What do we do now?

[Madpaatch]

11 minutes ago, Baron_Samedi said:

 later made a formal apology in a video. And this is the video we are talking about. 

Correct. And now I'll paste 2 screenshots from a random booklet on crisis management and you'll be the judge if they managed the points correctly in the areas called 'Blame', 'Costs' (£ figure for the cost not lucrum cessans), 'Guarantees', 'Humor', 'Personal Identity' (throwing Colton under the bus and making Luke read from teleprompter that his responsibility is to stop Linus). This is just scratching the surface mate. Linus is a type of an owner that will always stick his fingers and the size of the business has clearly outgrown him. I feel really sorry for the employees who have to withstand his rage not only atm but also his humors in daily life.

 

: 

[OneGuy83]

good to see a solid reply and many people from the team that is LMG. 

[TazX14]

So after watching the video (and seeing comments of the ADDITIONAL MISTAKE made AND SILENTLY CORRECTED), I just feel like this is essentially satire at this point.

First the mistake, how did the actual price of the Billet Labs prototype get leaked by you guys? Seriously!? You talk about learning to slow down and stop making mistakes, then go on to make yet another mistake with a smalltime company you have potentially irreperably harmed. If anything, your next video should straight up be a proper reviewing and massive apology video to them directly. Not only that, but once again, you've edited the video on the sly hoping no one would notice and continued forward.

 

I can imagine that you're trying to put out the fires over there, but when you corporate speak about how "We need to do the right thing" and "We need to slow down and focus so that we make fewer mistakes going forward," the idea is that you actually take that to heart and follow it. Stop acting like BP oil in South Park thinking a simple apology will fix things.

 

Then on top of this, you actively promote your merch as some sort of light hearted approach at humor in a time when you need to stop, and you monetize it knowing full well you'll be probably making more than you'll be compensating Billet Labs for. Why not take the proceeds and ADD that into the compensation you're planning to give them? Do right by them instead of continuing to harm the company?

 

ON TOP OF THAT, there is now the Madison allegations coming to light throwing more gas on a fire that Linus has already attempted to put out by gaslighting his own community into pitying him.

 

Finally, imo, these apologies and reactions to everything were pretty terrible overall. The actual apologies were just teleprompter readings of self pitying apologies that have no heart nor understanding of the harm they have done. Linus' own apology even attempts to make light and twist the events to fit his desire for sympathy for a situation he has ACTIVELY been making worse. You can clearly understand that he is frustrated that he is being demoted as a result of this. However, rather than take time to self reflect and understand what he has done wrong, he continues to make things worse and be upset that the community and now his EMPLOYER is reprimanding him.

 

Personally, moving forward these are the things I would love to see in order to regain trust.

 

#1 A Log for mistakes in videos. You have centered your company around the IT industry and as exemplified by your own video, documentation is important. There needs to be a running log of mistakes, time stamps in videos, description, and self correction. This asterisk journalism your company performs is irresponsible and has been shown to have been a leading cause of issues the community has with this group. Start by showing folks that you're willing to take responsibility moving forward and show that you are getting better at it. Do we expect no mistakes to ever be made? Not at all. No one does. But you need to show folks that you're actually getting better rather than you just saying you will.

 

#2 Billet Labs needs to be made full and given an ACTUAL opportunity. Have them come onto the platform, be given an apology by all the folks responsible in causing all these issues for them in full light of everyone, and have them walk YOU through the setup and testing etc so they can have a fair shake. You don't need to skew a review and suddenly start praising them for making the next big thing. But they need to be given an actual fair shake and a clear path to creating what they felt was a potentially interesting product. You took a lot of that away from them and tripled down on it at every turn... Until this is made right, how can any person or company trust you moving forward?

 

#3 Regarding the Madison issue, this needs to be fully addressed, investigated, and reported on. The fact that this is all coming to light at what is essentially your darkest moment is bad enough, and really the only thing that will resolve it is exposing it fully. I understand that they are essentially allegations at the current moment, but they are pretty bad overall. Whatever the end result is, they need to be made public.

