You know, this is some shit that I expect when dealing with some shady asshole on ebay, but LMG?

Bro… Are you ok?

I always wondered if Linus was actually a slimy POS, but this Billet Labs situation has cemented it for me. If you haven’t watched the Gamers Nexus followup video, definitely watch it.

Gamers Nexus - HW News - Linus Tech Tips’ Terrible Response

    • LoamImprovement@beehaw.org
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      Look, I can’t say that I don’t understand the sentiment, but people calling YouTubers out on their bullshit is strictly better than ‘Nobody ever cares about anything outside of their 60 hour a week jobs that they work to pay for an overinflated cost of living in this hypercapitalist dystopia hellscape that they don’t have the emotional capacity to care about because of said 60 hour a week jobs.’

      I want to hear about this because it means somebody still cares, somebody is still paying attention to the injustice, however trivial or removed from daily life it is.

    • Scary le Poo@beehaw.orgOP
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      Honestly I could care less if it was just YouTuber drama. The reason I care and the reason it makes me so angry is because Billet labs is just a couple of guys trying to make a product. They aren’t some big company or anything like that, it’s just a couple guys working on a passion project. But then Mr Big money YouTube star does literally everything wrong, doesn’t even bother to use the product properly, and proceeds to take a giant dump all over Billet labs.

      Yeah, I’m going to be a little pissed off about that. Not because I care about some whiny bitch on YouTube but because I feel for the poor guys who got dragged through the mud and our potentially going to take a massive hit in their business once they finalize their product.

      • Nucelar@kbin.social
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        I am not defending LTT. They are innthe wrong.
        But they sent a unfinished product to one of the most influencial tech youtubers, say that a couple of times and you realize it was naive.
        There is many people working on prototypes right now that we do not know off. Because they are prototypes, not products. They played and got burnt. Again, LTT did wrong with them still.

        • SugarApplePie@beehaw.org
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          With how bad it is to send an unfinished product to a reviewer, the reviewer could at the very least use the right equipment to fairly review it. If it’s such a terrible idea it surely doesn’t need the additional help of rushed incompetence to highlight any flaws in the product.

        • jarfil@beehaw.org
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          LTT have made tons of videos with prototype CPUs, GPUs, and preproduction versions of pretty much any other hardware one can imagine. I don’t think it’s naive to send such a reviewer that kind of hardware.

          What LTT has done though in this case, with the making of the video, misplacing the GPU, selling the prototype, then the attempts at coverup and shifting blame… is beyond pathetic.

    • DJDarren@beehaw.org
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      It’s not just “YouTuber drama” though; LTT have positioned themselves as The Grand Knowledge on all things tech, so a good number of people turn to them for recommendations. And their recommendations are questionable.

      • meseek #2982@lemmy.ca
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        Grand knowledge? I’ve never seen a single one of their videos that told me anything I didn’t already know about a tech item.

        Mostly they make super edgelord cringe thumbnails and generally just have an idiots approach to the work they do by breaking things (the famous iMac Pro incident) or approaching things with the grace of a baby elephant.

        He’s the computer guy for the 14 year old. It’s wild that the internet looks to them for anything other than shitty low effort product reviews and yammering on about whatever to fill up podcasts.

    • jarfil@beehaw.org
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      We get it, you don’t know who LTT is or their relevance. You can ask directly if you want to learn.

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    Maybe I came to the channel late, after it’s prime, but I have never seen the value of LTT & affiliates.

    The review videos have seemed sub par when cross checking against multiple reviewers.

    The entertainment videos felt cringey even when they covered a subject I was interested in (PlayStation dev kits, other obscure tech)

    It was a quick unsubscribe when I felt my time was getting wasted.

    • Barky@lemmy.zip
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      I’m with you here. That channel and Linus have always just seemed like clickbait clowns to me, felt scummy

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      Outside of blatant click bait my issue with the channels is once it starts getting interesting, the video is over. Ever played RAGE1? Like that ending. (Credits roll when you think act 3 is about to start)

      I’d feel their videos would be better with 10 more minutes of content and slow the fuck down on making so many videos. Why the fuck they have 7 channels?

  • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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    I’ve been seeing this news article circling around the internet all day, and I have yet to see anyone mention what the monoblock actually is. It’s starting to feel like some kind of mysterious primal artifact, like maybe the master computer from which all flavors of Linux originated.

    • Scary le Poo@beehaw.orgOP
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      It is a water cooling block designed for a specific graphics card. It is a new type of design and Billet Labs sent their best prototype (as in, the only one they had) to LMG for review. Linus proceeded to strap it to a video card where it didn’t fit, so bad that there was a 1mm gap (which might as well be a million miles when you’re talking about cooling). Of course the performance sucked due to it being strapped to a card it wasn’t designed to fit, linus trashed the block and the company.

      And here’s the part that just fucks me off. Billet Labs SENT THEM THE CORRECT CARD WITH THE BLOCK! There is literally no valid excuse for putting it on the wrong card, Billet Labs sent them the correct one!!!

      And the thing that a lot of people aren’t understanding is the Billet Labs is not some large corporation, it is two guys putting hard work into a product. Unless I’m mistaken, they have regular ass jobs. People talking about them being able to sue… With what imaginary money? LMG is a 100,000,000 dollar company (at least). Their sloppy, misinformed, shitty, shameful, video basically has the power to cut them off at the knees when they did absolutely nothing wrong.

      There is so much more to this, but whatever. Linus is a garbage person. I feel as though Luke is a decent guy but afraid to give Linus the reality check that he desperately needs.

      Anyway, the first sentence answered your question I think. I rambled and ranted.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
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        I feel as though Luke is a decent guy but afraid to give Linus the reality check that he desperately needs.

        I honestly don’t understand why Luke puts up with him. I’d have left years ago. Although I have never been friends with the pompous tit to begin with.

        • IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social
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          Probably because it’s the best paying job he can ever get. What’s he gonna do when he leaves? Which other podcast/YouTube channel can he work for that’s in the Greater Vancouver Area? If he leaves his live would get upended, he either needs to move or switch careers and in both cases probably takes a salary cut. This is how shitty bosses like Linus retain employees. Just look at other shitty companies where employees don’t have transferable skills that only apply to one very specific industry, like for example the gaming industry. Employees don’t leave even when the bosses behave terribly, like Riot Games

      • FaceDeer@kbin.social
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        Thanks, the context you provided was important. If it was just the first sentence I would have been left with “ah, it’s a water-cooling block… wait, why is it such a big deal that it got auctioned off and lost? Water cooling blocks aren’t unusual. I have one in my computer right now.” The rest of the comment explained why this particular block was at the heart of such a fiasco and why losing it is so harmful.

        • Gyoza Power@discuss.tchncs.de
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          Aside from that, when people criticized the video because he was essentially bashing a small company made by 2 dudes^1 , he then went on a rant on a WAN show saying that he wouldn’t review the thing again because he is not going to waste employee time and money into doing a proper review. And that he does’t really care because, ultimately, he thinks it’s a product that nobody should ever buy because it’s too expensive, even if the performance was great.

          All said by the dude that used to make the weirdest shit and pay a shit ton of money for garbage, but god forbid someone made a waterblock for water cooling enthusiasts (you know, the kind of person that likes spending money on these products just for funsies, like audiophiles).

          1. This is funny because he always tries to avoid bashing big corps, like when Nvidia fucks up a product release, but they still find something positive to say about it. But a small company composed by 2 dudes that is lending you a prototype, which is not even their final product? A prototype that Linus himself (because it was him and one more dude) couldn’t be arsed to review properly and decided to complain all throughout the video? Let me step on them and destroy their business if possible.
          • GreatAlbatross@feddit.uk
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            When you mentioned it was only two people, I got curious.
            Turns out, it’s a small company operating out of london, and one of the directors lives two streets away from me.
            If it wasn’t weird, I would absolutely take a basket of sympathy cookies or something over.

