My biggest complaint is how Linus is still saying he's not sorry about what he did, at least it doesn't seem genuine, instead he is still apologizing that he didn't realize what the community wanted.
He shouldn't care what the community wants. He should always strive for accurate data, ethical partnerships, and correcting mistakes when they still make it through because they always will.
Linus is doubling down on his opinions, hiding mistakes, doing the bare minimum to fix them, and needs public outcry and the heavy hand of the other executives in LTT to see any course change.
im so out of the loop here, help anyone?
In one of their videos one of the employees said they do better and more accurate GPU tests than other YouTubers called Gamers Nexus and Hardware Unboxed. Then of course those mentioned YouTubers started to hit back and show how often LTT is wrong and makes wrong assumptions, because they don’t do proper due diligence. Since they have to release several videos per week. Gamers Nexus also exposed that LTT auctioned off a prototype GPU cooler from a small startup. But they had no permission to sell the unit. It was only for reviewing. The startup even asked to get the unit back several times. Linus, the owner of LTT, then released a non-apology. Afterwards a former employee came out and told why she left the company and it turns out the work environment is very toxic at LTT. She also reminded everyone that pettiness by Linus caused his fans to harass a small YouTuber called MindChop. Who eventually committed suicide. He fell into a depression because of the harassment and later his mom also committed suicide. She couldn’t bear the loss of her son.
Linus Tech Tips, a large YouTube tech channel, has faced backlash after GamersNexus posted a video detailing their increasingly flawed videos focusing on quantity over quality. LTT releases videos multiple times a week, but these videos almost always have errors that are later corrected or are not noticed by LTT. This results in lower quality videos that can sometimes be misleading (especially product review videos). These criticisms had been expressed by many viewers of LTT prior the GamersNexus video. GamersNexus is also a popular tech channel and amplified these criticisms with the release of their video.
Other criticisms of LTT are that their packed release schedule overworks their employees and their corporate culture is hostile towards stressed employees. These criticisms were merely speculation until a former LTT employee posted on X (formerly Twitter) a detailed account of why they decided to leave the company. Their allegations detailed overworking, harassment, and their declining mental health due to their job at LTT.
LMG (Linus Media Group) was making careless mistakes and publishing a lot of inaccurate data, sometimes going as far to not recommend or label a product as "bad" after misusing it. This was likely due to an unnecessarily rushed pace of video releases that came from prioritizing sponsor revenue over accuracy, which many feel is a pretty massive ethics breach for a news outlet that is marketing itself as a home for highly objective, data driven content (LTT Labs).
Gamers Nexus called out this behavior in a 40 minute video which kicked off all the drama, and Linus posted a kneejerk response on the LTT forum where he largely defended his behavior and conclusions and badmouthed Gamers Nexus for going public with these criticisms instead of sharing them privately.
A few days later, LTT put out a video that was almost entirely LTT leaders other than Linus admitting how bad everything was, sharing some details on their processes, and committing to being more transparent & taking a week off uploading videos to rework things. But the video also included some tone deaf moments, like a plug for merch and Linus talking for a bit where he sort of apologized but didn't really talk for long enough to acknowledge all of his fuck ups. He did say "I'm sorry" at one point which was pretty meme worthy.
The video was also monetized when it went up and the description had links to their merch store in it, which people called out as slimy and LTT subsequently removed.
Different people have different conclusions -- some think it was a total non-apology, but I personally am satisfied. To me all their issues were the result of bad processes/automation run amok, so their commitment to reworking their processes and being more transparent about them with the community is exactly what I wanted to see.
But that's just me -- I think there are many valid conclusions that can be drawn from this.
Edit: There was also a reddit post on Reddit made by a former employee, Madison, that made allegations of sexual harassment. If true, these would be extremely damning, and to my knowledge LMG has not spoken on them yet. I also am just learning about this, so I don't know whether these statements have been corroborated by anyone.
I went down this rabbit hole last night. This dude accurately summs it all up in about 10 minutes. First 10 minutes of the video
If you have time there are more, longer, videos in the video description
Do what I do. Don't care about the things that you don't care about.
Although watching this since yesterday has been somewhat entertaining. Seems like a public figure stepped on his dick.
Accurately presenting your past opinions and weaknesses is not weakness. You can recognise your error while accurately describing your past actions.
You may want to change your actions depending on new information though.
A comment I saw on another thread put it best. He should have taken the 100 million
He got offered that much for the company? Yeah, I'd be sipping cocktails on the beach by now.
"We fucked up, and that's why I'm here to cry about people being mean to me on the internet again. Also I'm super not sorry and it definitely will happen again" -Linus
Really it'd be like, "I'm sorry... Just like this segue to our sponsor!"
They can't put out a statement without a segue. It's just not allowed! They love that word.
Even their apology video with the dbrand plug-in at the end, pretty cringey. They're like that Key and Peele slap ass skit, they need to plug-in their sponsors like an addiction. If they wouldn't have mentioned which sponsor, then yeah stupid joke to lighten the mood, but they had to mention dbrand.