 

There is a ton more I could write and expect of you, but moving forward these are the minimal steps one should expect to even begin to start righting the wrongs you've created. Stop saying you're going to do your best and just start DOING BETTER!

[Distinctly Average]

42 minutes ago, Mondodimotori said:

Then how do you know that people discussing here are not putting huge energies in their daily lives on other problems? This is just a really bad strawman argument.

As I said, I knew were you were coming from. It was obvious you were ignoring the point. 

[sfh0525]

I really hope LTT, the main channel, can have some special episodes, or once a week to bring back OG LTT level of contents. More focused on PC internal technologies. Not pure fun content for general public. I noticed LTT content are more only cover the surface of the products. Especially, while playing around the surface, getting wrong data, and eventually, wrong conclusion.

There're still lots more to be covered in PC DIY space. Like Why ZEN4 suddenly support >6400Mhz RAM speed. But actually useless for R7 and below (Because of single GMI3 link speed). Why LPD5X 7500 consoles for 7840U are gone? Comparing different laptop OEMs on CPU turbo behavior and energy efficiency analyze. Why intel U/P/H sucks at battery life. And so on.

I have long gone into watching GN's content for some deep dive of specific things. 

 

Also, really, let your WRITERS take a break and learn more of current consumer PC techs. Why GN, HU and so on can have better deepness and accuracy of their contents, I think mostly because their writers (the host themselves), are not DISCONNECTED from the PC tech world. Your writer team are more towards entertaining, not as a PC reviewer. 

[Hamrat]

37 minutes ago, smcoakley said:

Community: "Don't give us a response by the seat of your pants, stop and think and be precise about how you respond."

 

LMG: Takes a day or so to figure out how to move forward, then films a video using a script to make sure they are precise with their words.

 

Community: "How dare you use a script! What corporate BS is this?"

 

Me: *facepalm*

 

Getting strong, "What do we want? Don't know! When do we want it? Now!" vibes in here...

They're damned if they do and they're damned if they don't 

[weirdlypleasant]

First of all, I'm not trying to undermine valid criticism presented by Gamers Nexus and others on this forum. LTT and, more importantly, Linus himself made quite a share of mistakes, you most certainly already seen them listed in this thread, but I want to touch on a different aspect of this story - more personal and understanding.

 

Well... I kind of understand where Linus is coming from in his initial reaction, especially emotionally. After watching the GN's video, I was left with a sour aftertaste. I'm not questioning any raised issues in it. But I want to challenge the way they were presented - with funny zoom-in and outs on Linus' face, without any comment from the LTT team, and insinuation about LTT purposely stealing Billet Labs' prototype, even though it was clearly a fuck up, albeit a serious one. In my opinion, this video will have a positive effect on LTT and I'm glad it was made, but I also think it could've been more constructive, the same way as Linus could've had a better reaction to it.

 

This is the part where I want to give some words of support to @LinusTech

 

I'm sure you've already seen people taking your words and stances out of context, captioning them as something entirely else, and gaining more upvotes/karma/support than pushback. I can only imagine how disheartening and/or infuriating it must be. Although this must be a common occurrence for you now, it doesn't mean it will suck less or be less unfair. I trust you and LTT to set a correct path forward and absorb all the constructive criticism you received. After all, I understand what you mean by "trust me, bro" and how this situation will be handled in the end will only reinforce that.

 

I know a post like this might seem weird from an account that was just created, but that's just how it is. I've watched LTT since I was a kid, and this is the first time I wanted to write something on this forum. Hope to be not the last one.

[Marcii]

5 hours ago, LinusTech said:

AINT NO WAY HES GOING BE THE CEO

[GAM3R]

So I've watched this video from the LTT/LMG team, responding to the issues with the prototype for Billet Labs, and the other issues. I think they've done a good job in answering the community both here and across YouTube. I have to say I've watched many videos with Linus, and I've never viewed him as anything but a goof, playing a role that was "I'm in charge, this is what I want to do". But then I did some research, and watched his video about him stepping down as CEO and stepping into Chief Vision Officer. That changed my opinion, and I have to say I'm more impressed with him than before I knew about his background, and history.