      • ThunderingJerboa@kbin.social
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        Okay, would we be even talking about Billet Labs after a month if they didn’t fuck up this video and selling off the prototype? This situation has been probably the best case scenario for them. This isn’t to absolve LMG’s part in losing the prototype and selling it off but if it worked as intended we wouldn’t be talking about a 900+ waterblock for a gpu right now. It would be a long forgotten video because most consumers don’t give a shit about boutique water cooling solutions, wow what a filler ltt episode. There is a market for it but and I continue to say this what super water cooling enthusiast is going to follow the words of local idiot/“funny” youtube man who does stupid watercooling projects in the dumbest ways possible.

        • 520@kbin.social
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          if it worked as intended we wouldn’t be talking about a 900+ waterblock for a gpu right now.

          It does work as intended. LMG fucked up once again by using the wrong card. Billet Labs sent them a compatible card and LMG lost it.

          • ThunderingJerboa@kbin.social
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            You missing the point I was making. I’m saying if LTT shot the video right and used a 3090 TI, we wouldn’t be talking about this it would be a pointless video that most people wouldn’t have given a shit about. It was 100% a filler episode. They really should have done it on a 3090 TI but holy shit this drama about this has been going on for a fucking month now only just rekindled with the GN news.

            • 520@kbin.social
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              Sure, we wouldn’t be talking about this. But also Billet Labs wouldn’t have lost their only prototype device. It’s not like they can turn this attention into new customers when they don’t have a product to sell.

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                It is literally up for preorder right now and set to be delivered in a month or 3. You literally don’t think they have production models or cad files for this thing? Like yes losing this prototype sucks and it can hamper further development since they will need a new one made but if they haven’t updated their page that is a bit questionable to me. Their consumers should be informed of how this may affect things seeing as this has been a problem for months now.

                • jarfil@beehaw.org
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                  Losing the prototype mostly hampers their ability to send it to other review channels, showing it to potential clients, and so on, so in a sense Linus forced them to milk the controversy as much as possible.

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              You’re missing the point that you’re out here saying it doesn’t work as intended, when apparently it does. That wouldn’t be happening without LTT fucking them over.

    • dom@lemmy.ca
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      That block is the internet, Jen. It’s incredibly important that you protect it or the elders will be irate

    • remotelove@lemmy.ca
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      I saw the video on it. It is an extremely overbuilt water cooling system that LTT completely fucked the review on. I don’t really know if the cooler was any good since the testing was far from complete.

    • andrew0@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      It’s a cooling block for the GPU, and apparently it can knock off up to 20 degrees. However, it is crazy expensive, like 900$.

  • remotelove@lemmy.ca
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    I have seen a ton of LMG videos and it’s very obvious that Linus doesn’t handle conflict very well and will just immediately dig his heels in if he feels that he is in the right.

    Here is the way I see it: Regardless of who is right or wrong, this is a series of unfortunate events that happened. Small mistakes or misjudgments don’t always show themselves immediately. However, give it enough time and the floodgates will open and expose everything all at once, for better or for worse. When this happens to people who truly intended no malice, it’s a fuck of a thing to deal with and usually gets worse before it gets better.

    When all of your mistakes are gathered in one place for everyone to see all at once it can seem much worse than it actually is.

    Am I justifying the actions of LMG? Hell no! They need to fix their issues immediately only because they have such a large fan base that listen to their every word.

    Regardless, I have sympathy for them.

    • aleph@lemm.ee
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      Except this “series of unfortunate events” appears to be entirely self-inflicted.

      We’re not talking about a couple of hobbyists making YT videos in their spare time; LTT/LMG are by this point a huge media content factory whose unrelenting drive to produce the next hot slice of monetized infotainment means they are making constant (and often quite large) errors and not giving these products the time and attention required to assess them properly.

