Linus Tech Tips Pauses Production as Controversy Swirls (theverge.com) 115
Linus Sebastian's Linus Media Group YouTube empire is currently in crisis, with accusations of theft, lapses in ethics, and most recently, allegations of sexual harassment. From a report: The company has currently paused all production to improve its review processes, and CEO Terren Tong tells The Verge an outside investigator will be hired to examine the harassment allegations. In a video posted this morning titled "What do we do now?" Linus Media Group CFO Yvonne Ho announced the entire channel was pausing production for the next week to address the issues raised by the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus about errors in videos and concerning ethical practices. "I agree with the community," Ho said in the video, "so I'm putting my foot down. Effective immediately all YouTube video production is on pause." The controversy started earlier this week, when Gamers Nexus posted a video outlining a number of factual errors and ethics concerns in recent Linus Tech Tips videos. "We've been seeing an alarming amount of conflicts from Linus Tech Tips as it relates to their corporate connections, their flow of money, and the potential bias as a result of those things," said Gamers Nexus host Steve Burke.
Oh no (Score:5, Insightful)
Nothing of value lost.
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TBF they had some entertaining content which was mostly them doing dumb stuff like trying to run a GPU from across the room using multiple PCI-E extensions.
But the actual reviews weren't very well done or reliable, they shit out a lot of dumb stuff to keep up with the release cadence, did shady paid promotions (like pushing nvidia's 8k bullshit or some TVs) and despite making millions, constantly plug their stupid merch in the middle of videos.
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Nothing of value lost.
^ THIS ^
Re:Oh no (Score:5, Informative)
Absolutely. He has been a buffoon since day zero, a hopeless shill for those who pay him the most, and provided some of the most laughably poor solutions to simple problems ever imagined.
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For all the messing about that LTT does, they still do some interesting episodes. Linus' new house has been quite good, as we get to see the reality of an unlimited budget but still technologically limited installation.
Tech Quickies is decent for non-technical people who want an overview of a particular technology, or the basic tips needed to avoid being ripped off at some big box commission based store.
I hope that with their decision to produce less content, and concentrate more on quality, things will imp
It's all optional (don't forget that) (Score:5, Insightful)
What people seem to forget is that watching this stuff *is* optional. Nobody is forced to watch LTT or anything else on YouTube.
If you don't like the production values, ethics or whatever then vote with your mouse and watch something else.
To be honest, as someone who's now in his eight decade on the planet I don't really have time for drama like this any more, life is too short and getting shorter every day.
One of the few great things about YouTube is that there are plenty of other options out there if GN, HUD or LTT/LMG are not to your taste or don't meet your own personal standards. Enjoy this diversity and choice while you can... because the much bigger fear (for me) is that if YouTube keeps dumbing stuff down like it has been in recent years, all we'll be left with is inane "shorts" and repurposed content from broadcast TV.
Just relax folks... lay back and enjoy the stuff that is good, no matter who makes it -- because they all make some good stuff and some bad stuff. As a consumer, it's up to you to decide and choose accordingly.
Re: It's all optional (don't forget that) (Score:5, Informative)
It's all optional, but being informed is key.
Here for example, it's with knowing that when things didn't work right, they didn't seek clarification from the manufacturer (to find out their scenario want even vaguely applicable to the prototype). Instead they just ran the video and auctioned off the prototype.
So yeah, don't get too emotionally invested, just stop bothering with their content.
I had stopped bothering when I just never got any useful info from their content.
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So yeah, don't get too emotionally invested, just stop bothering with the comments and controversies.
FTFY.
Honestly, I get tired of this BS. There's no way to tell if a sudden flood of angry shaming comments on every video in a youtube channel is legit. Or the result of some asshole with a bot army trying to get a holy war going because they have an axe to grind. And that's after you wade through all of the negative and often hateful / spiteful / off topic comments that are in the average youtube video's comment section. You're far better off just ignoring it all.
Re:It's all optional (don't forget that) (Score:5, Insightful)
Perhaps, but the recommendations from Youtube for their videos are incredibly high-profile if one looks at anything consumer-tech related. Short of outright blocking suggestions from them they're going to show up as recommended videos.
Re:It's all optional (don't forget that) (Score:4, Funny)
Hence mentioning consumer-tech. I hope that your administration skills outpace your reading comprehension.
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I doubt they do.
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What about linux is not consumer tech? consumers use linux.
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No, all i'm saying is that using linux doesn't make someone not a consumer. I wouldn't bring up android, that's not what we're talking about. But linux users buy motherboards and hard drives and GPUs just like windows users do. You know, they consume. Because they're consumers.
