What do we do now?

[virtualsouls]

if y'all want to be a review channel, then you should be reporting things accurately, that's what i expect. i don't care about your bottom line. a couple hundread $ of someones time is nothing, they are there to work. but no just more shirking of responsibility, you have the manpower, money and and time to do better, so do better.

 

also reacting in an emotional way, really? clearly there are big issues at your company, i don't say this lightly but need to take a good hard look at all your practices.

 

SA should not be tolerated either, but that's a whole other ccan of very uncomfortable worms.

[Umdog786]

They really need to discuss the Madison situation, her twitter (X?) thread was shocking

 

Its here if you haven't seen it: https://twitter.com/suuuoppp/status/1691693740254228741?t=UFOAy4TnYJs5y6MvlyGrrw&s=19

[Empyreal]

Just now, eggbox1 said:

Why would you say something incriminating in a written message. They're not that dumb.

 

How would you know? Even so, Madison still bears the burden of proof. You're willing to die on the hill where you're just believe whatever she says? She can't record the verbal exchange using her phone?

 

When she asked for a leave of absence was it verbal as well? When she informed her managers of her concerns, those were verbal as well? No email exchanges? What went through her mind to select the verbal route for all the request which she initiated?

 

I thought people who has an interest in tech would be more logical but it seems that there's a lot who would just gobble up whatever sob story without needing to show proof.

[digitalscream]

Just now, Space Reptile said:

hey maybe dont do this 

Hey, look - that apology video could've paid for re-shoots of the Billet video...

[AdonMrGveret]

oh, i know what we do now! we address the comments made by madison!

[Kravatie1]

1 minute ago, Space Reptile said:

hey maybe dont do this 

they need money somehow

 

doing no videos for a week would easily loose them like half a million

[jaymansley]

Hi, Linus.

 

I'm new to this forum. And I think none of the LMG crew isn't gonna listen to what I'm about to say since I'm just some rando...

 

I've been a subscriber since 2016, and I just wanted to say that I think you should cut down on the amount of videos you make per week. Furthermore, I've worked with a lot of production houses, and 25+ videos a week is not only outlandishly unrealistic, but you'll also be putting the quality of the videos at risk. Which has been shown through your recent output.

 

I know YouTube's algorithm can be mean if you don't post videos every 5 seconds, but sacrificing your quality for what my friend calls as "Mr. Beast-ification of Linus" was more than enough for me to unsubscribe. Although, I will eventually subscribe back once you make videos like the good ol' days.

 

So please, give your cast and crew some time to breathe, and let them do more tests to get more concrete results. I know it's stupid, but it'd be better for everyone if you could cut down your video output from 25+ videos a week to 3-4 absolute banger videos a week.

 

Regardless, I hope y'all can do better moving forward

 

Cheers.

 

[McGherkin]

You know who I feel sorry for?

I feel sorry for Madison. She finally has the courage to speak up about how she was treated, in a workplace that literally led her to self harm, sexual assault and constant unbearable pressure, even voicing her worry about the kickback from people who will blindly deny her experiences and claim it’s lies…. And that’s exactly what happens. People call her a liar. If you are one of those people, you are the reason people who are victims of abuse don’t speak out. Hang your head in shame.
 

I feel sorry for Steve at GN. He can’t win. He’s had to tiptoe around saying anything too critical of LTT for years because of the fanbase and even when he speaks out and other people back up his claims, he still gets accused of witch hunting, and gets railed on by Linus who still hasn’t apologised.

 

I feel sorry for Luke too. He’s always been the sensible one and tried to fight fires, I don’t think he’s involved with the sexual harassment thing but admittedly he’s pretty open about the FP dev team working HARD. I hope they get a break and better conditions. But I also feel bad for Luke making a 69 joke… just as accusations of sexual assault are made against the company.

[Dr. Dornon]

1 hour ago, Woddell said:

So they were happy to let LTT keep it, but they needed it? Which one is it?

The next sentence says, "Then when Linus clearly didn't like it, we asked for it back and you agreed".

[Hamrat]

Just now, Si3Rra_7 said:

I'm more worried about the Madison situation than video accuracy or even the Billet labs thing. 

 

Sure 3 tweets 2 tiktoks and whatever, i won't comment on the quantity of the workload, 

 

BUT her work being denigrated and insulted, and her job being threatened by "upper management", there needs to be something done about this. It's unacceptable. 

This! This I think is the *REAL* issue. This has the potential to damage a company legally if these are proven true

[SomeSin]

4 minutes ago, maplepants said:

Internet rage mobs only ever treat apologies as then next thing to get mad at. Even when August Ames killed herself, it wasn't enough for some members of the mob. I don't want seem like Ronson's publicist or something but his August Ames story is a must listen for anyone interested in what these mob attacks are like.

 

We're going to have to agree to disagree here about GN. What they wanted out of this was drama clicks and they got them in spades. They are going to keep making drama videos about this, just like they milked their NewEgg and Artesian drama for absolutely every drop they could. Steve's probably on his way to BC now so that he can film himself standing out in front of LMG's building. 

