LTT's exclusive RX Vega teaser makes tech press unhappy

[MrRavens]

All those other journalist can go hold all the L's Linus' dropped for their convenience. xP

[DXMember]

18 minutes ago, Trixanity said:

You mean is. The event is supposed to take place in like 8 hours or so.

 

It's a bad omen though. Very bad.

wow... 'mericans are slow, they don't get 7:30 P.M. for like another 6 hours? lol

[LAwLz]

I wrote a really long post and then accidentally closed the tab, and it was not saved... I feel like crying now.

Quick recreation/summary of my post:

 

I don't think people fully understand why embargoes are important, and why giving special treatment is frowned upon.

 

Imagine if Gamers Nexus were allowed to post their full Vega RX review a few days before anyone else was. That would give them a massive amount of views. That's good for them. The bad side of things is that most people don't visit every single publication to read their reviews. They read one or two. So for each view one site gets, other sites might be missing out on views. That means that having an unfair advantage where you can post content first will harm other reviewers.

 

With that being said, what Linus did was such a small thing that I don't think it will harm any other outlets, but it is definitely a small (very small) step in the wrong direction.

If Linus keeps getting special treatment from AMD then I think it would warrant anger/frustration. As it is right now I think it's just slightly worrying.

 

I think it is slightly worrying because Linus has a very large percentage of "dedicated AMD supporters" and considering how often he justifies his decisions by saying it gives him more views, I would honestly not be surprised if he would be OK with skewing his content to line up with predefined conclusions his audience had. If he gets more special privileges from AMD then that might push him into that direction even more (as well as enabling it on a much grander scale).

That is to say, I am worried Linus will start filling his content with misleading stuff just because it might bring him more views.

 

I can't really blame Linus for accepting this opportunity either. I think it will be really poor taste of him if he keeps accepting special treatments though.

[JCBiggs]

43 minutes ago, Misanthrope said:

Not that I fully disagree with you here (There's some truth to what you're saying) but you've got to look at what's the alternative for big channels: They'd have to go to someone like Casey Neistat to go with someone who has a far bigger reach but look at what promotional videos Casey does: AMD clearly doesn't has Casey Neistat PR budget money (For example his last controversial sponsor was Samsung, far bigger deal than AMD) They do have LTT budget on the other hand and while the audience reach is not as big (though not that much smaller, a considerable chunk but still) Linus actually has an even greater correlation to gamers, enthusiasts and the kind of people that would buy AMD products.

Wut?  Lol. Any idea what dev cost are for gpus?  They might not have samsung mArket cap, but they can pay whoever they want for advertisement. 

[Dackzy]

How do you show off your new product to as many people possible? Give it to the guy/s that gets the most views.

 

IMO it is kinda pathetic of them to get mad about this at least to the degree where they have to go on Facebook and such to ramble, keep it to yourself. The things he showed off was close to nothing and was TBH just a small teaser, there are still a lot to cover.

[Trik'Stari]

2 hours ago, DarkBlade2117 said:

No, I'd be unhappy because Linus videos are for more of a comedic effect now and even when he tries to be serious he always fucks up somehow. Couldn't tell you the last time I watched a LTT product review. They're all trash

I have stopped watching regularly for the most part since they stopped doing Case Reviews, which is something I focus on because I like interesting case designs.

[Commodus]

My beef: they're acting as if these kinds of narrow exclusives are rare.  They happen all the time in tech -- they're just not that common in the GPU space.

 

If there's a bigger issue, it's that these one-site exclusives can easily turn into fawning puff pieces.  For example, The Verge has had a few exclusives with Google that felt like marketing with a news angle.  I don't think LTT would compromise its voice for an exclusive, but there's always the risk that getting privileged access makes you feel compelled to write positive material (both to score another exclusive and for the "gee wow" nature of an early look).

[MageTank]

Seeing things like this always makes me wonder, would they still be saying this if they were the ones who were offered the exclusive coverage? Would their "integrity" decline the offer? I highly doubt it. It just seems like petty jealousy, especially because what was published gave no real information about the products outside of what we already knew from leaks. There will still be traffic to tech outlets for real reviews. A product demo is nothing close to a real review.