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I use the Blocktube addon for Firefox to remove channels and videos I don't want to see.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-... [mozilla.org]
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> Nobody is forced to watch LTT or anything else on YouTube.
Of course not, however we are allowed to criticize braindead content when we see it and call out bad practices.
Look at all the people here complaining about Apple products - want to go on every thread and say "You don't have to use them!".
Re:It's all optional (don't forget that) (Score:5, Insightful)
If you don't like the production values, ethics or whatever then vote with your mouse and watch something else.
The point of discussing this controversy is not that people can vote with their mouse, it's that people *NEED TO UNDERSTAND WHY* they should vote with their mouse. You can't vote with your mouse if you're ignorant as to the horrible ethics, inaccuracies, etc going on.
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It's optional, yes, but LTT is basically the "fast food" of tech channels. Literally. It's made badly and it's bad for you on purpose. Yet people keep getting tricked because LTT is good at gaming the YouTube algorithm.
It's like all those AI channels on YouTube - you know, you run across them where it's read by a robotic voice about something in the news. It's the plague of YouTube - these no-content no effort channels producing dozens of junk videos daily to game the algorithm to make money from ads.
The wh
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Like it or not, LTT has reach and sway that go beyond YouTube and their viewers. They could completely crush a small business just by creating a stupid jokey video, and word of mouth spreads. I know people who have never watched a Project Farm video or even be particularly handy suddenly out of nowhere have very strong opinions about which oscillating saw is the best.
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If you don't like the production values, ethics or whatever then vote with your mouse and watch something else.
This isn't newsworthy because anyone is being forced to watch LTT, as AFAIK nobody is. This is news because a lot of people do watch it, and even more people know what it is.
Just relax folks... lay back and
think of England?
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as someone who's now in his eight decade on the planet
So you too find some similarities between this and LowTax losing the boxing match?
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do they really need to rush out 1+ video an day? (Score:5, Interesting)
do they really need to rush out 1+ video an day?
How about going slower to get facts right and do better testing of stuff in the lab.
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businesses are often based on growth. I think they've reached peak growth, and it shows.
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LMG puts out 25 videos PER WEEK.
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Re:do they really need to rush out 1+ video an day (Score:5, Insightful)
do they really need to rush out 1+ video an day?
LTT is not a Youtube creator. It is a major business valued at over $100m with a dedicated CEO, lots of employees, quotas, etc. They aren't focused on quality, they are focused on quantity, clicks, and sales.
It's not even about the speed, they literally are selling their own souls every chance they get. I mean they only just published a formal apology video ... in which they decided to advertise their own store and products. This kind of boneheadded move is right up there with bp's CEO saying the Macondo oil spill is ruining his life and he'd rather be off sailing.
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I mean here you are using a website that has been doing the same thing for decades, but worse. A site that advertises itself as "tech news", yet clearly cares more about pumping out a dozen articles a day than it does about quality or integrity.
Sorry but which small business has Slashdot directly hurt through incompetent reporting? Who is making purchasing decisions (or any life decisions) based on information provided by Slashdot? What is Slashdot a primary authority on and what testing and data do you propose it has created?
If you don't understand the difference between a news aggregation site (Slashdot) and someone who markets themselves as independent experts providing unbiased tests and reviews then sir you should stay away from the internet
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The one doesn't mean the other isn't true. You can have multiple videos in different stages coming together at different speeds. One can be being shot, another edited, another researched, another being script written, etc.
Transperancy (Score:2)
I'm hoping the changes come, and improve the process. I'm hopeful, but not holding my breath.
The biggest problem is growing from a one man operation to a full fledged mid size corp. Its a fine line between the "fun and games" and "mistakes were made", and that line is fuzzy. we all like goofy Linus dropping things, but as they've grown, they may have grown out of that market.
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we all like goofy Linus dropping things
No, we "all" don't.
I stopped watching LTT back in, um, I dunno, 2015-2016, when I got really interested in watercooling and realized I knew more then they did, despite me never having built a watercooled machine yet, at that point in time.
Their videos are circus videos, not reviews. The problem? people take their circus videos as true data- and fact-based information, which most of the time they are not, not by a long shot.
Oh well... (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Oh well... (Score:5, Insightful)
I know people love to hate on and see people fall from grace
Not at all. No one is hating here. LTT is just entering a space that is focused on accuracy of reporting and and they are incompetent and being called out for it. No one gave two shits when they were pushing videos like "Can I run a PCI-e over Ethernet, to Ethernet to USB, to USB to PCI-E adapter with a 1080Ti plugged into the end?"