 

I've also watched GamersNexus's video bringing up these issues, and I found that hard to watch. I have no affiliation in any way with anyone mentioned here, and that video GamersNexus did was the first ever video I've watched from GN.

 

I joined this forum today, specifically to comment and/or share my thoughts about the "What Do We Do Now?" video. 

 

*edited* I also just learned about the Madison issue, and that should be a private matter, not discussed here or on any other social media. Hopefully there is a response from LTT/LMG, at least stating their current workplace standards, if those need better enforcement, and add that to their list of processes to improve this week amongst all the other priorities.

 

What does everyone else here think about the topic here which is the WDWDN? video.

[SamKirk]

I hate that you have had to do this just because of some sanctimonious and quite frankly salty competing channel. I even hate that I have had to say competing channel and not refer to it as just another great channel in this space.

However, it is clear that GN have forced a divide in this space, and dropped a massively unhealthy amount of toxicity into what was one of the most loved and light-hearted genres on YouTube, I hope that in time GN will also take responsibility for level of damage and negativity they have cause by this.

I truly believe that there was a huge amount of hyperbole used in SaltySteve's call to arms speech, whilst yes there were some issues that needed to be addressed they could have been brought to light in a much less damaging way.

All in all the only issue that LMG have had is their dedication to releasing way too many videos per week and that does indeed lead to a slippage in quality, but remember that it is US, THE COMMUNITY that have demanded that.

LTT / LMG have never backed down and buried their head when issues arise and so I believe that they should be commended for that.

@LinusTech PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't loose your charm and somewhat haphazard programming as that is what makes you guys you, god forbid you become monotonous robotic fact spitters like SOME channels I know.

We are with you all, and cant wait for your return.

[Seej]

I'm glad that LMG have relased this video. It details what went wrong and the steps that they're going to take fix it. I appreciate the severity at which the organisation is taking the issues, and that isn't negated by a few moments of humor in the video. I enjoy the personalities at LMG - they're one of the main reasons why I watch - and I viewed those moments in the video as them poking fun at themselves to break the tension rather than them not taking the situation seriously. The main message of the video is solid and overall I think it's a great response to the criticisms that have been leveled at them in the past few days. There's just nothing that they can do or say right now that's gonna stop this hate train rolling. A lot of people have clearly held this pent up hate for Linus in for a long time and they now feel emboldend to let it out, using the issues that the GN videos have exposed as an excuse.

 

Linus made a mistake in posting on the forum about this issue without going through and really considering why people were upset about the issues raised in the first GN video. The video released today is a really well thought out plan about how to put things right and is what Linus should have waited for instead of posting on the forum in the heat of the moment.

 

Also, I don't understand why people expect a response to the Madison topic at all. That stuff is way too serious to warrant any sort of speedy response and IF we get any public response at all, it won't be for a while yet. I would honestly be surprised if we had anything public at all about that as it could legitimately end up in court.

[Baron_Samedi]

5 minutes ago, Madpaatch said:

Correct. And now I'll paste 2 screenshots from a random booklet on crisis management and you'll be the judge if they managed the points correctly in the areas called 'Blame', 'Costs' (£ figure for the cost not lucrum cessans), 'Guarantees', 'Humor', 'Personal Identity' (throwing Colton under the bus and making Luke read from teleprompter that his responsibility is to stop Linus). This is just scratching the surface mate. Linus is a type of an owner that will always stick his fingers and the size of the business has clearly outgrown him. I feel really sorry for the employees having to withstand his rage.

 

: 

I've been reading the content of the images you posted and it seems to me an excellent way to manage a crisis. But it's just one of many. Is this the most correct way to manage this "crisis"? I would say no. Errors, like crises, are as serious as the collateral damage they cause. The initial response was bad, but the fix was quick. The correction was in line with the impact of the "crisis". Now, you can consider that the crisis was much more serious and therefore it would deserve attention and a different response, but once again, it is your opinion. Mine is that the response in the video came with the intensity that this "crisis" deserved.

[BaidDSB]

1 minute ago, SamKirk said:

Unreal Shilling

What amazing shilling mate. Congrats.

