What do we do now?

[JonFrakes]

What do you do now? First on the list should be to axe Tim Wolowitz/Holofuck from your team. The hubris of that idiot is on another level. If not for him this controversy wouldn't have happened in the first place.

[kazaakas]

7 minutes ago, Guy Games said:

Potentially. It could also be to break the ice a little. I've been in very serious meetings before (not sexual harassment however) and everyone was feeling awkward and in some cases, sure it's not the worst to feel a little awkward. But breaking the ice with, what to him (I presume), was a little light humour? I've seen it done a lot. Not to make excuses for someone I don't know, just putting my way of seeing it across.

I have seen that happen too yes, so this is a fair point. But I still think it's not appropriate after such a serious topic. It also doesn't help that in Madison's tweets she is also referring to (upper) management doing the harassing, and she was in the writing room, and James is the head of writing.

[iLikeBananas]

12 minutes ago, Gus Pyles said:

1. You "didn't think" that people would take offense at the monetization says that you indeed have not yet learned a thing

 

I don't see anything offensive about monetizing the video. They are running a business, they have costs to cover. I think it is immature and hostile to demand they do not monetize it.

 

12 minutes ago, Gus Pyles said:

1. Jokes and especially sexual innuendo does NOT belong in a serious apology, ESPECIALLY not when there are serious allegations of sexual harassment floating around, and the guy who was supposed to protect you FROM THIS EXACT MISTAKE is in the video telling everyone it was his job .. no excuses about "it being your style", it's unprofessional and inappropriate, and sours your entire "apology"

 

I disagree. I was happy that this video still had the LTT vibe.

 

12 minutes ago, Gus Pyles said:

1. Linus is not genuinely sorry, he's deflecting, he's making excuses, he's saying "ho ho hoo, I'm going to make mistakes again, nobody can stop me, ho hoo", he was forced to make some sort of response, and he didn't do much better than at his hasty forum response

 

I personally think that this is blown out of proportion, and a lot of criticism is made out of bad faith. In my opinion, a lot of people who personally dislike Linus are using this situation to harm him.

 

12 minutes ago, Gus Pyles said:

1. You ignored the majority of the complaints made, and failed to acknowledge the people who risked a lot to bring them to your attention

 

Which ones? The major complains are the water block, the mouse thing and the wrong graphs. They addressed those issues.

[Guy Games]

Just now, kazaakas said:

I have seen that happen too yes, so this is a fair point. But I still think it's not appropriate after such a serious topic. It also doesn't help that in Madison's tweets she is also referring to (upper) management doing the harassing, and she was in the writing room, and James is the head of writing.

Thats understandable and I completely see your point. I don't know but my guess would be that potentially someone took James to one side after and said something about it being wrong to him. Punishments and disciplinaries are very rarely done openly though so we can only speculate.

[Andrei Chiffa]

31 minutes ago, elmu37 said:

Please give a recap im confused. I DONT KNOW what happened.

 

Thanks

Had the same question yesterday, so let me re-link again the excellent @McGherkin's summary

 

18 hours ago, McGherkin said:

1. Gamers Nexus posts a video titled 'The Problem with Linus Media Group', which I'd advise you to watch in full, which basically makes two main 'allegations':

  Allegation 1: LMG is rushing its content creation which is creating unforced, obvious errors which should be failing a basic sanity check . GN provides various examples of mistakes, of which there are often multiple per video (mainly benchmark results, graphs and statistics, although there was also a bit on the recent mouse review where LMG left covers on the sliders on the bottom of the mouse making it hard to move around), and essentially diagnoses the issue as the team rushing to hit a tough upload schedule, quoting various members of LMG staff from the recent 'What's it like to work at LMG in 2023?' video who all say they wish they had more time to work on videos.

Allegation 2: LMG recieved a sample of a combined CPU/GPU water block from Billet Labs, which they covered in a video. They lost the GPU the block was supposed to work with, and used an RTX4090 instead, which resulted in poor temps and essentially a 'do not buy, but it's quite well made' recommendation from Linus. They asked for it back and using one of their other prototypes with the 4090 discovered that there would be serious fitment issues from using the wrong GPU which caused the poor temps. They asked for the return of their prototype after the video was released on two seperate occasions, and were assured that it would be, before finding out that the water block had been auctioned for charity at LTX. GN also then shows a clip from the following WAN show when viewers have brought up that the wrong GPU was used, and Linus essentially says 'I wasn't going to spend the 200, 300, 400, 500 dollars in staff time' to retest it with the right GPU and produce an accurate result.

