According to Billet themselves, they heard nothing about compensation or payback until about 3 hours after the original GN video went live… Which Billet hadnt even replied to before Linus made his post saying they’ve already made the deal on compensation.
I’ve enjoyed LTT for a long time. The quality definitely went down, which I had chalked up to growing pains.
But this is different. This is an absolute loss of trust from me, especially the response Linus posted. What a shame.
GN has another subscriber, though.
Money and fame went to linus’ head, didn’t think it would happen considering they preach to be transparent but here it is.
If only that bald guy at LTT would have kept his mouth shut about how their testing was better than GN/Hardware Unboxed, all this drama wouldn’t have blown up on ltt’s face LMFAO
I straight up had the shocked Pikachu face when he said that. Being someone with a background in chemistry, I love the level of care GN puts into their testing. To have an LTT employeee be so fucking brazen with how they shit on someone WHO DOES IT RIGHT made me unsub right then and there. Linus’ reaction only made me feel even more secure in my choice.
Don’t put it on the employee when the Owner is the problem.
Do you have a link to that ltt video? I would love to watch that as well. Thanks.
It’s a tour from MurfsGaming:
Appreciate it
If only that bald guy at LTT would have kept his mouth shut
Do you happen to have a link to that video? I unsubbed from these clowns a long time ago, so I have no clue where I would even find it. I’m curious to see that clip now.
GN’s first video shows that bald guy, so just watch the first video.
Why in the hell would a one sentence comment that’s just stating a fact get down voted three times?
Just honestly curious about this one.
Maybe someone was not happy that you did not provide the requested link. Whatever, you’re good.
The quality was already going down, but now I’m unsubbed and I’ll never click on a LTT video again. Sorry, but this behavior is just unacceptable.
“We didn’t sell it, we auctioned it”, Jesus H. fucking Christ.
GN also literally said “auction” not “sold” in his first video, so Linus’s response was doubly stupid.
It doesn’t even matter. An auction is selling too, same thing. If I put my stuff on eBay and someone buys it I don’t say I “auctioned it off”, I say “I sold it to some guy on eBay”. It’s just fixed price vs a bidding, in the end a price gets reached and a transaction occurs.
Linus can’t seem to take the L and just digs the grave deeper. Unfortunately at this point LTT is too big to fail, but I hope it puts a dent in their numbers and makes them eat some humble pie. Maybe they can fix their internal issues then.
I mean I completely agree with you in that the semantic bullshit is bullshit, my point was that Linus wasn’t even correct in his attempt at BS because GN didn’t use the word “sold”. GN used the same word that Linus is attempting to say is totally different.
Linus used the semantics that it sold for “charity” ie. “We didn’t sell it for money for us! We sold it for someone else’s benefit!”
Linus’s brain simply cannot accept he did something wrong, so the cognitive dissonance forces him to make these great leaps of logic. He could have ended everything with a simple “I’m sorry, we’ll correct this” but his ego would never allow it.
Least apologetic Canadian.
He admits he doesn’t watch videos but instead reads the comments. Commenters often oversimplify things like this.
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I’m going to borrow things “to try” from my friends house, say they sucked, and then sell them on eBay.
I’ll just say I auctioned them.
GOT EM.
Trust me bro
Just trust me guys -big media company guy
This response has made me lose so much respect for LTT. Linus really needs to learn when to shut up and stop digging himself into these holes. He could have just apologized, compensated Billet properly and worked on fixing whatever communication issues his team has, but instead he wrote a long non-apology where he deflected blame, tripled down on the Billet situation and just straight up lied about compensating them. Very scummy behaviour from Linus.
Linus is a narcissist.
Narcissists have to prove how wrong everyone else was.
They have to control the narrative.
And when all else fails, they have to make themselves look like the victim, so they get all the positive attention.
Thats why he cant shut up, and always doubles down to make everything worse.
I’m not either for narcissistic behavior or ADHD being the cause.
I have several TBIs (traumatic brain induries) and I act like he does sometimes. Most of the time I can catch myself but everyone once in a while I’ll go into full “you’re all wrong, I’m right and stop hating on me” mode even when I am wrong. But I always admit I’m wrong afterwards.