How dare a narcissist at best, a sexual harassment enabler at worst, be called out for its shiftiness. Not to mention theft and garbage tier bs thats called their tests and also the constant gaslighting and acting as the victim...

 

[ShadowDev]

5 hours ago, LinusTech said:

 

this is not going to fix anything. its over.

[SoulSunder]

Dude, the amount of dick riding here is twitter levels of bad. This response has some jokes, teases and lack of accountability all made in rather poor taste. I'm disappointed with this. Everything from Colton's fairly stupid mistake, Luke's very phoned in sex joke and Linus' whatever-I'll-just-do-it apology is just sad. Seeing that they didn't even bother to delay this a bit to try and get in Maddison's whole separate debacle to me feels like they are trying to get out of this the fast way, not the correct way.

 

That said I'm glad to see the CEO finally say something and promise to commit resources and time to rectify the problems. He very opening stated that media was not his thing and most of his experience is in the corporate side. He seems to know what he is doing. I wish him all the best.

[CrowTheRobot]

17 minutes ago, Parthros said:

As long as Linus is an owner of LMG, he will be involved in and responsible for the culture, and every mistake they make.  He said himself that he can't hide behind his recent "demotion," and needs to take accountability for everything that GN discussed.  Going forward, he is still the face of the company, and his actions reflect on LTT, and create a culture of how to respond in situations like these.  Although the whole entire team will be the ones doing the work, saying that "the new CEO will fix everything, don't worry about Linus anymore" ignores how LTT got to where it is today.  Linus needs to get his behavior and emotions under control, or LTT will continue down the same path.

But that's the thing...He's clearly trying to work through what has already happened because it started under him as CEO, but there's going to likely be a (probably faster paced at this point) gradual fade out of overall responsibility to Terren.  The fact that Terren is already putting his face out in front of the camera to get involved in this rather than running for the hills should speak to how serious this is being taken.  Acting like nothing is ever going to change because of past history of how Linus has run things just seems to serve as a way of mounting wheels to the goalpost, so to speak.  Most if not all of the point in the CEO change in the first place was Linus admitting that being CEO wasn't something he wanted to do anymore or felt suited to do.

[Madpaatch]

22 minutes ago, Baron_Samedi said:

I've been reading the content of the images you posted and it seems to me an excellent way to manage a crisis. But it's just one of many. Is this the most correct way to manage this "crisis"? I would say no. Errors, like crises, are as serious as the collateral damage they cause. The initial response was bad, but the fix was quick. The correction was in line with the impact of the "crisis". Now, you can consider that the crisis was much more serious and therefore it would deserve attention and a different response, but once again, it is your opinion. Mine is that the response in the video came with the intensity that this "crisis" deserved.

You're entitled to your opinion. I just pointed out that the second statement (not to mention the first honest reveal by Linus :p) is imo not up to the basic standards of crisis management communication - if you look at my previous post  you might see why . That's all there's to it. We'll see if this second statement is sufficient to put the lid on this screw up.

 

I'm also sure that the employees will not be as docile as they were prior to this event especially after the former employee has come forward (personally having managed 200 people I treat this with a certain disbelief but then again I remember #MeToo and Alex Afrasiabi).

[thegreatestarbiter]

To be honest, I would like a WAN show tonight. Videos are great an all, but Luke and Linus live will be the most authentic way to address the issues being presented here by the community. The whole thing makes me sad though, as I like both GN and LTT alot.

[ShadowDev]

they had their chance to apologise. that chance passed.  

[Sousuke]

I don't know about you lot but this feels like Linus's "Steve Jobs" moment in which his love for the company and his emotional connections to it is clouding his judgement and the way he acts in the heat of the moment. 

 

I'm not accusing Linus of being an arsehole (Like Steve Jobs was in the early days of Apple) but he has done the right things to move the company forward, the reason Apple declined in the Late 80s and 90s was due to Steve Jobs's vision being expelled from the company. By stepping down as CEO and becoming the CVO (Chief Vision Officer) I think that he will avoid LMG's decline whilst being able to focus on what he does best, create content.

 

As much as he is flawed, Linus is the soul of LMG and without him, it would fail.