The tone of the GN video was mainly 'you guys are starting a big fancy lab and pitching yourselves as accurate and a rival to GN in that regard but you guys need to do better and you need to make Billet whole' piece.

2. Linus then posts on the LTT forum after a thread is started on the GN video, essentially saying the loss of the water block was a mistake, but it was auctioned, not sold, and we know we had some minor issues but we've fixed them, and I'm really upset that the community has been told to be upset about this and Steve should have got in touch with me before posting. It was a much longer post and it was mostly a non-apology to be honest. Linus also implies that they've got a price from Billet to fix everything, which Billet quickly deny.

3. This causes... tension. GN essentially covers the response with a 'wut', releasing more info from the email chain with billet, clarifying timing and pretty much showing that the scramble from LTT to sort Billet's missing block out came after the release of the initial GN video. Linus gets in touch with Billet again and basically says we'll sort whatever you want, just let us know.

4a. Meanwhile two things are happening. Firstly, LMG is in lockdown mode, with no outward communication to the fans who are by now mostly highly pissed because everything GN said is factual, and Linus essentially hasn't apologised and has doubled down in defense of some of it. At some point Linus is given a talking to by the rest of the company who start putting a plan together to fix this, and they start filming an apology video.

4b. Secondly, Madison (the girl who was hired after her ROG Rig Reboot went viral) spoke up on Twitter/X about her time at LMG. I highly recommend you go find that too - it's disturbing. She was taken on, immediately snowed under with work, called various names and ultimately treated poorly as an employee, backing up GN's allegation that the staff are being rushed to do too much and this is affecting both them and the content they produce. But Madison's allegations go beyond that. She details multiple examples of sexual harassment, being asked about her sexual experiences, being asked to twerk, being forced to operate LMG's Onlyfans despite saying no, but most importantly claiming that she was groped on multiple occasions. She was ultimately so worried about staff coming up behind her that she asked for mirrors to be installed at her desk so she could see behind her (they were installed, but only after other staff got them two months earlier than her), and she ended up cutting her leg open in order to have an excuse to have a day off.  This thread comes out a few hours before....

5. LMG posts their apology video. Well, I say post, it's put on Floatplane as a paid for exclusive. When the community immediately explodes at this, it is then published on Youtube. I highly recommend you find and watch this too. The entire leadership team, from Terren through Yvonne, James, Colton, Gary (head of the lab), Luke and finally Linus all have segments where they describe what will change in their departments. It's a good apology video and the changes announced are severe, with several staff members clearly visibly upset, and reveals Colton did attempt to email Billet earlier and gives some more info on various topics, but it does also come with yet more unforced errors - doxxing the cost of the Billet prototype which they had specifically asked to be anonymous, making some LTTstore/screwdriver/Dbrand references, and Luke making a 69 joke which would have probably landed better if it weren't for the emerging news about Madison. The video makes no mention of the Madison claims as it was filmed before the claims arose.

My personal take: The GN video was a gee'up for LMG to say you need to slow down and do this better, and the claims made were accurate although I do believe that the Billet waterblock probably got forgotten about on a shelf somewhere before Colton found it and put it in the auction, not realising that Billet had been emailing someone else asking for it back. LMG should have just apologised and held their hands up there. However, Linus's response made the situation FAR worse, and even in the most recent video he fails to apologise to GN for essentially lashing out at them for posting valid criticism of LMG's processes etc. The apology video swerves a few things (Linus still seems somewhat unapologetic), and makes yet more mistakes (understandable, personally, given the pressure, aside from the decision to make it FP exclusive which is a classic Linus foot-in-mouth moment) but is ultimately a good response to the need to improve quality at LMG. However, Madison's testimony is severely damaging, and LMG likely won't be commenting on it due to legal reasons. If it's found to be true, sponsors are not going to want to associate themselves with LMG and essentially the whole thing is done.

As for the fans, there are four levels.
1. LMG Bandwagon, GN Steve is doing a hit piece, Madison is making it all up (seriously, some people are terrible here)
2. Neutral but hopeful that LMG will turn things around with a big reset
3. Neutral but unable to see how this can be fixed given the seriousness of the claims.
4. hahahahaha I just want to see Linus burn this is what you get

Thankyou for coming to my TED talk, I hope you got the information you needed, and please now arrange yourself into one of the four fan groups as outlined above.

 

[Baron_Samedi]

Here's a cookie to everyone who reached this page. 

