As he brings up in the video, this is no doubt a result of valuing quantity over quality.
The more videos you churn out, the more employees you need to hire to manage the load.
But the more employees you hire, the more money the company needs to make to support them, necessitating more videos to generate revenue.
He talked about this in last week’s WAN Show.
He explained that LTT has reached a saturation point in terms of viewership, and the only way to get more views is through quantity.
At least he’s blunt about it. Maybe the solution is to focus more on the entertainment style videos and diverge from serious graph-driven content
“if our business isn’t growing, it’s failing”
Nice little trait of capitalism. Can’t be happy with what you have, you always need MORE
Being blunt about it doesn’t make it better. He’s clearly, consciously deciding that he’d rather fill the board than do good work. It’s the kind of thing he’s criticized other companies for in the past.
I mean it’s fine if that’s the kind of business he wants to run but then he can’t be upset when folks like me say “nah”.
Damn selling that prototype is a major dick move. Even if he really paid back Billet, the damage has been done. I never trusted LTT before and only watched for the entertainment value, which was not that high to begin with, but now I will avoid any video they put out. Even MacAddress which is imo their most reasonable and fair channel.
How much do you think anybody cares about $800 water blocks? That is a product that is completely irrelevant to the target audience even if it did work as intended. Billet got a lot of free press out of it, they should be happy.
ah how does Linus’ taint taste like. It doesn’t matter if nobody cares about overpriced waterblocks. LTT didn’t have permission to auction off the unit. Imagine if a car channel auctioned off an expensive super car prototype (which nobody in the target audience can buy) without the car company’s permission that channel would find themselves in hot water. And Billet allegedly even asked LTT multiple times to send the unit back.
LTT didn’t have permission to auction off the unit.
What the fuck does that matter? LTT gets oodles of free crap all the time, they have to get rid of it somehow. A bit of kit landed on the wrong stack and got sold off instead of returned. So what? What the hell does that tell me about anything? LTT is a pretty sizable company, so of course mistakes will be made and sometimes one person won’t know what the other is doing, and this is a pretty tiny one. Making a big deal out of such a triviality that has absolutely no relevance to the viewer is ridiculous.
You sound like the kind of asshole that borrows shit from friends, sells it instead of returning it, and then gives a bunch of whiney excuses about how much you needed the money or that it was just lying around for so long. And then get upset at others for liking you less because it’s not like you stole from them.
You seem to think that some shitty $800 water block is a significant amount of money in the world where LTT operates in. Just getting a sponsorship into a video with 1.4 million views would have cost multiple thousands of dollar.
It should be easy for ltt to reimburse then, which imo should also cover lost opportunity costs and potential damages due to leak of IP.
Yes, they could’ve get rid of it by, I don’t know, returning it to them. As they promised in writing they would do. That’s theft. Mistakes are human, this was negligence. They knew they made a mistake and doubled down, and made it worse. It’s not trivial, it’s theft and corporate espionage if the prototype landed in the wrong hands. I don’t get how can anyone lick the boots of a hundred million company by minimizing their negligence and unethical actions.
And why should I care? Billet send in their prototype for some free advertisement and it backfired. The fact that this kind of advertainment is what the whole tech journalism industry runs on is worthy of criticism, but this little fuck up is so utterly irrelevant.
It matters because that was a one off prototype that probably cost thousands to manufacture. Even the lost time and opportunity cost of LTT keeping it for months can absolutely kill a company’s chances. It doesn’t matter if it was irrelevant to the LTT audience, or if Linus thought it was a stupid product. It was made by two dudes who wanted to see something brought into the world that didn’t previously exist.
No one bats an eye at $800 artisan keyboards, even if they function the exact same as a $50 one. They look cool, or they feel nice, or whatever justification people make to themselves. It’s not for one influencer to decide “this is stupid, I want you to make something else”
Yup you’re a moron.
They are a startup, it’s their prototype, LTT had loan of it, not ownership. Most companies that do this end up broke after the lawsuit and my god I hope Billet presses this one for all LTT are worth.
Can’t tell if troll or moron
In the last few months every service I used went to shit. Lost Youtube Vanced, and now Revanced is giving me issues too. Lost Reddit is Fun. Now I’m also being shown my LMG is crappier than I thought. I’m even thinking of switching to Matrix instead of using Discord. Everything else in the world seems to be going to shit as well.
These times suck, but I guess its just how things are gunna be for a bit while things reshuffle. (I do love the Fediverse and the way things are going, it’s just the change has left me feeling a little hollow.)
Enshittification is a popular buzzword at the moment but it does cover a lot of things.
These times suck
I don’t wanna be that guy but if your biggest issues are some online services going down the drain, you’re probably pretty well off.