Trying to frame all of the valid criticism and lack of trust from the long-term members and supporters as "internet rage mob" won't help the cause.

Building a strawman argument with August Ames is also not really helping. I have no parasocial relationship with LTT or Linus personally, I have no empathy for a big company. I may have empathy for the people there, but "emotional responses" are killing that too.

[brunick]

6 minutes ago, Kravatie1 said:

they don't use LMG servers for emails, last i knew they used gmail

you can add ur domain to google so you send with google servers but your domain...

[Godiwa]

It's a "fine" video and yes I guess a teleprompter was used which is understandable in such a serious matter, don't want people going free reign here... But now we need to actually see ACTION behind the words..

 

And all those errorfilled videos with "LABS" in them? TAKE THEM DOWN... FIX THEM... then you can upload them... Don't leave them up misleading people... And yes I know this will cost you revenue... suck it up...

 

I feel sorry Luke had to sit there... He deserves better... Linus shouldn't have been in there since he got emotionel and started excuses again instead of just saying "I'm sorry, I surrender completely"... Sorry Yvonne... This seemed very hard for you and I know you aren't usually on camera, this looked painful for you...

The lttstore.com... seriously? that was beyond retarded...
putting Linus behind other people = good choice... but careful on the WAN shows... and FFS Linus listen to Luke when he tries to shut you down on the WAN show... He's your best friend, treat him like that...

HIDING the LABS video behind a PAYWALL = BAD CHOICE... this should be a VERY public video with ZERO monetization and ZERO lttstore.com or ANYTHING... this should be your GOLD STANDARD video everyone can go to, to check what/how etc. you base your results in reviews... Update it yearly so viewers are updated and that it is kept current

Treat the companies whose products you present with RESPECT... You can kill a small company with doing bullshit like Billet or the Mouse issue... (no clue how big the mouse company is speaking in general here) when you reach millions and millions and state something is trash... Treat them like you treat your own baby (LMG) it's fair if the product performans poorly but atleast have the dignity to test it properly... it's fine to have fun shit n giggles videos where you blow up old graphics cards or throw pre-builds in the river or whatever... but when it is prototypes, small startups, new products etc. for review/testing... DO IT RIGHT !!!

[tbonedude]

Things not addressed by the latest video:

Ability to shadow edit videos in place.
Madison's claims.

Workplace safety and ethics violations.

 

Unacceptable. Disheartening. Damning. Please do the right thing Linus, even if it paints you in a bad picture. Ill remember you for what you did, and not what you said. But... currently its not looking good.

 

"Don‘t judge a company for errors, look how they react to critique.“ 

[Aceofstearns]

What to do now?

First, don’t deadline your internal review, while I don’t make money with YouTube, it’s at the point if it takes longer, let it. 

Second, Linus apologized, and was called out by Luke, Yvonne, and Terren on his snapback emotional response in this form. Linus admitted he was wrong, and what needs to be done, while it was said in the video, is that while everything is Linus Tech Tips and Linis Media Group, there needs to be a separation between the three Linus’ out there. One is his personal life that we do not see at all, and when people have kinda taken the bashing a bit to far IMO, he needs to step back and not react as if someone upset his kids unfairly or unwarranted. The second face is the public camera facing Linus, who is an onstage face who, maybe 2-5 years ago would’ve been the same face as the third, which is the co owner and CVO of a multi million dollar company. While we all have fucked up, I think the lines being blurred between Linus the person and “Linus” being LMG needs to be stopped. I don’t think it’s a good optic that Linus comes out and answers for everyone in his company by internalizing all that hate and negativity coming from a company that has over 100 employees and while I understand that his name is the company, it’s bigger than him, he wanted it to be this big, so it is. 

 

Third Linus has aplogized and taken internal flack for the whole Billet thing. There are some things we all say that if we had a camera on us we would need to take personal responsibility for. Linus finally addressed this, but to take it one step further, Linus should have only responded to his comments on the water block, and about auctioning it it could’ve been a simple “we’re making them whole” would’ve been enough. Same with the inaccurates. Less words until the problems are fixed. People are going to write thier own narratives and when the negativity becomes the norm it is better to let people be angry and upset at the fuck ups instead of feeding into it with a lackluster Form post that nobody liked.

 

Forth on the whole Billet video, there needs to be a conversation about what is going to be made into a video, what’s worth mentioning in a short circuit/tech quickie, and what should just be turned away. If you looked at the product, function, and price and at the end determined “don’t buy it” even if it worked properly, and it was a legit 1-1 prototype.. why make the video? I’m still baffled that not only was the companies time was wasted, but the viewers and Billet as well. I understand thier are many facets of this community, and a few people love bespoke and artisan type things

and have the budget for it, most don’t. IIRC it was said that the team reviews that stuff because of those people who want to buy that type of “it doesn’t make sense” products. So for Linus to suddenly go into a review and be like “ don’t buy it” followed up by “it’s doesn’t matter if we used the wrong GPU, the product isn’t worth it” bewildered me. On reviews like that the price should not really be the number one concern. It should be “can those people who want to spend this money trust that the product work as advertised” and you didn’t go back and retest it to confirm that for anyone. IT MADE NO SENSE.

