Vengefu1Tuna, 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.
traveler, It should be sued the hell out of it for that.
deFrisselle, Given the level of damage done Yeah, Billet Labs should be suing LMG could end up tanking their company
PerCarita, I don’t know if Billet has the appetite to sue. It seems like Billet and LMG came to an agreement
7heo, (edited ) expired
PerCarita, 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.
traveler, They got insanely lucky…
OtakuAltair, They should seriously get legal repercussions for this particular fuckup
altima_neo, (edited ) Not too mention totally ignoring the instructions billet labs provided
7heo, (edited ) expired
altima_neo, Thanks.
pachrist, I really hated him talking about wanting to review it as a product (which he thought nobody would buy). It’s a prototype. It’s specifically not a product yet. That’s the whole point of a prototype. It’s a concept and idea working towards a launch. For as often as they have videos with preproduction, engineering sample products, he absolutely knows the difference.
SexyPolariton, They didn’t sell it, the auctioned it 🤡
4am, 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
AdrianTheFrog, It wasn’t knowingly fudging numbers, they mentioned in the video that it was not designed for the gpu.
4am, Yeah I’ve since caught up on the responses, and as far as “fudging the numbers” that was with regards to their errors in other testing; the Billet Labs situation is just flat-out shitty.
AdrianTheFrog, None of that was knowingly though, it was accidental and the concern is just the frequency and inadequate response.
Dubious_Fart, There should be actual, legitimate, law enforcement involvement… Cause its literally theft at best, corporate espionage at worst.
7heo, (edited ) expired
anticommon, 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.
decadentrebel,
variouslegumes, Anyone who thinks a person reviewing a product is on their side is a mark. The issues with LTT videos is so obvious in hindsight that it’s hilarious that the fans haven’t or refused to notice. I honestly thought being shitty and approachable was their schtick? The people who are incredibly upset are likely to stan Gamers Nexus until they eventually get called out by another tech outlet for similar shit. The drama is fun though.
Optimus_Subprime, (edited ) What’s bad is that this isn’t the first time GN has had to call out LTT / LMG.
inv.tux.pizza/watch?v=jsX3tUA-wJk
Hopefully this will be the last time.
Edit: Just realized I’m not the first one here posting about the earlier LTT backpack warranty controversy. Now I get the “Trust Me Bro” comment.
Auzy, Geez… Watching this now. I’ve been skeptical of LTT for a while and noticed the focus had changed a bit when they launched Short Circuit and such. But I don’t think I could watch LTT without cringing anymore.
leyland1989, LTT has lived long enough and grown large enough to see themselves being the villain. I suppose fame and wealth can corrupt a person easily, the arrogance in the response from Linus is disappointing.
LTT hasn’t been a serious or informative tech channel for years, you don’t watch their video for information but for entertainment. They try to right the course by creating the Lab team but miss the point when they don’t change their mindset.
It’s like Top Gear vs Fifth Gear back in the days. You don’t buy a new car base on the reviews on Top Gear, likewise if I want useful consumer advice, LTT is the last place I look.
frankhorrigan, The arrogance Linus displays has been ever increasing for the past year. I’ve never followed LTT close enough to truly know how he treats people, but it’s seemed to me that he’s a bit of an obnoxious knob and belittles others.
InputZero, Absolutely but I think it’s a bit more than that. Linus is just not relevant to his own company anymore, it’s grown beyond him. Honestly it’s kinda a mark of success. Linus has the personality of a small to medium social media creator and it’s gotten him this far. Fortunately and unfortunately his company is no longer just a social media group, they’re expanding and Linus isn’t skilled or experienced at that; he’s a social media star. Hiring someone else to be CEO was a good idea, time will tell if Tong was a good choice. Honestly what we’re watching is LMG going through a growing pain and hopefully they’re better for it and don’t close shop.
sverit, Here is his response: linustechtips.com/topic/…/16/?__cf_chl_rt_tk=riEm…
My take on it:
We know that we’re not perfect. We wear our imperfection on our sleeves in the interest of ensuring that we stay accountable to you. But it’s sad and unfortunate when this transparency gets warped into a bad thing.
Yeah, well, that’s one of the main issues addressed in this video: You are not transparent about this, when you swap out videos without notice or bury corrections in a non-pinned comment.
Listing the wrong amount of cache on a table for a CPU review is sloppy, but given that our conclusions are drawn based on our testing, not the spec sheet, it doesn’t materially change the recommendation.
If the listing is wrong, who guarantees the lab tests on which the conclusion is based on are not wrong?
The thoroughness that we managed on our last handful of GPU videos is getting really incredible given the limited time we have for these embargoes.