It’s a maturity and, hate to say it, grace thing. Even when you mess up this bad, and then do it again, and then a third time, you have to step up and admit you made a mistake.
I have brain damage and I can do it. It’s just learning how to do it. Making that effort. I don’t think he knows how to do it or has never fucked up bad enough to want to learn how to admit to mistakes, or the reactions have never been negative enough for him to own up to it.
Either way - he messed up and should sit and think about it before doing anything else. He didn’t do that and it’s going to cost him. Maybe not a lot but something.
I definitely think his overreactions stem from his ADHD, also his maturity level.
Could be. Just trying to empathize with it is all. I get making decisions on emotion and it biting you in the ass, I’m just wondering has he ever tried to learn from being bit.
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I am so sick of people using disabilities to deflect responsibility for shitty behavior.
So what if he has ADHD?
If that truly is the cause, he knows his disability and has a responsibility to make an effort to not let the effects of it have a negative impact on others.
An explanation is not an excuse.
Blaming it on adhd is an insult to people with adhd.
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I have ADHD and my response would be to apologise so hard that there’s an indent in my head.
How he responded to the situation was not ADHD.
I have ADHD, and I’m not a prick. At least, I don’t think I am…
I have battled ADHD since second grade, been medicated and in therapy many times. I’m a successful chemical engineer now and I can promise you, that’s not an excuse for this behavior. I’m also by chance friends with multiple people with diagnosed ADHD, and not a single one of them acts this way when someone points out they are wrong.
So I’m not really fine with ADHD being used to explain shitty behavior. It’s not an excuse, ever
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Yeah, apologizing, paying Billet, and promising to slow down to improve quality would have been the perfect response. That would have been enough to keep me watching. But with the way he responded instead, I unsubbed and will avoid their videos, because he’s made it clear he can’t be trusted and doesn’t deserve my money.
And I was the perfect kind of viewer. I have money, have bought things from YouTube sponsorships, have Patreoned people, and I’ve actually been considering buying stuff from LTT’s store for a while (the only thing that stopped me was that their best shirts were sold out).
I suspect that for the most part, the kinds of people who would pay to support otherwise free content are those who are more informed and also care highly about the quality of what they pay for. The only reason I Patreon to stuff is because the creator has high quality and good ethics. I’m not gonna give money for no reason to someone who can’t be bothered to act ethically.
While this definitely wasn’t an okay response, I still prefer this transparency over every single response having to go through a filter/PR representative. At least we are closer to knowing what he is actually thinking.
Is this the straw that leads to LTT going full corporate mode?
He said it himself, he doesn’t know how to read the room.
If now was a time to bring in a full time CEO and relegate Linus into “creative director”, or whatever title he wants to give himself, now is that time.
GN has simply pulled back the curtain to show another corporation who put their bottom line before their viewers. And his response only shows this even further.
Truly disappointed by the whole debacle.
He already did step down as CEO. Which is funny, because there’s a clip of him from the GN video complaining about the lack of time to make content… my friend, you were the one who created this working environment.
Nah, LMG isn’t a corporation. It’s a CREW, of cool people!
…Yeah that’s enough.
Blatantly, and knowingly, lying (let’s not pretend that wasn’t the intention) about his compensation to billet is too much. No excuses for that.
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You know what really sucks? Owning their stuff. I got the screwdriver (it’s pretty nice). I’m drinking from one of the water bottles right now (it’s also pretty nice).
How am I supposed to go on using that shit? I can’t do it in front of anyone who knows. “Oh you like that LTT stuff? You know what they did right?”
All that goodwill flushed because of ego. All that cost, sunk. And the worst part is that this discourages me from buying merch from anyone else again, lest I get burned again someday when it comes out they too are the opposite of the image they portray for money.
I guess there truly is no ethical consumption under capitalism.
Or… just don’t give a fuck and reply with “Bought it before the shennanigans, bro. Not gonna toss it.”
But what will people think? 😱
True answer: They won’t give a fuck
Yeah, I suppose I’m not going to actually give a shit. Still feels bad, man.
I used a Tek Syndicate mug up until a few months ago from way back when Logan was still cool. It was a sweet mug regardless.
That logo rules.
