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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.
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
Given the level of damage done Yeah, Billet Labs should be suing LMG could end up tanking their company
I don't know if Billet has the appetite to sue. It seems like Billet and LMG came to an agreement
You're right. There was a follow up video from GN with Billet's response. LMG did indeed send them an email to reimburse the cost of the lost prototype, but they haven't replied. It's not as settled as I thought.
They should seriously get legal repercussions for this particular fuckup
Not too mention totally ignoring the instructions billet labs provided
I started the video shocked that GN would do a video like this at all. I was 100% ready to blame GN for being petty. As I watched and listened, though, he made really good points, and I can't help but agree. Especially on the points where Linus doubles down on really bad takes instead of doing the right thing, insisting it doesn't matter (there are loads more examples than just Billet).
The one thing he didn't say that I wish he had, though, is to remind people that he's focused on industry journalism, not just hardware itself. This isn't a hit piece, it's an information piece, where he holds industry players accountable. Not unlike his journalism on Newegg and Asus. No, it's not positive, but it's honest, and it informs and benefits consumers.
I got the sense that he didn't really want to have to do a video like this. He kind of said as much a couple of times. And in one section he mentioned he has kind of tip-toed around directly calling out LTT on specific screwups for some time. Like posting his results that contradicted theirs with the hope that people would notice but without directly going "looks at LTT's bogus numbers wtf"
I kind of felt like he got to a point where he couldn't in good conscience ignore it any longer because the pile of fuckups had gotten too big and too egregious with this billet labs fiasco.
I'm glad he did the vid because, yeah, he has done a good job of holding others accountable as you said, and this is exactly the same ethos. It's tough because I imagine you don't want to be seen as just doing hit pieces against the competition. There's an inherent conflict of interest at play. But given sufficiently good evidence and enough of it, I think that puts those concerns almost entirely to rest.
The kind of person to be doing reviews is someone who values the truth -- accurate results and sound conclusions -- over money, ego, fame and popularity, etc. Someone with a great deal of curiosity, skepticism, mental flexibility, and humility. Sounds like that is the near polar opposite of Linus.
I find it hard to believe, sometimes, that fully grown adults exist who cannot admit their mistakes which just reminds me of how damn lucky I am to work where I do, with a culture that encourages fessing up and fixing rather than covering up and blaming. Where the overwhelming majority of people I have ever worked with is about doing the right thing with an eye primarily on the goal rather than their own ego and ambition.
The most noticeable thing for me are the constant annotations. Sometimes there are so many that I'm not sure why a whole video is up if it's half assed and they want to salvage it through bandaids.
Bot holy shit they are become sloppy and borderline corrupt. Thanks to GN for calling them out.
The problem with LTT:
- Linus is insanely unfunny, spends half the videos shilling shit merch and makes dumb clickbait video thumbnails with
face.
Other than that it's great!
Classic CIM thumbnail pose. Donut is also notorious for also having his toof roof open 24/7.
- Linus is insanely unfunny, spends half the videos shilling shit merch and makes dumb clickbait video thumbnails with
Do people still watch Linus for actual reviews? The amount of times him and his team get basic facts wrong makes it unwatchable for me, from that standpoint.
At this point it's just an entertainment production, watching Linus Tech Tips for actual tech review content would be like watching the original UK Top Gear for actual car reviews. Which makes LTTs foray into more data/fact driven stuff all the more puzzling. They had a good thing going with the more entertainment focused angle, hired some people that were funny, but I don't know what happened to that.
Ever since they started their "labs" they've been trying to push themselves as actual reviewers and no longer casual tech reviews.
Which makes little sense to me. They carved out a very nice place on the internet being entertaining instead of half the video being spreadsheets and stats about computer hardware. Seems as if they want their fingers in every pie now.
I was surprised to learn that they have their own streaming service, full service production agency and tech convention, and that their store sells a lot more than just t-shirts.
It seems safe to say that yes, they do want their fingers in every pie.
The streaming service thing makes sense too, considering how shit YouTube is
Linus stepped down as CEO. He clearly just wanted someone else to make the profit-worship decisions.
I mean yeah that's exactly why they've split of into multiple channels to convert a wider spectrum of content. I wouldn't be surprised if they start another channel with tech comedy skits.