[Alex T88]

11 minutes ago, JonFrakes said:

First on the list should be to axe Tim Wolowitz/Holofuck from your team. The hubris of that idiot is on another level.

Do you think that was a mistake? Then why did they leave it in the video? Because, Linus definitely agrees with what he said. And probably most of the entire lot. 

[Middcore]

4 minutes ago, AlignedTrack432 said:

FROM THE TIMELINE I CAN GATHER FROM THE VIDEO IT ALL FELL APART WHEN LINUS STEPPED DOWN

 

You mean the video where Linus himself says "I was at the head of the company for each and every mistake that has been brought to our attention"? 

[JonFrakes]

Just now, Alex T88 said:

Do you think that was a mistake? Then why did they leave it in the video? Because, Linus definitely agrees with what he said. And probably most of the entire lot. 

If that's the case then the entire team is out of touch and fully absorbed within their own reality distortion field. 

[Alex T88]

1 minute ago, JonFrakes said:

If that's the case then the entire team is out of touch and fully absorbed within their own reality distortion field.

Some, most probably. All, I doubt it. But they all have to fall in line, not to upset the big boss. At least, they had to do that. And nothing would have changed if GN, did not release their material. Going forward, it can go either way, like their former employee Colin Worobetz suggested on Twitter, they either succeed or implode.

[AdmiralKird]

50 minutes ago, AdmiralKird said:

He hosts a weekly public personal therapy session cloaked as a tech show for dealing with his own mental anxiety by getting off on toting and wielding the raw enormous social media power he built as a coping mechanism.

20 minutes ago, iLikeBananas said:

  And I always loved WAN show because of that. He does not only share his very valuable experiences, but also his mental health status, which can be kinda therapeutic to others. At least to me it is.

Honestly, I don't think anyone who is at risk of seeing that as therapeutic is very healthy for any of his followers to watch. It's a very one-sided vampiric "reverse-creator" parasocial type of relationship / therapy. I don't even know if there's a more defined term for it. Instead of where the influenced falsely believes a social relationship exists with the influencer (when they don't know the specific influenced exists and aren't trying to unduly attract them) it would be where the influencer doesn't know the specifics of when people exist but still talks to them and treats them openly and outwardly as if they actually were a close friend.

I can see why people would find this soothing, but when I watched it I felt used. I felt like I was having my attention used in order to think about someone else's problems when I couldn't vocalize anything troubling myself back like you or I would do in a normal friendship. It's probably most harmful for people who are extremely caring and want to help someone but cant actualize any efforts to fulfill themselves through providing that care.

[crism]

the stuff about harassment in the workplace is serious but I find all of the stuff hilarious

[SamKirk]

18 hours ago, Pemalite said:

This image says it all folks! Steve knows that his biggest views are from when he is a "warrior with a cause", he literally tries to pick fault with everyone and everything (sanctimonious much!?) in order to increase the viewership on his channel and he does it under the guise of "being an honest reporter".

I feel sorry for those that don't see through his BS.

Edited August 18, 2023 by SamKirk
typo

[Gus Pyles]

14 minutes ago, iLikeBananas said:

 

I don't see anything offensive about monetizing the video. They are running a business, they have costs to cover. I think it is immature and hostile to demand they do not monetize it.

It's not a genuine apology if it's an attempt to make money. Stop making bad excuses for others just because "they're a business". GN found it in their budget to make a video without monetizing it. LMG could too, as demonstrated by the fact that they turned off the monetization after enough many people screamed at them about it.

14 minutes ago, iLikeBananas said:

I disagree. I was happy that this video still had the LTT vibe.

You're free to your opinion.

14 minutes ago, iLikeBananas said:

I personally think that this is blown out of proportion, and a lot of criticism is made out of bad faith. In my opinion, a lot of people who personally dislike Linus are using this situation to harm him.

Well, frankly you're sounding like a fanboy who cannot see any fault in the subject of their fandom if you're immediately blaming everyone else for "bad faith" for daring to criticize Linus's clear deflection and lack of sincere apology. I've never been a biggest fan of Linus and LMG, because of the issues raised - their data sucks, and they don't seem like a healthy place to work. I'd love to see them fix these issues, make an actual apology, fix their issues, start behaving like adults in a 100+ person company, and produce good quality content.

14 minutes ago, iLikeBananas said:

Which ones? The major complains are the water block, the mouse thing and the wrong graphs. They addressed those issues.

