- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
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The issue with the water block is massive to me. Testing a prototype product on a GPU that it wasn’t made for, giving it a negative review, doubling down on that negative review when called out, promising to return the prototype to Billet Labs, then SELLING the prototype to the public at their LTX expo. As Steve points out, if a competitor gets their hands on that prototype, it could put Billet Labs out of business. This is wild, and LMG should absolutely be called out like this.
There should be actual, legitimate, law enforcement involvement… Cause its literally theft at best, corporate espionage at worst.
A $100million dollar company should be able to reclaim that property even if it means paying through the nose to get it back to the rightful owner. Losing a mass production GPU is one thing, that can be fixed with a check. A one of a kind prototype though? And who would make the decision to give something like that away, especially without consent? Things like that should come with a letter of endorsement of the charity sale, or at least have a (year plus) pause before just giving it away.
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Until I saw that I was willing to give them the benefit of the doubt. Even knowingly fudging numbers, while bad, is a temptation it’s easy to see someone trying to keep up with the content rat race falling into.
The corporate espionage on the other hand is fucking gross. Unless Billet Labs provides a statement that fully absolves LTT of any wrongdoing and states they OK’d the auction, I’m prepared to not engage with LMG at all anymore. Which sucks because I kinda like their water bottle.
I know we’ve only heard one side of the story so far, so I’ll reserve judgement. If it turns out as bad as it sounds though, they can get Anker’d
I’ve had beef with LTT since his series of videos where he tried to use Linux as a daily driver while making absolutely zero effort to understand any of the differences between it and Windows, then proceeded to whine about how it’s not Windows. The part where he broke his system after it explicitly warned him he was about to break it and asked for rather thorough confirmation that he wanted to do so was where I stopped watching him for good.
There’s being ignorant and then there’s being stupid. I fault nobody for being ignorant of how something works when they first encounter it. I do, however, fault them when they demand changes be made without actually understanding the implications of those changes.
The Linux thing I don’t find egregious. Replace Linus with a sizeable majority of the population and they would have done the same thing. I probably would have as well.
If you want to move people from Windows to Linux, Discord to Matrix, Whatsapp to Signal or even Reddit to Lemmy, it needs to be as painless as possible.
Everything that GN points out though is pretty damning.
Billet labs incident is very very troubling. I can’t see other youtubers not getting roasted over doing something like that, and could easily see a LTT video drawing attention to another channel doing something like that. So to find out LTT pulled such a move is a hit to their integrity.
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I actually think this would make a fantastic copypasta tbh
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Idk man I’d be kinda chuffed if one of my comments ended up as a copypasta
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Yeah, this irked me too. I get trying to be the average person (and Pop! was also bugged at the time), but I find it really hard to believe that the average person would approach linux and completely ignore serious warning messages.
Will Linus watch this one or will he just read the comments?
Probably wont find out until next WAN show, and I’m sure we’ll see the same look we see in Lukes eyes every time Linus starts off being blatantly wrong and unable to admit it.
Genuinely gotta wonder how much more of it Luke has in him.
Only comments. Some new shmuck will have to condense it down to tldr it to him. Hot take will be funny like last time this happened
He already did, you can find it here:
I would quote it, but it is too long to be a reasonable comment.
Wow you’re right that is extremely long. Tldr seems to be he’s saying he didn’t do anything wrong and he’s disappointed Steve didn’t just send him a quick text about it. I feel like it would have been better for Linus to own the mistake at this stage and get the prototype thingy back as it’s not like he’s short on cash or anything. I’d say he comes off like a bit of a jerk. We’ll see how this one shakes out.
Almost forgot that happened. Thanks for reminding.
Is watching this video considered piracy if there are no ads to skip over?
This comment is where LTT started going down for me.
TLDR please?
LTT Prioritizes quantity of content over quality of content, knowingly pushes bad data, adds afterthought text updates (in the form of youtube comments) which never cover anything but the most egregious wrongs and sometimes dont even get pinned until called out, major conflicts of interest especially with noctua, ASUS, and Framework, oh… and the got a prototype GPU block from a company, intentionally and knowingly mounted it to the wrong card, published the bad video and data anyway, then when criticized for that…Linus used the WAN show to attack the company claiming its products are failures that no one should ever buy.
