a lawyer. Although Linus reviewing laptops at all does raise a concern of reviewer integrity, I would rather see someone else without a bias towards Framework review laptops.

[OneGuy83]

The GN video was some top level investigative journalism.  I think it would have been fair to not post the video and let LTT have private access to the work and have an opportunity to make a collaborative response. That said, I watched GN's Video 3 times to really absorb the content and truly comprehend everything that was said and there's a lot of solid details and what was probably hundreds of hours digging through hundreds of LTT videos in order to gather all the details and information for GN to post this video. LTT Cast the first stone. While it was unintentionally cast by it being from a private video on a personal youtube channel it was said publicly and that is where this came from. I truly hope that LMG and LTT take this opportunity to go through this video and use it for what it truly is a fair and extremely critical scrutiny of the LMG processes and their team that is burnt out and cannot maintain the standards that LMG built the foundation on. I truly hope that after LMG is done licking their wounds and feeling upset and frustrated from this complete teardown of their process use it to rebuild back stronger and better than ever. 

 

The GN video is well done and should be leveraged by LMG. Companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for critical reviews like the one provided here for free and publicly. Either way, No news is bad news and both GN and LMG will benefit hugely from this massive viewership boon from this!.

 

 

[VeryScary]

2 minutes ago, ZombieMan762 said:

 

He is still the director and producer who has MORE influence than a person reading a script.

 

Giving a positive review of a competing product does nothing to negate a conflict of interest. 

1. Do you not know what a director or producer is?

 

2. Every video has Linus as the Director and Producer 

 

3. The person isn't "reading a script". The point of the short circuit videos is to give your first impressions. A script would defeat the purpose. 

 

4. It isn't a conflict of interest for the employee that has nothing to do with framework to give their opinion of a laptop. 

 

But keep reaching 

[Elinzar]

6 hours ago, LinusTech said:

..."He has my email and number (along with numerous other members of our team) and could have asked me for context that may have proven to be valuable"... 

Steve had it yes, like you had Billet labs number as well, and Pwned number for the mouse testing..., but in your best journalistic practices you didnt do it to validate your testing so why Steve should when it affects you?, but honestly that is not really the important bit

Neither is the inacurancies in LTT videos, i personaly dont care about that in your videos because LTT never was a reliable source, i watch it for entertainment, altough that there are people like me with this stance should make you worry about spending millions in making a lab for us to not really give a dam about the testing as we wont even trust it, what will be the point? (fr why would i trust a review that says this mouse is X thing when they cant even make sure to take the protective film out of the skates?

because credibility in testing is built over YEARS of perfecting the craft, something that both Steves have done

(another tangent, Short Circuit "might" be called an unboxing channel, but the moment they say "its backed up by labs testing" it is a review plan and simple)

But the worst part is just how Dirty you did to Billet labs intentional or not, you as an owner of a company that is involved in manufacturing and that you personally is involved lots into the creative process should know more than ANYONE how bad was to lose THEIR ONLY ONE PROTOTYPE BY SELLING IT OFF

its value for Billet labs is inmessurable as a company, is the culmination of years of hard work that cant just be replaced with money, what if your precious Screwdriver prototype that you took years to develop was lost like this, and the backpack, and how would you feel if both where your ONLY PRODUCT

Not only the poor review of the product that trashed their reputation as well, only monetary compensation will not be enough for them to put them back in the map up until now that everyone knows how dirty did to them, but if nobody blew the whistle we all would have been none the wiser to their inevitable dissapearance from the market, as well you know without a product, they cant eat or so you say

what it also kinda pisses me off is how you when you where a small fish at 1 million subs and Nvidia wanted to mess with all the media making treats you all unionised against the big fish to call them out

now that you are a big fish you are doing basically the same to a small company and you dont even want to look at the mess you created, you will, as you say too, pull an XQC and plug your ears and chant LALALALALA until this controversy pass just like with the Trust me bro controversy

lets all get mad when big corpo Nvidia try to screw the small media, But Spare Big Corpo LTT when it screws over a small startup because after 10+ years of begin in the game they still havent figured out how to have actual reliable comunications with the companies they work with, how many more years of learning you need? 20?