Fuck these guys for pretending their hap-hazard approach to content should be in any way associated with hardware testing. They should go back to doing what they were doing and leave the hardware testing people people to do what they are good at. It's not about fall from grace. If tomorrow you decide you'll become a doctor and go botch a surgery you better believe people will "love to hate on you".
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I gotta agree with you on that one. When you're right, you're right.
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Wait wait wait. That's not right. You and I are enemies. We can't agree on anything. Uah, I think I need to change my opinion now. :-)
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I strive to be objective. When someone else, no matter what my view on that person is, says something, that's objectively correct, I have no problem agreeing with them. :)
We discuss ideas, not each other
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It's not about fall from grace.
it's likely his viewership that's having an "oh shit" moment, learning that LTT videos have always been looked down on and mostly seen as "entertainment".
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... but this is far from a major scandal.
The sexual harassment is certainly a scandal. Responses such as "That's not how I remember it" are not the way to address these things.
I've enjoyed LTT over the years, and their Mac Address stuff is som elf the more balanced Mac reviews around. I hope the organization can change and grow.
BUT: in the What Now? video, I wish they had kept Linus off the camera. All these people seeming to take responsibility (although it did feel very much like "we're saying this because we have to, not because we believe it"
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Moral of the story. (Score:3)
Ethics (Score:1)
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Interesting that "ethical practices" comes up (Score:5, Insightful)
This article reminds me of why I stopped watching Linus Tech tips. I used to watch it sometimes, but stopped caring after seeing a sort of yearly retrospective video, in which Linus got weirdly emotional, seemingly reflecting on the consumerism that his channel tends to propagate. He seemed genuinely upset about constantly promoting the latest high-tech gadgets, and the economic but also ecological impact that that sort of consumerist behavior entails. I began to be genuinely impressed by that sort of self-criticizing reflection as the video went on.
But towards the end of the video, all that built up sentiment culminated into a "well, but it's how I make money, so I've decided to just stop thinking about it - fuck it".
I couldn't help but LoL the most disappointed laugh ever to leave my face. Here I was thinking these guys were actually starting to care about the finances of their audience, or the ecological impact of the throwaway tech-gadget culture, but in the end they just shrug it all off because it makes them money. I couldn't help but be reminded that this is the same mentality by which oil companies and so many other problematic entities that are destroying the planet operate.
Somehow this one video ruined it for me.
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Linus has gradually shown more and more a mindset that says explicitly, unabashedly, "look, it's business, what did you expect?" -- sometimes talking about the "everything is free" mindset people have with online services. He's also talked a lot about building motes -- advantages that competition can't easily cross. It's clear he's shifted into thinking about it as more of a businessperson than as an enthusiast.
I don't watch LTT for the reviews, but I do enjoy their "we're doing this thing not because we sh
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Obligatory pedantry: The word is "moat" [wikipedia.org]. A "mote" [merriam-webster.com] is a very different thing.
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Moate vs mote ... I see you have your eye on that.
Just be sure to remove the beam from your own eye first.
Except the beam turns out to be a freakin' laser propelling a lightsail craft toward you.
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I did too, at least a year ago.
Re: Interesting that "ethical practices" comes up (Score:4, Informative)
My general rule is, with few exceptions to never watch videos where the thumbnail features a photo of a presenter pulling a funny face. Such thumbnails don't bode well for quality.
Ryan George, Big Clive, and Electroboom are among the exceptions.
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Annoying Canadian Voice (Score:2)
Why would a real Slashdotter care even slightly? (Score:2)
Videos are terrible about conveying information better suited to text. When it comes to computing that makes most of them a waste of time no matter whose content one consumes at the grindingly slow rate of speech (even when increasing playback speed).
LTT will do (something) then the corp will return to business. Not newsworthy for anyone competent.
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LTT has high production values and they have a decent sense of staging and timing. It's too bad they don't seem to have much of a sense of morality, but you know, money.
He promotes Windows 11 with a straight face. (Score:1)
Good riddance (Score:2)
LTT always rubbed me the wrong way. His "sham-wow" overdone delivery style, to the fact that they are shameless shills who will sell out to anyone to make a buck, to just the sound of his voice. Way too much money involved, way too much production. High on style, low on quality. Linus' core tech skills are lacking, and he doesn't know as much as he thinks he does.
The only thing that upset me more than LTT simply just existing, was the degree that other people depend/use him for "knowledge" due to how heavil
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I had asked youtube to not recommend his channel after so many awful videos. Apparently he has a whole bunch of channels and I finally have managed to get him and his cronies off my recommendations after asking to be not recommended every one of his sub-channels.