 

Lastly. Do not forget LMG might be a “small” company in a normal space, but LMG is a huge standard bearer when it comes to YouTube. When Steve put out that video, he made it with the basis that LMG is on the level of corporation, not just some tech YouTube channel, and with the audience and influence LMG has, as well as Linus being front and center, Steve was not punching down on LMG. He might have gotten some things wrong, but he’s been in the same space, and IMO he was not only concerned with the mistakes, but the attitude towards them, as well as bringing up the conflicts of interests that could be seen as such. Steve didn’t reach out because that’s not how problems get solved when it comes to dealing with a bigger company. And if I’m honest, he just brought up all of the things the community was critical about. 
 

(also, I don’t think anyone from LMG or honestly anyone in general is going to read all of this, but LTT asked, and this is my answer)

[Madpaatch]

2 minutes ago, Kravatie1 said:

they need money somehow

Man - making money on an apology vid is just cheap - really, really cheap. GREED written allover it. While greed is good there should be other people not the leader taking care of money. What a cheapskate

[Dr. Dornon]

59 minutes ago, DrHax34 said:

Billet labs has confirmed that LMG said they would be able to get the block back if they wanted

Billet Labs said Linus can try and get it back. Linus doesn't have the block and there is no guarantee that he can get it back. It came out that they didn't even know who had it and sent out a mass email asking what everyone won for "tax purposes" to try and find out who had it.

[Blademaster91]

4 minutes ago, Space Reptile said:

hey maybe dont do this 

I agree, definitely not a good look to monetize what should be a serious video. It feels like a "whoops we're sorry but we're still gonna rake in tons money for it" type corporate apology.

Btw is there a browser plugin that tells you if a vid is monetized?

[conscience]

5 minutes ago, Space Reptile said:

hey maybe dont do this 

Yes they should not. Another blunder of which we will see a 'we are sorry that we can not handle all our employees properly'-video.

 

Let your bottom line be hurt, hurt big time so that you finally wake up and get back to earth @LinusTech. Not that you regain my trust, but you have 15.5m other people who watch your videos.

[VixAAT]

I am extremely confused after watching this video and I don't really have time to watch a bunch of videos and Twitter threads about accusations against a company so could someone explain in a way that explains mostly everything but in an easy-to-understand way. That would be greatly appreciated

[jaymansley]

2 minutes ago, McGherkin said:

You know who I feel sorry for?

I feel sorry for Madison. She finally has the courage to speak up about how she was treated, in a workplace that literally led her to self harm, sexual assault and constant unbearable pressure, even voicing her worry about the kickback from people who will blindly deny her experiences and claim it’s lies…. And that’s exactly what happens. People call her a liar. 
 

I feel sorry for Steve at GN. He can’t win. He’s had to tiptoe around saying anything too critical of LTT for years because of the fanbase and even when he speaks out and other people back up his claims, he still gets accused of witch hunting, and gets railed on by Linus who still hasn’t apologised.

 

I feel sorry for Luke too. He’s always been the sensible one and tried to fight fires, I don’t think he’s involved with the sexual harassment thing but admittedly he’s pretty open about the FP dev team working HARD. I hope they get a break and better conditions. But I also feel bad for Luke making a 69 joke… just as accusations of sexual assault are made against the company.

I'm sorry for being out of the loop. I am aware of Madison situation, but I am not aware of the SA accusations. If the accusations were true, then I am beyond done with Linus Media Group. I'm going back to watch CNET reviews, which in today standards, are boomer tech reviews. But at least I know what I'm getting LOL

 

But yeah, I hope Madison can have much better careers going forward.

[Alex T88]

10 minutes ago, maplepants said:

I wish I had seen this earlier, I was just writing how one of the key things about internet rage mobs is that apologies are never good enough. Apologies are just another thing for the mob to rage at.

You are missing the point, not apologies are the thing that make people rage, but their lack of sincerity. You can blow smoke and pretend to be apologetic all you want. A sincere apology never includes the subject becoming self defensive and trying to justify where you failed. A sincere apology is owning up to mistakes, facts and moving forward. At least that's how I see things. It's only natural for people not to abide by someone who constantly tries to gaslight them. 

[TheFlyingSquirrel]

27 minutes ago, AHPanda said:

That's like saying leave your broken bike at the repair shop when you're not happy with the repair. Get a grip buddy.

Thing is, you joined yesterday, so your words ring hollow and false.

[McGherkin]

Just now, jaymansley said:

I'm sorry for being out of the loop. I am aware of Madison situation, but I am not aware of the SA accusations. If the accusations were true, then I am beyond done with Linus Media Group. I'm going back to watch CNET reviews, which in today standards, are boomer tech reviews. But at least I know what I'm getting LOL

 

But yeah, I hope Madison can have much better careers going forward.

As far as I am aware, being physically groped is classed as Sexual Assault.

[Hamrat]

7 minutes ago, Space Reptile said:

hey maybe dont do this 

Yeah, that doesn't look good at all...