LMG future?

[GeirOtto]

Hello

As a longtime viewer I am very concerned about the future of LMG.  Channels like techlinked, short circuit, techquikie are just too "mushy" i.e. not distinct and why do i follow all or one of them? No my hope is a bit more focused channels, like "Lwt" Linus Wearable Tech, or "Lht". Linus Health Tech, or another big market is "Lha" Linus Home Assist. All themes you should easily get a big player as sponsor, and you have a lab team to get your heavy and unbiased review results behind.  Your labs experiment with AI generated PSU test results was fun for 1-2 videos but reely not in a "today interest sphere" for your audience, who also now have the computer power we built in your early years on the wrist.  It is burning a blue light for LMG and changes need to happen, and this "private jet" is IMHO very far from your roots that for me is the poor man/womans tech solutions!  Yes back to your roots but with todays "products".  Then I will be a floatplane subscriber! Many regards from Norway Geir Otto

[danalog]

"There are too many channels (all of which are themed around a particular style of content)! If only there were....... more channels themed around a particular style of content"

[BiotechBen]

44 minutes ago, danalog said:

"There are too many channels (all of which are themed around a particular style of content)! If only there were....... more channels themed around a particular style of content"

Exactly.

Niche interest channels rarely grow beyond a certain size, vs the "huh, interesting.... For better or for worse: this exists now" type content reaches a much broader audience and while it (a particular video) may not be everyone's cup of tea or be someone's autism special interest, the interest in totality is satiated. 

LTT has historically been a fun/whimsy FAFO type channel for experimenting with tech, and lately it's been shifted much more disproportionately unbalanced into the "find out" part. Filler episodes are important, and silly goofing around is part of the creative process. 

(Water cooling with the sink)

(DIY thermal paste)

(Watercooling with anything but PC cooling hardware)

(Putting PCs in things that aren't supposed to have PCs in them)

("Don't worry Mr. Linus")

("Everyone has PPE on, right?)

 

[I do realize that the majority of that type of stuff was Alex and/or Jake stuff, but Pankratz/Eli/Tynan/David also fill those roles in (coalition?) with the "hear me out"]

 

I feel like a "nothing is off the table, go hog wild on ideas" day would be beneficial. 

The CSF "grab 6 people who have no idea what's going on and explain the silly as you go making up bs rules on the fly" chemistry was so nice (pumpkin drop, sledding, Taran scavenger hunt for his car, etc) and understand that it's not Mr. Beast content you want to aim for, it's Clarkson TopGear cheap car challenge. The "just keep rolling" often gives a more enjoyable result than the "perfect" take.

[manikyath]

i think you're critically misunderstanding some goals...

 

the goal of PSU circuit is not that it's a "channel you watch", hence the extremely low production cost AI voice stuff.. it's basicly the lowest possible effort way of turning a written labs article into a video.. so that people who are looking for videos about a particular power supply will also find labs content.

 

short circuit is your quick off the cuff "what's in the box" first impressions type of unboxing channel.

 

techquickie is your educational 'learn a thing' videos. fun facts, details about tech distilled down to a level a normie can get introduced.

 

techlinked is tech news, with some riley flair. it's basicly a straight rip from "netlinked" from before ncix went under.

 

gamelinked is the techlinked idea, applied to gaming news.

 

clips channel got rebranded to the WAN show, realisticly all of it was wan show clips anyways. it's your weekly portal into how linus and luke preceive the world around them, and what headlines they want to talk about.

 

LTT is your 'mainline produced content' channel, where the big projects go.

 

---

 

i dont think that topic-focussed channels make sense for what is essentially an entertainment business.

sure there's a lot of semi successful channels drilling down into every little detail about homeassistant, or reviewing all wearable tech.. but it's very niche content that ages extremely poorly. a homeassitant guide made two years ago is completely irrelevant today.