I’ve been eyeing their screwdriver for a while, but I don’t want to give Linus my money after seeing this… Wanna sell it to me? I don’t care if it has any minor damage from regular use.
Edit: After the whole Madison thing, it leaves a really bad taste in my mouth… Nevermind the screwdriver, I’ll just buy a megapro or something…
What’s so special about their screwdriver? Can I fight off a Dalek invasion with it or something?
I just want it for the strong magnet and the megapro style bit holder.
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Since I don’t own a car or anything that requires high torque, I really don’t need an automotive grade screwdriver. I keep losing screws because the magnets are not strong enough in the bits I have. 90% of my screwdriver usage are PCs and other tech.
Nothing wrong with the megapro though… I might get that one, though I would prefer getting the strongest magnet I can get my hands on.
Just pretend that your specific money went into the pocket of one of the employees whose fault this isn’t.
You can lightly sand the water bottle and repaint over it.
I would dremel the logo off.
Just keep the L to show everyone what you really think about Linus.
Well at least you don’t have the ltt underpants
….uhhhhh
(Lol nah thankfully I never went that far)
Just put a sticker over the logo if you don’t want to sand it
LTT has grown to the point they can not act as equal to any small time team or start up. Linus decision has consequence larger than he can afford by pretending “I’m just another tech youtuber”. With 100+ employee, and far outsized influence in tech, LTT must be professional in their decisions.
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With the DeArrow browser plugin it’s possible to identify the 1 in 12 videos that’s not shitty clickbait and worth checking out.
Last one I watched was something about plugging as many USB devices in as possible. That was fun. Most of the rest sucks these days.
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Ah I haven’t watched that one, will give it a try. Thanks!
I generally take everything tech related with a healthy dose of skepticism. Even if the information is accurate, I want to do my own checking before I start using or endorsing a product. I work in tech, and generally I find myself often in a position where I’m suggesting or recommending hardware and/or software.
I’m definitely not going to take some half baked reporting from any one source and immediately start pushing it onto the people who depend on me to make well informed decisions. As is my job.
I watch LTT for entertainment, and at most discovery of new software and hardware.
Even what’s happening right now, it’s all very entertaining to me. What sucks is that I’m certain many people rely on LTT as a reliable source of information, the same way that the people I know rely on me for the same, and that’s a bit frightening, since the people who listen to the advice, and act without doing any other verification or investigation are potentially going to end up in situations where they’re calling someone like me to fix the problems… I don’t want to take those calls.
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I understand. I have been tasked, at times, with writing fairly simple documents to guide co-workers to complete a task; bearing in mind that my coworkers, for all intents and purposes, are very smart, experienced, and otherwise knowledgeable people doing the same job I am (more or less). Most technical jobs essentially require, as an unwritten rule, a certain level on improvisation, and the ability to extrapolate information from an incomplete dataset.
However, I generally need to run through the process 2 or 3 times before I can complete the task of writing the docs for it, the first time, I go through and mostly figure it out, make some general notes on what I’m doing, so I can repeat the process myself… The second time, I’m generally collecting screen shots, and filling in any blanks in the process I may have glossed over in my notes from the first pass, then before I’m “ready to go to print” I’m re-reviewing the entirety of my new document in an editing mindset, rephrasing and clarifying things as best as I can; then I’ll usually follow my own document to make sure that if I only do the steps listed, the process will complete successfully.
At which point, I have a draft.
I then, usually, ask my least skilled coworker to give it a once over to see if it makes sense to them, and offer any constructive criticism that they may have, with a second (revised) draft going to another low-skill coworker for final “review”.
That’s 2-3 people examining the material before it ships, and I’ve personally gone over it two or three times to check spelling, grammar, accuracy, etc.
And that’s for an internal document about a process that 90% of my team can probably half-guess their way through, even if they’ve never touched the related thing before. It’s a certain level of consistency and accuracy and I won’t accept any less from myself. I want to ensure that if my document is given to a client, or Joe worker, they can complete it without issue down the line.
This is the level of integrity that I expect, both from myself and from any organization that I would trust to provide reliable information. The blunt fact is that LTT doesn’t seem to be even double checking their work at all, meanwhile I’m putting myself to the standard of double checking, and ensuring my information gets peer reviewed before going to “print” (so to speak).