There were quite a few issues named, among which LMG has not responded to e.g.:

• Not listening to employees, e.g. when a large number of them are saying they're rushing
• Ethical issues with conflicts of interest due to e.g. Framework and Noctua
• Making bad excuses for their mistakes and deflecting when "apologizing" - which they continued to do in this non-apology, Linus didn't make a single moment on camera before doing this, and then immediately continued complaining about how "hard it is" to listen to random internet trolls

[SamKirk]

1 hour ago, kazaakas said:

Whether you agree with it being sexual or not, he started joking THE MOMENT THE SEXUAL HARASSMENT MEETING WAS OVER. This imo shows his disdain towards the topic.

Wow lighten up buddy, thats clutching at straws at a minimum and sad unfortunate effect of the damage todays woke (lets be offended at absolutely everything) culture is doing. 

[Alex T88]

1 hour ago, SamKirk said:

I feel sorry for those that don't see through his BS.

How does that change the validity of the facts and the evidence that he presented, all produced by LMG?

[Barkermn01]

6 hours ago, exsin said:

I am not responsible for figuring out each merchants shopping platform provider.

 

LTT always orates about security but apperently uses a platform that doesn't use 3D-Secure. How is that the customers problem to figure out the platform behind the store. NO. Just NO. LTT with its high horse security attitude should use a secure shopping platform. Sim-ple

 

Edit: Also according to EU law, I am dealing with LTT/Creator Warehouse, not Shopify, at all. The merchant is solely responsible for the functioning of it's store and complying with regulations.

Mate i live in the UK, and the "merchant" in that scenario is the "merchant bank" not the retailer they are distinct in that legislation, and you changed your argument, you said they told you it was Shopify's fault i was confirming it was, what happens with a merchant bank is, and just to note they did comply with regulations you transaction will have been stopped that's what the regulations require.

Simplistic but puts across the important bits of how online transactions work:
Retail (in this case Shop Pay) sends though basket or just total cost to Merchant, Merchant asks you for your card number expiry name (optionally address), this can be via iframe on the retailers website, merchant then looks up the system to use for the payment processor (Visa, Mastercard, Amex...) it then communicates with the processor the processor talks to your bank (bank includes CC bank) it will say say this card number your using required 3D Secure and it gets passed a URL for an iframe, this is then sent back to the merchant back with some information to keep track of the transaction then then send it back to the retail system, it asks you to complete 3D secure, by loading an iframe with a transaction id to your banks system for it to complete 3D Secure. once completed the iframe notifies the parent page 3D secure has been completed it then checks against the merchant bank who checks against the processor who checks against the bank it's then returned though it all that its been completed to the merchant bank, and the merchant bank hold that info and put there own transaction ID against it and send you back to the retail site with a transaction status and id. 

Overview
At any part in that system if something breaks down Shop Pay's retail handling of 3d secure or any of the others in that communication between 4 parties, it wont work, we don't know if it is shop pay's problem or a glitch in the merchant bank, processor or even your banks system not doing what it supposed. blaming the retailer, retail system or merchant without that information is just wrong YOU DON'T KNOW what caused it, could have been a glitch in your bank that caused it.

Auxiliary information 
Shopify powers millions of online stores it's world leading in it's systems and the best choice currently,
With all the best will of the world things on the internet can break even out of the control of everyone who is even a party to the processes control E.G one of the interlink ISP's has a fail over with your transaction response being lost.

By your logic we should blame you if your ISP cuts you off from the internet.

[TurboMode]

@LinusTech

I created an account just to put my two cents out there as if it means anything. 

 

I have been watching LTT for over 10 years at this point. From the infantile stages of the Langley house to the purchasing and building of the studio up to today. I have watched almost every video produced by you and your team. I have made purchasing decisions based on said videos and recommendations as well. 

 

With the Lab being introduced, I was extremely excited to see that a tech youtuber/channel is willing to make the large investment necessary to provide clear and accurate data for us consumers to make informed purchases. 

 

Over the past few months, I started to notice that the charts and graphs in your technical videos seemed off. Considering I'm not as technical with the intricacies of product testing, I did not think much of those issues at that time, but now it's starting to make sense. Considering you and your team ARE going to the lengths you are to build the lab; these issues completely contradict the entire mission brought forth by the idea of Labs. I post this after the apology video, if you can even call it that, hoping that you stand by your word and can fix the gross inaccuracies and downright negligent practices we have seen. It's good to have an idea of how you will be correcting this, but I will only believe it when I see it. side note, keeping things fun is okay on normal videos, but videos dealing with an apology or serious topics should be taken seriously and not joked around with to drive home how serious you are about your apology. The reference to LTT store was uncalled for an unnecessary and the video should not have been used for self-promotion as it detracts from the point you are trying to make. 