Then, despite saying they would return the prototype several times, ended up selling it at auction instead… Where it could eventually end up in the hands of a competitor.
and the worst thing about it all, is that its a known problem, that even LTT people in the recent ask LTT employees video all universally agree to the same basic premise of “To many videos, not enough time to polish/check”
Wow it looks way worse when you condense it like that. Props to Steve for being Steve but why are gamers nexus videos always fucking 4 hours long lmao
LTT/LMG is trying to market themselves as a reviewer that presents data accurately but has made many mistakes along the way. It’s hard to shorten a 44 min video into a few sentences so I think it’s worth giving it a watch.
I don’t doubt this video was hard for Steve to make. From what I can tell Steve and Linus are pretty friendly to each other. Steve was the first person to let Linus know he got hacked
@ANIMATEK @Dubious_Fart used kagi.com universal summarizer
for those on lemmy if the attached screenshots are not shown: https://mastodon.social/@bison/110889514073366301
Ehh he aint wrong.
I’m seeing 43k likes and 48k views. That’s insane.
I know saying “how many people still watch LTT” is kinda dumb with the views they pull in, but fuck haven’t most people outgrown them? LTT helped me learn a lot of stuff when I started really getting into PC gaming decade ago, but after a few years I felt like it was just tech fluff videos. Most of their videos seemed like an ad for some fotm tech or just very basic concepts. I just don’t see how people can still watch it after a few years just because it seems they make their videos to attract the lowest common denominator.
I agree that a large chunk of LMG content is vapid and surface level, and I was put off by them years ago because of it. Ironically though, I’ve found much of their newer output more appealing, not because of it’s informational value, but because where else am I gonna see someone build a hacked together water loop with a car radiator?
I enjoy their content involving jank or overengineered solutions, their merch feels good (I would buy it even if it was just another brand like nike or adidas) and they arent as bone dry as GN, MKBHD is too mobile focused, Dave2D too regular consumer tech (like Laptops) focused, LTT has a bit of all.
The controversy he creates himself is surely valid but I enjoy the content more and the integrity he wants to stand for.If you disagree or want to discuss my opinion, feel free to ask why I enjoy it.
Stopped watching them very shortly after they moved out the house, the videos became very click bait and felt disingenuous compared to their old kitchen content.
Luckily GN is top quality, exactly how every reviewer/channel should be. TechLinked is good tho, Riley is awesome, but that’s the only LTT content I’ll ever consume.
98% of my LTT viewing is done as background noise for whatever else I’m doing. The other 2% are me rewatching Scrapyard Wars.
I know… But I just can’t help myself with Anthony’s retro vids on short circuit. His temple os one was amazing too.
It’s Emily now, she came out on her private channel
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Her videos and appearances where a bit awkward at first but all of a sudden they went hard. Easily my favorite host, no punches pulled on the nerdy detail which is something I’ve learned to appreciate in other nerds over the years - listen to those who are nerdier than you. Hope we get to see her hosting again someday.
The funniest thing to me, is that LTT would be massively improved if Linus would just fuck off and go away. He runs around like a ADHD Chicken on stimulants, constantly dropping and breaking shit, fumbling shit, and just being an overall annoying twat.
and hes been that way since the beginning, the only thing thats changed in time is that its gotten worse, to the point that I, personally, only ever stuck around to watch Anthony’s videos… and after the whole backpack “just trust me bro” bullshit, even that wasnt enough to keep me around and I just bailed.
Much prefer people who know what they’re talking about, and actually give a shit, and don’t have a massive entitled stick up their ass. Like Hardware Unboxed, and GN.
You know that he actually has ADHD? In other words: Water is wet?
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You may not like Linus but he is undoubtedly a successful business person and a great entertainer for a large public. An opinion is no problem but these things are just hard facts. LMG is a big success and Linus has played a major role in it.
The numbers don’t lie, content from LMG is just much more populair than content drom GN for example. It is way more accessible in my opinion. I feel like GN and LMG should not be compared as they have an entirely different audience. You seem to be a great example of that. If I want to have excellent reporting I go to GN if I just want a quick dopamine hit by seeing a few idiots cool a pc with an oversized turbine I go to LMG. I believe both are great but opinions differ.
Well thats quite a “Fox News isnt news, its entertainment” argument you’ve chosen to make there.
If that is what you read from my comment then you’re just trying to form a narrative. I did not call LMG news. I was also not covering the incidents on which GN is reporting (I definitely agree that this is gross). I was just balancing your comment which is overly negative of a company (and more specifically Linus) which has grown enormously over the past years. Reality is just not as black and white. LMG has problems and should take responsibility but LMG still provides a benefit to many people and they seem to have great and fun employees who genuinely want to do good.