He still shows up in youtube search and I have to remember the faces of his idiot underlings but he has many now.
I pay for YouTube without ads... (Score:2, Insightful)
This is good (Score:2)
Ethics. (Score:2)
That's a gold star response! (Score:2)
In terms of being proactive, that's an all star response, and if anyone can fault it, then you're just being a troll.
Re:LOL (Score:5, Insightful)
I think that some people have a right to be pissed off with Linus right now, like the company who loaned them a prototype cooling water block only to have to auctioned off after LTT tested it improperly and gave them an unfairly lousy review.
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Re:LOL (Score:4, Insightful)
Linus is such a pretentious douchebag he used it on THE ENTIRELY WRONG GPU and shrugged his shoulders and didn't care.
Why would he care? The only thing that matters to a Youtuber is likes and subscribes, and that sweet sweet ad revenue.
Re:LOL (Score:4, Interesting)
Because he needs companies to supply him with products for review and for prototype stage hype (which is what that water block was). That's where the content comes from. If LTT released reviews days or even weeks after launch because they weren't getting stuff in advance, their revenue would decline.
Gamers Nexus does it right. They still get products, but their reviews are fair and thorough. They are serious too - LTT does periodic "look at the random crap I bought on AliExpress", but Games Nexus seriously reviews interesting products and there is some really interesting stuff hitting the market.
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Linus is such a pretentious douchebag he used it on THE ENTIRELY WRONG GPU and shrugged his shoulders and didn't care.
Why would he care? The only thing that matters to a Youtuber is likes and subscribes, and that sweet sweet ad revenue.
You forgot the most important thing: Sponsor!
With that, I'd like to draw your attention to today's sponsor....
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Well, there's pissed off and disgusted, those are two things. If I was the company that made the cooling block I'd be pissed off about the whole situation and as somebody who would expect a certain level of ethics involved in an organization that makes recommendations on hardware disgusted about the lack of ethics. These channels all compete for eyeball time and some have been reduced to soap operas, which this situation has become. I mean his wife, er uhm CFO was in tears during her statement; talk about d
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I'd love it more if "YouTube fags" didn't generate videos with millions of views and influence the purchasing decisions of normal every day people. I know it's fun to shit on "content creators" and "influencers" but the sad reality is they actually do have influence and thus should be held accountable.
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autosexual would mean masturbation.
"same" is not the same word as "self".
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Not the sharpest lightbulb in the pantry, I see.
autosexual would mean masturbation.
"same" is not the same word as "self".
I guess it depends how fussy you want to be about 'same' eh.
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"same" infers more than one.
Something is never called the "same as itself".
Or perhaps you thought a homophone was a word that sounded like itself all your life... Which is fascinating, because I just thought that was... well, a word.
Judging from your posting history, it was an attempt at using what you consider to be your elevated logical reasonings to poke fun at the concept... and in some cases, you are humorous, but in this one, it was just stupid.
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Are you sure? [brilliant.org]
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Second, how does someone else being homosexual affect you?
Third, how are "perversions" problems? Your problem is not just with homosexuals, but with any sort of thing you classify as "perversions". So how do other people's "perversions" affect you in any way that it becom
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Third, how are "perversions" problems? Your problem is not just with homosexuals, but with any sort of thing you classify as "perversions". So how do other people's "perversions" affect you in any way that it becomes a problem?
If other people's "perversions" are problems, then your homophobia is a perversion that is also a problem, and you should be stamped out, just like you obviously want to stamp other people out because they aren't like you.
People worshipping an idol of a bloody figure nailed to an instrument of torture seems pretty perverted to me.
But I'm not going to stop them doing it.
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People worshipping an idol of a bloody figure nailed to an instrument of torture seems pretty perverted to me.
And some of them do it while living in an unnatural state of celibacy, and not even jerking off. Or so they claim. It's an unnatural perversion to hyperfixate on sexuality so much as to worship a bloody figure nailed to an instrument of torture to justify the perversion.
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Identifying something as a mental illness in no way implies a desire to "stamp out" the people with the illness.
It does, socially. And we have no way of telling your true intentions. Hatred of anything some group deems "abnormal" tends to lump together and soon ends with that group inflicting violence on any and all not-normal-to-you groups.
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Chromosomal determination of sex is an evolutionary accident. Not a prescription by "God", you stone age prick.
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Everything we've found out about genetics this century more and more overrides our crude statistical intuitions of past centuries.
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Every once in a while you read a slashdot comment that makes you laugh. You read it again, and you laugh harder. Byt the third time you can't stop laughing.
This is one of those. Thank you. It's still early in the morning here. My day will be great!