 

I see it as this; AMD knew Linus was preparing an event, they saw a potential PR benefit from it, and it was a mutual benefit for them both. AMD got free coverage, Linus got to treat his fans that actually traveled to an event, to a special reveal.

 

If anyone should be mad from this deal, it should be AMD or Alienware. What I saw was a video demonstrating how Threadripper's IMC (or Alienware's custom motherboard) failed to post with those SK Hynix Dominator Platinums, lol. 

[ATFink]

4 hours ago, Humbug said:

Linus Tech Tips is massive though.

so AMD would give it to them for max coverage.

That, and it was at a live unveiling with about a thousand people to tweet about it as well. Seems like a good marketing tactic to build hype if you ask me.

[Bouzoo]

I find it really funny how Tweaktown is the first one to call Linus out. The page/company/whatever that has some of the lowest quality material. The quality of their content/posts has been falling in the last year or two so fast, they should start focusing on real problems. Even many of their news that I saw when I was following them are straight up reworded WCCFTech rumors. 

I would get it if some other company that would do a much better job at getting all the info from units would to call Linus, but TweakTown, really? Next thing you know WCCF is gonna do it. 

[AnonymousGuy]

Can mods start insta deleting any Vega "news" posts that don't have the words "Vega" and "Benchmarked" in the subject line?

 

That'd be great.

 

But feel free to carry on buying into this nonsense that distracts from what actually matters about a product launch: the fucking product!

[mr moose]

1 hour ago, MageTank said:

Would their "integrity" decline the offer? I highly doubt it.

 

Just adding to that, integrity/credibility is money in the tech media world.   Just like scientists and publications,  enthusiasts and peers watch with a very close eye and are very ready to jump on any review that is not up to scratch.     This is why pcper, GN and johnnyguru enjoy a somewhat authoritarian respect on most forums.   Who are people most likely to dismiss in a forum discussion wccftech/tweaktown or GN/pcper?   I know who my bets are on. 

 

So, long story short,  give exclusives to who ever and let them decide if they have enough integrity to maintain respect from their viewers and not try to sell our their own credibility for a few more dollars.

[mr moose]

2 minutes ago, AnonymousGuy said:

Can mods start insta deleting any Vega "news" posts that don't have the words "Vega" and "Benchmarked" in the subject line?

 

That'd be great.

 

But feel free to carry on buying into this nonsense that distracts from what actually matters about a product launch: the fucking product!

there is a big difference between discussing what is currently happening and "buying into nonsense".  You make it sound like people are deluding themselves about the product (it is mostly speculation and people do recgonise that).   If you don't want to discuss it, then wait until hard benchmarks are out before posting in threads on the topic.

[XenosTech]

From the way the tech press and some people are acting you would swear AMD gave LMG an exclusive product review of vega and TR for LTX. People are so petty and stupid at times I'm amazed humanity survived for so long.

[DildorTheDecent]

16 minutes ago, XenosTech said:

I'm amazed humanity survived for so long.

lol good one. 

[MageTank]

45 minutes ago, mr moose said:

 

Just adding to that, integrity/credibility is money in the tech media world.   Just like scientists and publications,  enthusiasts and peers watch with a very close eye and are very ready to jump on any review that is not up to scratch.     This is why pcper, GN and johnnyguru enjoy a somewhat authoritarian respect on most forums.   Who are people most likely to dismiss in a forum discussion wccftech/tweaktown or GN/pcper?   I know who my bets are on. 

 

So, long story short,  give exclusives to who ever and let them decide if they have enough integrity to maintain respect from their viewers and not try to sell our their own credibility for a few more dollars.

That's not the context in which we are speaking though. In this sense, the "integrity" is in the context of their "unified unveiling" that they spoke of. I am not questioning the integrity of their reviews and testing methodologies, but rather them being angry at another outlet having exclusive access, when they themselves would have taken the same opportunity if offered. The same can be said of those very same reviewers you brought up, albeit, this wasn't a review, as much as it was an unveiling in general. 