[Parthros]

2 minutes ago, CrowTheRobot said:

But that's the thing...He's clearly trying to work through what has already happened because it started under him as CEO, but there's going to likely be a (probably faster paced at this point) gradual fade out of overall responsibility to Terren.  The fact that Terren is already putting his face out in front of the camera to get involved in this rather than running for the hills should speak to how serious this is being taken.  Acting like nothing is ever going to change because of past history of how Linus has run things just seems to serve as a way of mounting wheels to the goalpost, so to speak.  Most if not all of the point in the CEO change in the first place was Linus admitting that being CEO wasn't something he wanted to do anymore or felt suited to do.

I didn't act as if nothing was ever going to change.  I was pointing out one of the things that needs to happen going forward.  You can't forget the past, otherwise you'll never learn from it.
This is an action plan: "Linus needs to get his behavior and emotions under control, or LTT will continue down the same path."

[RichardBirch]

15 minutes ago, SamKirk said:

it is clear that GN have forced a divide in this space, and dropped a massively unhealthy amount of toxicity into what was one of the most loved and light-hearted genres on YouTube, I hope that in time GN will also take responsibility for level of damage and negativity they have cause by this.

I truly believe that there was a huge amount of hyperbole used in SaltySteve's call to arms speech, whilst yes there were some issues that needed to be addressed they could have been brought to light in a much less damaging way.

All in all the only issue that LMG have had is their dedication to releasing way too many videos per week and that does indeed lead to a slippage in quality, but remember that it is US, THE COMMUNITY that have demanded that.

LTT / LMG have never backed down and buried their head when issues arise and so I believe that they should be commended for that.

@LinusTech PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE don't loose your charm and somewhat haphazard programming as that is what makes you guys you, god forbid you become monotonous robotic fact spitters like SOME channels I know.

We are with you all, and cant wait for your return.

Are you taking the piss? GN pointed out with evidence valid issues and yet they are responsible for the public discourse?

 

You say they’re responsible for toxicity then go right ahead and call Steve SaltySteve in your next paragraph.

 

No. GN did nothing wrong. Rabid fanboys like yourself are responsible for the toxic environment you see in these threads. You are the problem, blindly defending someone even when there is fairly presented evidence against them. 
 

Finally, don’t generalise and lump everyone in as ‘the community’ that demanded more videos. I certainly didn’t.

JFC the number of people here who need to get some perspective is frankly staggering. You gain nothing by mindlessly supporting someone regardless of their actions. Linus himself has surely alluded to this before. Don’t be a sheep.

 

[jaskem]

4 hours ago, Woddell said:

 

From GN's first video: 

"Billet told us that it was now stalled as it no longer has its best prototype". 

 

Also from Billet Labs:

"Yes it sucks that the prototype has gone, it's slowed us but has absolutely not stopped us."

 

Both statements implies that they were always expecting the item back, and them not receiving it has cost them production time/value. But they were happy to let LMG keep the item, see the contradiction?   

 

LMG certainly isn't right for auctioning the item, but GN and Billet Labs were being disingenuous here.

 

 

They were happy to let LMG keep the item because they already ordered a new one.

[Lardson]

5 hours ago, returnofblank said:

I'm watching the video and they put a sponsor joke in it. It was just a bait and switch, where they did the sponsor segway but didn't do an actual sponsor, instead just going "jk jk we not doing that".

 

Still though, what the fuck?

Is there anything you dont get pissed over? Seriously you guys need to grow up.

[m4rkiz]

4 hours ago, treestain said:

Never said that, calm down broski.

actually he did, on wan show, claiming that a proper test on a card that it was designed for would cost him 100-200-500 bucks, and it would still be a bad product so there is no point

while i agree that this $800 block for 3090 makes no sense whatsoever, if he is willing to get the views for video, he should be ready to test it properly

i know that this isn't airport, but i just cancelled floatplane and unsubscribed from all channels - way too much drama is going on lately and it changed from entertaining tech channel to shit storm after shit storm and countless apologies

i don't give a flying fuck if andy fells like a girl, i don't want to hear madison sex drama from every angle, but it goes to my feed because i USED TO watch shitload of ltt videos and every wan show

no longer interested

over and out