its my honest impression of what is going on with LTT and im saying this seriously pissed, i probably not be right 100% nor i know the entire situation, but im also not getting paid to write this so... yeah thats all i have to say, feel free to correct me but most likely wont be reading anything as i just made this account to give my take on all of this, i hope Linus actually listens for once, makes LTT have a pause and invest on solving their issues

[Doc_MorinGaming]

6 hours ago, LinusTech said:

There won't be a big WAN Show segment about this or anything. Most of what I have to say, I've already said, and I've done so privately.

To Steve, I expressed my disappointment that he didn't go through proper journalistic practices in creating this piece. He has my email and number (along with numerous other members of our team) and could have asked me for context that may have proven to be valuable (like the fact that we didn't 'sell' the monoblock, but rather auctioned it for charity due to a miscommunication... 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). There are other issues, but I've told him that I won't be drawn into a public sniping match over this and that I'll be continuing to move forward in good faith as part of 'Team Media'. When/if he's ready to do so again I'll be ready.

To my team (and my CEO's team, but realistically I was at the helm for all of these errors, so I need to own it), I stressed the importance of diligence in our work because there are so many eyes on us. We are going through some growing pains - we've been very public about them in the interest of transparency - and it's clear we have some work to do on internal processes and communication. We have already been doing a lot of work internally to clean up our processes, but these things take time. Rome wasn't built in a day, but that's no excuse for sloppiness.

Now, for my community, all I can say is the same things I always say. We know that we're not perfect. We wear our imperfection on our sleeves in the interest of ensuring that we stay accountable to you. But it's sad and unfortunate when this transparency gets warped into a bad thing. The Labs team is hard at work hard creating processes and tools to generate data that will benefit all consumers - a work in progress that is very much not done and that we've communicated needs to be treated as such. Do we have notes under some videos? Yes. Is it because we are striving for transparency/improvement? Yeah... What we're doing hasn't been in many years, if ever.. and we would make a much larger correction if the circumstances merited it. Listing the wrong amount of cache on a table for a CPU review is sloppy, but given that our conclusions are drawn based on our testing, not the spec sheet, it doesn't materially change the recommendation. That doesn't mean these things don't matter. We've set KPIs for our writing/labs team around accuracy, and we are continually installing new checks and balances to ensure that things continue to get better. If you haven't seen the improvement, frankly I wonder if you're really looking for it... The thoroughness that we managed on our last handful of GPU videos is getting really incredible given the limited time we have for these embargoes. I'm REALLY excited about what the future will hold.

 

With all of that said, I still disagree that the Billet Labs video (not the situation with the return, which I've already addressed above) is an 'accuracy' issue. It's more like I just read the room wrong. We COULD have re-tested it with perfect accuracy, but to do so PROPERLY - accounting for which cases it could be installed in (none) and which radiators it would be plumbed with (again... mystery) would have been impossible... and also didn't affect the conclusion of the video... OR SO I THOUGHT...

 

I wanted to evaluate it as a product, and as a product, IF it could manage to compete with the temperatures of the highest end blocks on the planet, it still wouldn't make sense to buy... so from my point of view, re-testing it and finding out that yes, it did in fact run cooler made no difference to the conclusion, so it didn't really make a difference.

 

Adam and I were talking about this today. He advocated for re-testing it regardless of how non-viable it was as a product at the time and I think he expressed really well today why it mattered. It was like making a video about a supercar. It doesn't mater if no one watching will buy it. They just wanna see it rip.  I missed that, but it wasn't because I didn't care about the consumer.. it was because I was so focused on how this product impacted a potential buyer. Either way, clearly my bad, but my intention was never to harm Billet Labs. I specifically called out their incredible machining skills because I wanted to see them create something with a viable market for it and was hoping others would appreciate the fineness of the craftsmanship even if the product was impractical. I still hope they move forward building something else because they obviously have talent and I've watched countless niche water cooling vendors come and go. It's an astonishingly unforgiving market.