 

Unveiling a product has nothing to do with "selling out their credibility". It's why I find these people's complaints to be childish, as all it did was show off a single cinebench score, and the visuals of the product. We know nothing about how it actually performs under various loads, nor do we know anything about Vega (the video failed to load DOOM as promised, and was cut short before any actual gaming footage released). 

 

TL:DR? These reviewers would have taken this same opportunity if it were them. Their frustration only stems from the fact that it wasn't them. The reviewers that understand how things work, are the ones not complaining, nor do they care, as this won't impact them in any way. 

[Daniel644]

who cares, so he "unboxed it" that shit was leaked already, it's not like the video showed ACTUAL TESTING before the embargo lifts late tonight (predicting, since the event occurs at 7:30pm PST and will be posted online after the event ends).

[KuJoe]

Is this an NVIDIA thread? BECAUSE SO MUCH GREEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

[mr moose]

25 minutes ago, MageTank said:

 

TL:DR? These reviewers would have taken this same opportunity if it were them. Their frustration only stems from the fact that it wasn't them. The reviewers that understand how things work, are the ones not complaining, nor do they care, as this won't impact them in any way. 

Exactly, I am agreeing with you.    I just see integrity and credibility going further than just bench marking parameters.

[Big Head Tech]

I will echo what many have said. Boohoo smaller journalist. I watch Linus for one reason, he gets to do wtf he wants to. He pushed his channel in a direction we wanted to, makes the kind of content he likes and because of that he got big. Linus gets to be the crazy mofo he always was, loves tech and makes money because of it. I'll be honest, I feel as if many others are more techie than him. He's like a grown kid that likes shiny. He's pretty knowledgeable but he likes to do crazy stuff and I'm okay with that. Maybe because I've dropped tens of thousands on tech stuff where I understand it?

[Evolution90]

Sorry but LTT is the only place where dropping an item serves as a test of rigidity and loyalty.

 

Linus be destroying other techies yo.

[Dark Force]

I honestly don't understand the hate Kitguru and TweakTown are throwing right now. And the article saying that "the tech press is unhappy" when it is Kitguru and TweakTown referencing each other is very disingenuous. Two small shops that many have never heard of until today are unhappy. But since this is how they decided to introduce themselves to the world in this adolescent manner, I'm sure that there are plenty of folks that aren't going to be put off by their whining.

 

5 hours ago, LAwLz said:

<snip>

I don't think people fully understand why embargoes are important, and why giving special treatment is frowned upon.

<snip>

It would be one thing if Linus had exclusive rights to release benchmarks and/or pricing information. If that had been the case, then I would have 100% agreed with you. But this wasn't that, it was just an unboxing. And not the only one at that. Pictures of the new Vega GPU were all over the internet yesterday from plenty of other reviewers and tech personalities - and a lot of those pictures showed more information about the card than what Linus did during the unboxing on stage.

 

 

[rawrdaysgoby]

LOL unhappy about the teaser? All he did was unbox the limited edition Vega 64... there was no benchmarks or anything hell the pictures were all over the net a week ago.... The event looked Badass and it was only a single day earlier... ALL he did really was cinebench threadripper.... All those tech press was just going to put up pictures But Linus showed it to hundreds of people extreme hype

[mr moose]

3 hours ago, Dark Force said:

I honestly don't understand the hate Kitguru and TweakTown are throwing right now. And the article saying that "the tech press is unhappy" when it is Kitguru and TweakTown referencing each other is very disingenuous. Two small shops that many have never heard of until today are unhappy. But since this is how they decided to introduce themselves to the world in this adolescent manner, I'm sure that there are plenty of folks that aren't going to be put off by their whining.

 

It would be one thing if Linus had exclusive rights to release benchmarks and/or pricing information. If that had been the case, then I would have 100% agreed with you. But this wasn't that, it was just an unboxing. And not the only one at that. Pictures of the new Vega GPU were all over the internet yesterday from plenty of other reviewers and tech personalities - and a lot of those pictures showed more information about the card than what Linus did during the unboxing on stage.

 

 

 

They have both been around longer than LTT,  which kinda makes the childish articles they wrote even worse.  Not too sure if that's jealousy as well as feeling like they are missing out or what.  

[Doobeedoo]

So what, exclusive teaser reveal. No salt needed.