Granted, most of the stuff I do is generally less complex, usually guides and instructions on fairly mediocre technical topics, not full reviews of embargoed devices using pre-release firmware and drivers, but still, the methodology for the consistency of the information should be there. As GN had clearly demonstrated, it is not. And that’s just regarding their technical inaccuracies. I’m not going to touch the issues surrounding transparency and decisions made at the highest levels, like the recently developed issue stemming from this regarding the handling of the prototype waterblock. For me, the most recent developments there are simply deeply disappointing, and demonstrative of the fact that they’re willing to state things as fact before things become fact.
I usually just watch them when I’m baked, it’s a great show for stoner’s who want to watch people dick around with technology and get nothing out of it.
I’ve never used them as a legit review channel, just dumb entertainment, like the real housewives show.
What a joke. Linus’s response was horrible and I’m glad Steve is calling him out on it.
So incredibly disappointing, I thought Linus was smart, but instead of just owning up to his mistakes and making a proper apology, he just doubled down and dug his own grave even further. If he had just apologized and explained how he would do better and make things right, and how he would prevent these mistakes from happening again, I’m sure a lot of people would’ve gave him another chance, but he really showed him and his company’s true colors.
This is very sad to see, I was definitely a fan of LTT and enjoyed their videos, I watched and supported them for years, but now I’ll no longer be watching or trusting them after this. Its heartbreaking.
Have you ever watched the WAN show? He almost always refuses to admit he’s wrong. He’s a douchebag.
Half the time, I’m watching WAN show for Luke. He’s really the star of the show. Without him, I think it would be a lot different.
I’ve only seen clips of it here and there, never fully watched or listened, but definitely seems pretty bad based on what I’m hearing…
Too bad he’s like this, honestly the guy’s definitely talented and makes good content (if he actually puts the work and proper time in), but seems he’s just way too arrogant to admit when he’s wrong. I just expected more honestly, just sad to see after being a viewer for this long, and always getting the impression that he was transparent and more down to earth, which now its evident the opposite is true.
The apparent transparency was something that stood out to me as a major respectable plus of the channel. These actions and responses are not at all in line with my understanding of the channel, and I’m mostly just sad. If I dont trust the content, I won’t watch. I just wish Linus in particular had stepped back to realize what he was throwing away.
Yeah he really just needed take the L and say we’re taking measures to correct past mistakes (and having a new CEO will help). I think that would have been an easy reply to all of this.
People here acting surprised as Linus like hw didn’t do the same years ago with the crappy merchandise without warranties that he sold and double down about how everyone was wrong and he was right.
What a way to dig himself in even deeper. Yikes.
GN absolutely destroys Linus in this video. I mean Linus gave him all the ammo by repeatedly lying and not owning up his mistakes, but still. He’s calling like it is, without any sugarcoating.
I did change my sub from LTT to GN.
Nah.
GN didnt destroy Linus.
GN just assembled everything into a easily digestable package.
It was Linus’s Ego that destroyed Linus.
I may just be emotionally distanced enough from the channel to feel this way but I feel like this just isn’t that big of a deal. At worst everything seems like negligence and/or incompetence and I don’t see his main audience caring unless they already have a few bones to pick with Linus personally like a lot of people in these comments seem to.
The cover up is worse than the crime. Being wrong like that is bad, but it’s fixable and understandable the way the company is growing. Selling the prototype is a huge deal, both ethically and for future collaborations. But his statement after the fact stopped me from re-subbing to Floatplane. The response pissed me off.
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Occasional inaccuracies/mistakes are to be expected and are excusable; but a regular and consistent pattern of these mistakes bridges the gap to willful, almost intentional, negligence.
That is not ok. (and is a huge part of why I don’t regularly watch LTT anymore.)
LTT has chosen to focus on quantity instead of quality, so much so that the quality has slipped well below what many find useful/helpful. Having lots of content isn’t beneficial if none of that content holds any value so far fewer people want to watch it.
I think pretty much any creator can agree 1 banger video with 100m views is far better than producing 100videos each only getting 1m.
Put more effort into quality; then reaching that self-imposed weekly video count won’t be so important to the bottom line.