 

Either way, I'm sorry I got the community's priorities mixed-up on this one, and that we didn't show the Billet in the best light. Our intention wasn't to hurt anyone. We wanted no one to buy it (because it's an egregious waste of money no matter what temps it runs at) and we wanted Billet to make something marketable (so they can, y'know, eat).

 

With all of this in mind, it saddens me how quickly the pitchforks were raised over this. It also comes across a touch hypocritical when some basic due diligence could have helped clarify much of it. I have a LONG history of meeting issues head on and I've never been afraid to answer questions, which lands me in hot water regularly, but helps keep me in tune with my peers and with the community. The only reason I can think of not to ask me is because my honest response might be inconvenient. 

 

We can test that... with this post. Will the "It was a mistake (a bad one, but a mistake) and they're taking care of it" reality manage to have the same reach? Let's see if anyone actually wants to know what happened. I hope so, but it's been disheartening seeing how many people were willing to jump on us here. Believe it or not, I'm a real person and so is the rest of my team. We are trying our best, and if what we were doing was easy, everyone would do it. Today sucks.

 

Thanks for reading this.

Oh man, it’s that last part where he really puts his foot in his mouth…..

 

“but it's been disheartening seeing how many people were willing to jump on us here. Believe it or not, I'm a real person and so is the rest of my team. We are trying our best, and if what we were doing was easy, everyone would do it. Today sucks.”

 

hmmm…I bet billet labs felt the exact same way. Remember when you tested their product wrong, refused to retest it, and ensured YOUR ENTIRE following knew to never ever buy this product. Pretty much damning someone’s life’s work to never pan out…..AND THEN YOU DOUBLED DOWN saying it wasn’t worth your time to even attempt to retest it? AND THEN YOU GAVE IT AWAY AFTER TELLING THEM YOU’D RETURN IT!

 

Can I ask you something? Did you consult Billet labs before dragging them through the mud? Did you go through the “proper journalistic practices” and reach out to the folks at billet labs before making that piece? 
 

Your words are meaningless at this point. It’s your actions that will make a difference…

[iameatingjam]

1 minute ago, ZombieMan762 said:

 

He is still the director and producer who has MORE influence than a person reading a script.

 

Giving a positive review of a competing product does nothing to negate a conflict of interest. 

Isn't he the owner too? I believe that gives him some... influence as well. 

 

6 minutes ago, Pyroteq said:

LMG is a competitor to them 

Are they though? I mean I feel like a short youtube video that costs nothing to watch isn't really as big of an investment as say picking an nvidia or amd gpu. There's plenty of time for us to watch them both. I mean there's a reason channels do collaborations. You can take a few my fans and I'll take a few of yours. We both grow and its a win-win. That being said, I do admit, relations will probably be more frosty between these two going forward.

[AyesC]

1 minute ago, OneGuy83 said:

The GN video was some top level investigative journalism.  I think it would have been fair to not post the video and let LTT have private access to the work and have an opportunity to make a collaborative response. That said, I watched GN's Video 3 times to really absorb the content and truly comprehend everything that was said and there's a lot of solid details and what was probably hundreds of hours digging through hundreds of LTT videos in order to gather all the details and information for GN to post this video. LTT Cast the first stone. While it was unintentionally cast by it being from a private video on a personal youtube channel it was said publicly and that is where this came from. I truly hope that LMG and LTT take this opportunity to go through this video and use it for what it truly is a fair and extremely critical scrutiny of the LMG processes and their team that is burnt out and cannot maintain the standards that LMG built the foundation on. I truly hope that after LMG is done licking their wounds and feeling upset and frustrated from this complete teardown of their process use it to rebuild back stronger and better than ever. 

 

The GN video is well done and should be leveraged by LMG. Companies pay hundreds of thousands of dollars for critical reviews like the one provided here for free and publicly. Either way, No news is bad news and both GN and LMG will benefit hugely from this massive viewership boon from this!.