Reviews are probably the only thing that I consistently watch. I tend to agree with others here that a lot of the other videos recently haven't been catching my interest. That or it's just a behind the scenes of Linus' home project.
Is watching this video considered piracy if there are no ads to skip over?
Bro, the simple fact that Linus failed to recognize that ads are most of the time forced on you, with no paid opt-out alternative, had me cursing at him.
It's not piracy if I can't pay to get the product unaltered. PERIOD.
YouTube premium is exactly that though, isn't it? Not that I agree with either side, just trying to comprehend
I'm ok with the little "buy our merch" bits, but yeah the sponsor spots have always rubbed me the wrong way, especially as a YouTube premium subscriber
YouTube premium is supposed to be this, but it is apparently glitching enough that you get plenty of results for "YouTube premium still showing ads" web searches, and it does nothing against sponsor spots.
I would shut up if Google implemented a sponsor block feature for premium users, and fixed their ads showing to (too many) premium subscribers. Buy they don't. As it stands, paying for premium to opt-out from ads is as efficient as using
DoNotTrack(which is effectively just added data for fingerprinting) to opt-out from tracking. It makes you part of the problem when you clearly intend to be part of the solution. 🤷♂️Huh. I've had Premium for years and never once had it show me ads anyway. Crazy that other people have.
Evergreen joke lol. Always use adblock and sponsor block folks. Always.
Dude sold out forever ago. ALL INFLUENCERS ARE JUST CORPORATE MOUTHPIECES.
Linus Sebastian was always a half-competent corporate shill. Now it also turns out he's a greedy asshole
It's worth the watch. Heck, I don't even watch LTT and it was worth it 🍿
Damn this is eye opening for me. LTT was always my most trusted source for tech reviews. I noticed that they’d make little mistakes every once in a while, but didn’t realize it was part of a larger problem. I actually made a Ryzen 9 7900 buying decision recently because of this video which made it seem like the best value (especially compared to their very confusing 7950x3d review). After watching this GN video though, I feel stupid for not even thinking to check other channels before making a buying decision.
(Although honestly this is a major upgrade over my previous hardware, so even if it wasn’t the best possible option, it’s still a net positive for me.)
I really hope LTT takes this criticism seriously. It’s always gratifying to see misbehavior have consequences on the internet, but these independent reviewers are pretty much the only people on our side as consumers. I’d rather see a course correction than a crash, especially since LMG in particular has a uniquely powerful position and can have real impacts on manufacturers that benefit consumers.
I get the feeling Linus is just gonna double down on his bullshit on the wan show to justify it.
It was a long post, but he honestly didn't really say much in it. He just doubles down or strongly downplays the potential damage that can be done or even has been done. Pretty disappointing response, honestly. With that said, I would hope that people would do their due diligence and check multiple sources before making purchasing decisions and not solely make those decisions off of an entertainment channel - but even still, LTT can and should do better. The prototype auction situation is just a tragic failure and could be insanely damaging to Billet, even with LTT paying the prototype invoice. Disappointing all around.
He outright lied about Billet compensation too.
https://lemmy.ml/post/3376890?scrollToComments=true
LTT used to be fun because they'd get a bit more creative than other youtubers and weren't to cringewrothy (I'm talking back in the house with the kitchen set) and occasionally would go on some bonkers home engineering projects that were just stupid fun. But as my IT career grew I learned just how disconnected they are from enterprise IT and just how focused on gaming hardware they are (and just how boring gaming computers are) and now that I have a degree in networking and they've been struggling to level up their networking game I really just shake my head.
I watch them for entertainment purposes but anytime they look at server-y stuff I'm more watching to see how bad they are than to learn anything or see anything cool.
Its fine that they have their niche, its fine that they're trying to expand out of it, and I wish them the best, but they've got a concerning cultural problem that needs to be addressed before they can effectively grow more
Edit: wow this seemed so big when it was just a accuracy and integrity issue but now that seems so small with the new revelations from Madison. I wish everyone working the grind at LTT the best and hope everyone who sexually harassed and groped can find a nice thorny cactus as their new office chair
Guess this is why GN and a few others were not at LTX
Billet Labs has a good case to sue LMG