I agree with GN that if you’re presenting yourself as a data channel you need to take more responsibility. I just never treated LMG as such a channel. For me again it’s about the stupid entertainment and not their data driven content. I don’t respect their data. I would never recommend a friend to watch LMG content to form an opinion. Your “fox” example would better apply if I had said that I knew LMG was presenting bad data but that it’s not that bad because it’s just fun and all.
10 minutes in, oof.
So is it just me or did anyone else notice how the tone of LTT videos changed after Linus stepped down from CEO? Everything seems to be on rails with 'uncanny valley’s levels of scripting.
I get it, production quality and writing getting ‘better’ but it feels like it’s being forced whereas before things were more ad-lib. You can see pretty clearly the difference in tone between the podcast and their videos… Not sure how to reconcile the two of if there really is a need… But it has been bothering me lately. They went through a similar stage a few years ago where their style really bothered me, and then it got better… so maybe it’s more the writing/direction than anything else which can change depending on who is working on a particular video.
Edit: I just got through this video and, yeah… A lot of their reporting errors seem concerning, if anything not because there are particular errors here and there but because conclusions are being drawn from errors. The frequency is pretty astounding too… Would highly recommend people watch this one, as ethical and impartial reporting is a dying art. Gamers Nexus definitely tries (although nobody is perfect, and sometimes their anal attention to detail can be frustrating) with Steve seemingly having his heart in the right place when it comes to providing information that consumers can utilize in good conscience when making decisions. I have my issues with some of Steve’s reporting at times, but I seldom question the validity of the content, whereas now LTT kinda looks like a crap shoot. No more reliable than the clickbait thumbnails you see on every other channel, LTT notwithstanding.
Not sure it’s the new management but it might be the schedule. Hell, the sheer amount of content they try to do per week is speculated to be the reason behind the problems GN is pointing out here. Is it when Linus stepped down? Or was it when they had to squeeze Gamelinked in?
Anytime they make a big change they have to adapt and they get rigid and then eventually they fall into the rhythm. Now they have the weight of Labs and perhaps that’s not going so well so it’s extra crunch time?
I hope they fix their problems, especially this Billet Labs thing.
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Unfortunately I doubt there will be any consequences, even though other people probably would lose their jobs and never be able to work in the field again after that stunt. In the past it was just unreflected consumerism, wrong or inaccurate information etc, but this is terrible.
Linus’s response.
I honestly fully stand by GN in this and while I think LTT should have had the opportunity to respond to the allegations before the video went live, since this is the proper Journalistic thing to do, it should be considered that ltt has a huge audience and influence in the tech sphere so I can only assume GN didn’t want them to get ahead of the curve? It’s sad if it has come to this.
I also don’t know how exactly ltt could respond to the observations GN made since it’s a piece about what happened in videos they posted. They can’t really deny what happened. All they could do is lower their head and promise to do better.
I feel like whatever point Steve is trying to make here could have been a community post or even a short rather than what looks like a 45 minute hit piece on his competitor.
This appears (from the thumbnail and first few minutes of content) to be drama for the sake of drama. If anyone can summarise to the contrary, please do.
This was a lot of words for someone who saw a thumbnail and a few minutes of a 40+ minute video
I’ll have you know he uses Arch
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Cool, in that case I’ll find some time to sit down and listen to his viewpoint.
No. Being sponsored by products you review, auctioning off prototypes of reviewed products despite agreeing to giving it back, wrong and erroneous data - just some of the problems outlined in the video.
But the most funny thing is that GN foresaw comments like yours happening - the community will just scream and defend LTT - without realising how bad you are for other consumers. Congrats!
Um…Why did I get @'d? I’m not on Rookehs side.
They’re posting from Mastodon, that’s just how it handles comment threads.
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Yeah, I just finished watching it. I stand corrected - first impressions aside, Steve raises some important concerns.
I’m also impressed that he voluntarily de-monetized his own video, it goes a long way to highlighting the principles behind it. Not many content creators literally put their money where their mouth is like that.
I will be interested to see how LMG responds to this.
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That is, as they say, the free market at work.
He is showing in video statements and fails done by LTT. There is nothing to water down to people like you. It’s either full data or you will misrepresent what was stated
Oh, he’ll misrepresent what the video was regardless.
His parasocial relationship to Linus must not be threatened by facts and data.
He most definitely misspelled rookie
could have been a community post or even a short
That’s been the problem, corrects get relegated to a useless stub rather than a genuine effort to set the record.
Communit, post? Sorry but that would be a wall of text.
Short? Dude theres only 60 seconds. Even a good TLDR of a 44min script can et best be shortened to 15-20minDude, at least watch the video before opening your mouth and inserting your foot.