Take the time it needs to produce correct reviews then. Who wants fast but false results?
sverit, Followup on Linus’ response from GN: www.youtube.com/watch?v=X3byz3txpso
Dubious_Fart, we have a discussion on it going on here lemmy.ml/post/3376890?scrollToComments=true
7heo, Yeah I pinned that.
pachrist, The part that struck me was Linus talking about how he hopes Billet does well because it’s a harsh industry. It’s a harsh industry for Billet because the biggest reviewer in the space took their prototype, mis-tested it, panned it, and then sold it at auction. Trying to paint that as a one-off is difficult, because it wasn’t a mixed bag on the quality of the experience. It was awful start to finish.
If I’m a small company trying to get a name in the space, I’d never go to LMG. “Trust me bro, we dunk on stuff, so you know we’re honest,” is a bad take if you’re the one getting dunked on due to lazy journalism and R&D.
sverit, Yeah, that was super unprofessional :/
pachrist, Some of the most frustrating and least empathetic people are the ones who come from nothing. They grind down people who are currently drowning at the bottom like they’re doing them a favor.
Horsey, Holy shit lol. I can never watch another Linus video again without thinking about this criticism.
ineedaunion, Dude sold out forever ago. ALL INFLUENCERS ARE JUST CORPORATE MOUTHPIECES.
ennemi, Linus Sebastian was always a half-competent corporate shill. Now it also turns out he’s a greedy asshole
Redex68, I honestly don’t believe this. I still believe Linus isn’t a shill and usually has consumer interests at heart, I think the problem is that he’s just pushing too hard and feels like he’s in a fight for survival at all times, and I don’t know if I can blame him for that, being a YouTuber is harsh. He tries to keep his company afloat to feed all his employees, but sometimes that focus on profit is to the detriment of quality and then fuckups happen. And I think Linus is too tunnel visioned on that profitability aspect to realise that stuff like this hurts his brand a lot more than he believes…
alvanrahimli, I used to like them, but last time I saw USB C iPhone on thumbnail for news video, which turned out to be absolutely not usb related apple news. That was disappointing.
gamer, 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.
altima_neo, I get the feeling Linus is just gonna double down on his bullshit on the wan show to justify it.
OtakuAltair, He already kinda did in the forums
Not a good look…
ipkpjersi, (edited ) 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.
Dubious_Fart, He outright lied about Billet compensation too.
Anon819450514, This should be a lesson for all. Never trust a single source, always be critical of the information presented.
Trainguyrom, (edited ) 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
Streptember, They're not even the only ones doing server/enterprise grade hardware anymore. And they're obviously incapable of competing in that area with more knowledgeable channels (outside of a few employees who can't carry a whole LTT video by themselves).
TheWoozy, Tempest in a teapot
aaaaaaadjsf, (edited ) 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.
Saneless, (edited ) I never have. General industry commentary, I have a few times, but when I want actual facts and what feels like a thorough dive, I’ve always done HUB and GN along with text reviews (which I prefer) from places like Tom’s Hardware
Linus is tabloid-style to me and it’s junk food at best
Edit : Linux changed to Linus. Though Linux is some tasty junk food
Dubious_Fart, Linux is tabloid-style to me and it’s junk food at best
Safe to assume you meant Linus?
7heo, (edited ) expired
Saneless, Fuckin android many words after-the-fact autocorrects
Dubious_Fart, dont you love it?
How autocorrect just decides to go back and change a word from the last paragraph with no warning and suddenly your concise argument looks like you do not have the human standard amount of neurons
Saneless, Yet a few replies after that one I had to edit my sentence because it has no problems leaving a word spelled as “woth”
There’s literally nothing else it can be except for with
trimmerfrost, A tech creator that big can never be trusted. I take his opinions with a grain of salt no matter how flashy his production is
altima_neo, Ever since they started their “labs” they’ve been trying to push themselves as actual reviewers and no longer casual tech reviews.
aaaaaaadjsf, 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.
1000mH, Linus stepped down as CEO. He clearly just wanted someone else to make the profit-worship decisions.
kattfisk, 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.
aaaaaaadjsf, Yeah that’s the vibe I’m getting
altima_neo, The streaming service thing makes sense too, considering how shit YouTube is
7heo, (edited ) expired
altima_neo, 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.
Streptember, Linus always wanted to be more, to go back to helping people with good guides and reviews, but he just can't seem to stop with the entertaining for long enough to actually produce high quality informational content.
Sackbut, (edited ) 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.
deFrisselle, Guess this is why GN and a few others were not at LTX
Billet Labs has a good case to sue LMG
Scary_le_Poo, With what money? Billet labs is 2 regular ass guys with 9-5s (as I understand it), LMG is a 100,000,000 dollar company (at least).
altima_neo, Mann this was juicy. Tech Jesus was pissed, goddamn.
7heo, (edited ) expired
Add comment