 

also.. LTT's roots were never the poor person's tech solutions. the second ever video on the channel was an extreme OC motherboard for a workstation class cpu. basicly the only "budget concious" content is stuff like scrapyard wars or pc build guides.

their origins are in "reviewing whatever the f*ck landed on ncix shelves that day", but that's a very time crunch sensitive way of running a channel that puts a lot of stress on the team, for content that will drop off like a brick.

 

they do acknowledge that the "LTT identity" has slipped a bit (as mentioned on wan show this week), and re-capturing that identity appears to be part of their decision process for wether to make a specific video or not. in a way the jet video is about as LTT as it gets.. it's prett much an off the cuff "unboxing a jet and opening all the drawers/unfolding all the couch beds" video, just about probably the most expensive "not in your wildest dreams" item they have ever done that for.

i think going forward the direction for LTT is stuff like the "AMD ultimate tech upgrade" style content, the tech house, and "interesting tech in general" like the woz remote video.

 

6 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

The CSF "grab 6 people who have no idea what's going on and explain the silly as you go making up bs rules on the fly" chemistry was so nice

back in the csf days that was extremely expensive content to make (both cost and opportunity cost), for a relatively small audience, hence why it was canned... but i defenately think they should figure out a way to make it work again.. i've actually been pondering that LMG should take a page out the tom scott / techdif playbook, and just make their own game show style content.

 

8 minutes ago, BiotechBen said:

it's Clarkson TopGear cheap car challenge. The "just keep rolling" often gives a more enjoyable result than the "perfect" take.

this. in fact, cleetus mcfarland has picked up the vibes of the top gear challenges and done some absolutely hilareous content that i'm sure will be very evergreen, and i'm sure there's ideas in there somewhere that LMG could turn into a series. there's also this concept that a swedish tv channel tried, that was basicly a "master chef" style show, but with computer building. LTT needs to do more scrapayard wars-like shows, but find stuff they can do in-office, so the opportunity cost is lower.

[BiotechBen]

13 minutes ago, manikyath said:

back in the csf days that was extremely expensive content to make (both cost and opportunity cost), for a relatively small audience, hence why it was canned... but i defenately think they should figure out a way to make it work again.. i've actually been pondering that LMG should take a page out the tom scott / techdif playbook, and just make their own game show style content.

Exactly, the opportunity cost was pretty high but it also fell into the "doesn't require Linus time" where it was Berkel, Dennis, and one or two people that had Grey Time (I've been watching Artemis stream perpetual, and I will absolutely be using that term now for "unscheduled period") and just going full bore on the "we have 60 minutes to get this done, one take, whatever happens: happens" where the creative freedom can flow. 

 

21 minutes ago, manikyath said:

this. in fact, cleetus mcfarland has picked up the vibes of the top gear challenges and done some absolutely hilareous content that i'm sure will be very evergreen, and i'm sure there's ideas in there somewhere that LMG could turn into a series

TheMiddleLane was doing some of those with Malasie era cars and then "Luxury for 5k" where it was just two blokes going "fuckitweball" and had to deal with very real, very unscripted things.

 

22 minutes ago, manikyath said:

there's also this concept that a swedish tv channel tried, that was basicly a "master chef" style show, but with computer building.

The plastic chef CSF was one of my favorites: very silly, very fun.

 

I do miss the "idk what to do, let's Livestream a PC build to engage with the audience".

 

 

 

Side note:

The dankpods content while he was in Canada with the various creators he was doing stuff with is the kind of stuff that made LTT so much fun to watch *questionable decisions/intrusive thoughts noises*

 

I think injections of creative chaos are what keep the things we do worth doing. 

[Doobeedoo]

Cat tips is the future.

[Issac Zachary]

• A lot of LTT videos have been fun but don't teach a lot (cooling with anything, putting water cooling on a MacBook, etc.)
• Others are fun and teach me a lot for my own projects or potential future projects (mineral oil tank PC, PC build guides, small tips and tricks, NAS builds, etc.)
• Others don't do much at the moment, but may someday (specific tech specs, etc.)