This current wave of enshitification to online services is generally driven by said online services taking steps that they believe to be more profitable to the detriment of the people who use them.
That has always gone on but it feel like it’s everywhere at once at the moment; with the place I live in, the transport I use, the food I buy, the media and art I consume etc.
1900 years ago, the world knew that the only things people desired were bread and circuses, i.e. to have your needs met and have entertainment, a lot of people have built their modern circuses off of things that are becoming unusable or deserve boycott. It’s far better than living in a warzone or something but to have many things we rely on for satisfaction stripped from us at once.
I just wanna spend my free time entertained without having to perpetually change what provides that entertainment, is that not why most of us use this site?
My biggest issue is depression. I recently move to a new small town and it’s pretty lonely here. I was using the things I mentioned to help distract me, so losing them sucks more than it normally would.
ReVanced had been working perfectly for me ever since Vanced died. What’s not working with it for your? Maybe you just need to update it?
I, too think that the change is the thing that has left me hollow.
Or maybe just the loss of a norm.
True.
But I think this semi chaotic reshuffling is also somewhat exciting and reminds me of what I think the early days of online communities were like
I stopped watching LTT back in 2016, when I saw evidence that Linus is corrupt (more than most), it’s all about the advertising. It seemed to me that If you don’t pay LTT, your products are not treated well or completely ignored.
Not wrong, but isn’t that like the whole tech scene? The videos are either utterly impractical stuff for entertainment, advertainment or playing numberwang with specs. Actual useful advise is extremely rare (e.g. what printer should I buy).
Linus is a great entertainer, but I don’t consider that the standard for the scene. Gamers Nexus and Hardware Unboxed for instance have way better integrity as far as I can tell.
You’re being down voted, but I honestly agree with you
I watch bigger tech videos for entertainment and the teeny home grown ones for opinions on what to buy. Even then I’m cautious. Do others not view these videos that way? That’s how these big YouTubers make their money. It’s a conflict of interest to present opinion pieces and assuming any of them are unbiased is naive.
Linus’ response on the forums: forums link – screenshot link
r/videos discussion thread with good comments: https://redd.it/15r5yjp
Dear lord. Linus is such a narcissistic insufferable twat. In his response he creates the verisimilitude of several apologies but can’t help himself to always add “but I was right at the time though”. It’s like he doesn’t understand what an apology is. Accusing others of lack of journalistic integrity when he and his company are such pathetic excuses of clickbait mills is laughable. I particularly like the part where he is trying to say how he is in tune with peers and community, right after apologizing for a time where he was so out of tune that he accidentally committed borderline fraud, theft and corporate espionage.
He can’t handle criticism. He gets confrontational and also seems incapable of any critical self reflection
I’m with GN all the way, even more after reading Linus response in the forums. Own up, say you’re sorry and action on making it right. Counter arguing whatever you think hurts you has no value, really. GN pointed out the flaws in the LMG business and that’s it, nothing personal and good on them for doing it.
He didn’t with one sentence adress the ethics problems with the sponsors… This has the feel of a knee-jerk response and I hope there will be a full video with actual plans on adressing the issues by LMG and none of the worming around.
He has addressed the sponsorship issues in the past, though. Particularly the Framework one. GNs video is definitely in the right here, but I think the backlash is maybe a touch too far. Linus got where he is by being a bit of an egotistical asshole, but he’s not evil. I hope there is a measured response and changes to LTT policies and breakneck speed
I think Linus as a person is one thing and LMG is another thing completely. A good CEO/Leader knows the difference. It’s like being a football player wearing your country’s shirt: in this scenario, what your lifestyle choices are or who you like/dislike have nothing to do with how you play and the country you represent. They have to do with the goal of the team you’re part of. What’s best for the team is paramount, not just what you think is best for you. Also, since he’s no longer the CEO (from what I’ve seen being stated), why is he addressing the criticism head on instead of reporting to the actual CEO who’d would/should be more prepared for doing so? (I have a feeling that it’s the case from watching the GN video but could be wrong that he’s not the CEO, please correct me on this if I’m wrong)
All good points. Yeah he’s not CEO anymore. He should’ve had a PR person handle this instead of conveying his personal feelings in a hastily typed forum post 🤦♂️
It’s interesting how is response did not address the numerous clips of his staff asking for more time to make videos, to slow down, or the worst one (imo), where David said he’s, “rarely proud of what I create”.
Oof, the forum’s dead
I wonder if this is on conjunction with him hiring a new CEO or if he fired a new CEO to shift blame.
Completely unrelated
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I can hardly wait for this week of dunkeys “YouTube-drama-Friday!”