 

Regarding the Madison situation, these accusations are extremely serious and if proven to be true, is damning. At this time, I have no reason to believe these accusations are false, but I do believe in innocent until proven guilty. I personally will not be watching any further content from you, or purchasing merch until the investigation is complete and full details are shared with the community, we deserve answers on this before any further content is released. To the people complaining of "woke-ism" and "cancel culture" you are brain dead, and your opinions mean nothing. If anything, it just shows how discussing people can be and you are a waste of oxygen. 

 

Do better.

Be better.

Follow your own criticisms of other companies and their cultures and enact the same changes you have requested of other organizations. 

 

I feel for the rest of the team as this is their livelihood and is potentially crumbling underneath them. I believe you will be able to bounce back from the testing issues, but not sure about the SA allegations. Time will tell.

 

Thank you for coming to my TED talk. 

[RandomDude843]

Linus is the master of non-apologies and the video having sponsor jokes, an ad for a new scredriver didn’t help.

 

I was tempted to buy the bag and have it shipped halfway across the globe but now i wont even consider getting a pair of socks even if its the last pair on earth

[Fingernoodle Donut]

26 minutes ago, SamKirk said:

This image says it all folks! Steve knows that his biggest views are from when he is a "warrior with a cause", he literally tries to pick fault with everyone and everything (sanctimonious much!?) in order to increase the viewership on his channel and he does it under the guise of "being and honest reporter".

I feel sorry for those that don't see through his BS.

 

You're free to see things that way. Having a one-day spike in views doesn't sustain a company. I think you're upset with the message and attacking the messenger.

[mMontana]

My brain forgot to formalize one more thing about this release: the video give LMG an alibi for being silent.

 

Which might (or might not) help ease some of the community fire surrounding the company.

[OrbitaLinx]

I think the main problem at finding and making sure problems get fixed at LMG is the lack of a real COO. I think Luke would make a good COO he cares, has good attention to detail, doesn't waiver and can still have a heavy hand in FloatPlane in that position. Not to mention his experience having been with LMG since the beginning. Its the perfect position to stop Linus from "driving off of cliffs." I am sure Luke would make sure corrections make it into videos before they upload.

 

In direct response to some the what I noticed in the video Edzel "head of production" should be a little more involved with "how they catch those bugs" and less that's not my department. LMG needs a dedicated COO that's not just a product manager... Nick is "mostly a product manager." He doesn't need to be fired or anything LMG just needs a dedicated COO.

 

Every video should be approved by the COO and Linus before upload. Maybe also Yvonnne or other final set of eyes... 3 sets of eyes for approval is pretty bulletproof.

The process would be Linus watches first, makes corrections, approves then COO watches, makes corrections, approves then the final person. Or something like that...

 

[BigFatTeddy]

10 minutes ago, RandomDude843 said:

I was tempted to buy the bag and have it shipped halfway across the globe but now i wont even consider getting a pair of socks even if its the last pair on earth

Even if Linus would drown kittens on live stream, I would get that bag again. That is a really good backpack. The screwdriver is decent, not perfect, but decent. But the bag is really good. I don't care about the carbines on the zippers, because I usually replace all the zipper handles with paracord handles for easier grab. Just saying.

[BigFatTeddy]

7 minutes ago, mMontana said:

My brain forgot to formalize one more thing about this release: the video give LMG an alibi for being silent.

 

Which might (or might not) help ease some of the community fire surrounding the company.

You don't say. So you're implying that they're not only regrouping but this is also a form of damage-control? Come on! That is outrageous!

[hansthegerman]

22 hours ago, yeetdabmanyeet said:

Agreed on the pricing thing, that was a big "oopsie" and should never have happened if the block makers wanted that to be a private matter.

 

I don't, however, agree on addressing Madison's claims in the same video. Addressing one thing at a time is probably best, as in: make a seperate video and/or statement, and especially  with SA alligations you need to take your time to figure out what happened. If they reshot to include those alligations, it would most likely be rushed out, and anyone who said the video was "tone-deaf" would more than likely be thinking worse. I think we've all seen what happens when companies rush responses to SA alligations; it's never a good response, and it usually upsets everyone more.

Valid point

 

22 hours ago, yeetdabmanyeet said:

No hard feelings, not trying to attack you or anybody else saying these things, I only chose this forum reply to quote because it had everything I've been thinking about for multiple hours all at once in it.

None taken!

I think they at least could've removed Luke's joke, that should've been possible to do.