"I am truely sorry - for all the money I'm going to lose"
You got that from the video? The comment was hot headed, but I thought the video was the best they could have done.
"And a message from our sponsor! Just kidding...
DBrand did offer though. :D
You can watch our progress transparently.... on floatplane"
Is all I loosely heard from it. Shame his newly appointed CEO has to deal with this, I feel like he should have been the only one in the video. It would have put extra value and emphasis on his message, and cut out all the blame passing and job title responsibilities; they could have dealt with all the other stuff separately. They shouldn't need to put their staff out there to dry like that (even if they're management), the issue is blatantly deeper rooted.
If they're trying to address their accuracy, management processes, or talk about video content burnout that influence their staff and viewers, it should have been short and sweet. They should have posted an update video to show us the progress. Not make promises and jokes and put half of it behind a paywall.
They wrote and uploaded their apology so quickly, they didn't even let the fallout settle before more controversy came inevitably to light. Now they need to eventually address that in a video too seeing as there's an investigation. Though it would have been hard to comment on year old incidences without an investigation to be fair.
I was told that when making apologies don't use too many if at all any reasons... Justifying your action with excuses means you felt there was an exception. They shouldn't have gone into specifics and just said "God damn we really ballsed that one up".
The video is overall good, just not the linus part.
If Linus was his own boss he'd have fired himself.
After sexually harassing himself.
"We keep the sexual harassment forms in the bottom drawer of the filing cabinet so we can get a good look at your ass when you bend over to get one."
LoL 😂
I mean, he did. 6 months ago.
I don't watch LTT or indeed hardly anything on YT, so I'm not about to sit through a teary YouTube apology video.
I assume it's the usual "sorry not sorry" arse covering job?
First one was. Second one not so much. It also outlined what actions they plan to take to improve things. We'll see how it going.
As all this unfolds, I am more drawn towards the opinion that I don't care that much about the GN call out, because those things can be fixed. I just don't care that much about tech entertainment being dry as bones to ensure accuracy, but am a lot more concerned about the posts from ex-employee Madison about how she was treated.
Sounds like they have made themselves a bit of a mini Blizzard culture. Crunch and sexism abound.
This just confirmed my opinion of Linus as an utter twat and probable sociopath.
His reactions to things like Project Farm's review of his overpriced screwdriver, and the constant, blatant submarining of Linux and opensource tells you what kind of person he is. None of the behaviour I've seen in this latest installment is surprising. Everything is done to get view numbers up, even monetizing the apology FFS.
But the fanbois gonna fan regardless, and he'll come away with more money after this than before because of it.
He came a long way from the depressed linus meme of years ago
Im beginning to wonder, if Luke left the video production side of LTT because they truly were working staff like animals to pump out videos and he finally decided "yeah im going back into development type work again..." Then made floatplane and got LTT to be his biggest investor. 🤔
That was the first thought that crossed my mind when he started FP.
Then you were way ahead of me then, it hit me like a ton of bricks just now.
I'm probably missing a meme, what's BP?
British Petroleum. The meme comes from the South Park episode lampooning the BP oil spill and BP's response to it. The meme is making fun of the fact that youtubers use the same non-apology whenever they're in trouble.
Winner
It's also lampooning the video LeBron James made when switching teams for the first time.
BP oil spill: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deepwater_Horizon_oil_spill
BP CEO hearing: https://youtu.be/X8p4s7EE6FY
South Park’s version: https://youtu.be/HQhmGIW7MVU
Edit: Here’s a better South Park one with the OP’s screen… https://youtu.be/15HTd4Um1m4
Here is an alternative Piped link(s): https://piped.video/X8p4s7EE6FY
https://piped.video/HQhmGIW7MVU
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I'm open-source, check me out at GitHub.
British Petroleum... You know the guys behind that huge oil spill several years back
British Petroleum. That bit is about the South Park episode which originated the meme rather than whatever Linus did (of which I'm also out of the loop)
I have a feeling of "I told you so" because I had mentioned how LTT always just felt like shills and something about Linus just didn't sit right with me years ago when I first started hearing about the channel and decided to check it out. I couldn't prove anything, you know. I just had this gut feeling about how things were presented, the way he talked, etc that things weren't what they seemed and he's probably a fucked up guy behind the scenes.
Turns out I was right.
That has nothing to do with being a shill. As far as I know, lmg still fiercely preserves is journalistic integrity, often cutting ties with brands that try to pressure them.
Sponsored by BP, Nestle and Purdue. \o/
I get that this is just a meme, but comparing YouTube drama to the reckless behavior of a multi-billion dollar oil conglomerate causing incalculable amounts of ecological damage feels like a bit of an overreaction.
Sexual harassment allegations are not "drama". And anyways, the comparison is in the way they apologize and not the damage they have done.
It's actually being compared to a South Park episode that parodies damage control.
I think it's only comparing the same impression of a fake apology, only to calm down the crowd.
You are analyzing an image macro
I think that’s… well, have at it I guess
True, there are probably better companies with a toxic work environment, uncompetent managment and rushed products but I can't think of one rn, well except VW but that's over the top too.