The community has clearly been frustrated with this for a while, but to see someone like GN finally make a wake-up call to LMG and Linus about the state of things might finally be what pushes them to change. Improvements are needed, and everyone agrees at this point.

 

I hope that this situation lights some fires inside LTT for the next while. I don't want them to burn, I want them to realize that people are tired of the direction they are headed in and want better.

[Filiecs]

6 hours ago, LinusTech said:

To Steve, I expressed my disappointment that he didn't go through proper journalistic practices in creating this piece.

 

Gamer's Nexus could have contacted you to ensure that they represented the situation with a bit more context, but it wouldn't have changed the outcome of the video.

[Vishwajer]

This is what happens when companies grow. And I believe LTT is going on a slippery slope for some time now. Growing should be natural/organic. This is why companies have whole PR departments. But Linus and GN criticise them. (and for good reasons) But it doesn't take away the fact that when you are getting big, so many people with so many ideas, views and opinions they maybe not what Linus have but has to defend when they become public in an uncontrollable manner. And also, I believe the whole company needs a reality check and some adjustments regarding how to handle things professionally. 

 

Also, I do believe that personality matters when it comes to YouTube reviews. MKBHD now have a team. But, the personality of his videos didn't change much. And I can't say the same with LTT. And I really hope now Linus can do better with the video content as his role changed. 

GN mostly goes after the accuracy of the data. So, I think LTT as more of an entertainment content company, I believe we should give them some time to get things together. But the problem is, when they do that, I think it should be quality above quantity. Because people need trust when it comes to more serious reviews with numbers and specs. So, I think they should spend more time on that type of content before they post it. And with the size and audience they have, I think they always don't need to put their review before anyone else. Because we explicitly wait for the LTT review for many things when they come out. It can be few months or a year while you figure this out. Then when you are confident enough, you can speed up the process gradually. I think that is the way to go. 

[hysteresis]

1 minute ago, Doc_MorinGaming said:

Oh man, it’s that last part where he really puts his foot in his mouth…..

 

“but it's been disheartening seeing how many people were willing to jump on us here. Believe it or not, I'm a real person and so is the rest of my team. We are trying our best, and if what we were doing was easy, everyone would do it. Today sucks.”

 

hmmm…I bet billet labs felt the exact same way. Remember when you tested their product wrong, refused to retest it, and ensured YOUR ENTIRE following knew to never ever buy this product. Pretty much damning someone’s life’s work to never pan out…..AND THEN YOU DOUBLED DOWN saying it wasn’t worth your time to even attempt to retest it? AND THEN YOU GAVE IT AWAY AFTER TELLING THEM YOU’D RETURN IT!

 

Can I ask you something? Did you consult Billet labs before dragging them through the mud? Did you go through the “proper journalistic practices” and reach out to the folks at billet labs before making that piece? 
 

Your words are meaningless at this point. It’s your actions that will make a difference…

You want a response more than "I'm paying for this to go away so please stop talking about it"? Put down your pitchfork and stop attacking linus personally !!!! 

 

 

/s 

[ColinJ451]

I struggle to understand what Steve's specific issues with Linus is nowadays but clear they go far deeper on a personal level since the TMB warranty situation and can't help this is yet again shooting down LMG to keep GN ahead as things go forward.

Does this issue need a 44min drag, absolutely not, does LMG need to do much better moving forward and have a lot to do with the quality checking that they were talking about on the wan show. Yep.

Given how Linus handles personal issues normally I fully expect this not to be discussed much if at all

[Forbidden Wafer]

3 minutes ago, AlienMonopoly said:

Not because I’m looking for a cool water cooler for my rig ( macs are cooled… right? ).

It depends on the Mac. The 2005 one is. The MacBook air with Intel CPUs right before the M1 release (2020?) were not. The heatsink didn't even have a heatpipe to dump the heat next to the cooler. There was even a gap between the heatsink and the cpu die in some devices. People started modding to get better performance. Linus even used sugru to waterproof it and put it into a bucket/tray with ice water.