      If you have the time, Gamer Nexus’ initial video critique where they matter-of-factly listed all the reasons why LTT need to seriously reevaluate how they do business is a very interesting watch.

      https://youtu.be/FGW3TPytTjc?t=99

      Edit: wow, it seems to have finally sunk in - LTT posted this video not two hours after I posted my comment.

      (Piped link because apparently the apology video is monetized 😑) :

      https://piped.mha.fi/watch?v=0cTpTMl8kFY

    • lowleveldata@programming.dev
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      If they are not willing to learn from their mistakes then no I have no sympathy for them. How hard is it to just double check your shit before putting it under public eyes?

  • dark_stang@beehaw.org
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    This incident has made me reevaluate some things. I could see this being a one off thing. Like an inventory error or a communication error. But the rebuttal was wild. Cancelled my floatplane subscription for now. Maybe they’ll turn it around down the road, but this one was a big mess up.

  • flashgnash@lemm.ee
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    Damn this is really sad to see for the longest time LMG was one of the few companies I actually liked and trusted

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    Late to the news but I’m not entirely surprised. As messed up as the situation may seem, I like to remind it’s in everyone’s best interest not to jump on the outrage/cancel train. I do not have any loyalties and find the best way to judge anything is to listen to various outlets prior to constructing my own opinions. LMG f’d up in this instance but that’s not to say that their other content has no value. All these different YouTube channels work in an ecosystem of checks and balances and we need all of them to stick around to provide different perspectives. It is up to the viewers to think for themselves and don’t let the echo chambers of social media cloud your judgement. Whether it’s politics or tech reviews, let’s avoid extremism as nothing is ever black or white.

    • Scary le Poo@beehaw.orgOP
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      Yeah, you clearly have not been following along. Linus has already been caught in multiple outright lies.

      His treatment of Billet labs alone is enough reason.

      He didn’t fuck up in this instance, it has been continual over a long period and in this case he tripled down.

  • Big P@feddit.uk
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    I’m not really sure how this situation makes linus a “slimey piece of shit”. Incompetent, maybe. Bad at management, sure. Linus probably had no hand in any part until the part where he was told they fucked up. I don’t think there was malice in any part of the exchange, just incompetence.

      • Big P@feddit.uk
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        I think his comments about the retesting were poorly thought out but not egregious in my opinion.

        I’m not talking about the madison situation, which is pretty bad if true and definitely makes him seem like a bad person if he knew about it.

        • millie@beehaw.org
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          I mean, they sent him a specific card to use it on and he decided to just not do that and instead be as harsh as he could about the fact that he couldn’t get it together to figure out how to mount the thing properly. That tone he gets in his voice when he starts trashing it? That’s cruelty. That’s anger. He’s trying to hurt them and he’s doing it on purpose because he’s a manipulative and emotionally abusive person, and it’s easier to lash out than accept his own mistake.

          I’ve dealt with too much of that shit in my own life not to call it out when I get a whiff. Make no mistake, this guy is a mean-spirited, cruel, and callous person.

          • Big P@feddit.uk
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            I think it’s quite a leap from one thing to say he’s “manipulative and emotionally abusive”. I think he was trashing it with disregard for their feelings but not with the intent of hurting their feelings. Plus, I don’t think he actually wrote the script for that video, no? It could be possible that it was just incompetence and a lack of care/unwillingness to spend the extra time for something that in his opinion was worthless anyway. He probably sees hundreds items from other (usually much larger) companies come and go that aren’t so easily effected by a few months delay on an item being returned, a bit of bad press from a YouTuber or a missing sample. What is easier to believe: that Linus lost sight of what’s important in persuit of his own goals and didn’t stop to think about how it might effect companies smaller than his - or that he is secretly emotionally abusive and carefully calculated an attack on this specific company for having the gall to send him a prototype?

            • millie@beehaw.org
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              It’s not just ‘one thing’. Take a wider look at the stories that are circulating. Look at Madison Suop’s experience. Look at his responses to these screw-ups.

              I have known and been subjected to far too many people like him to be blind to their shit. He knows what he’s doing, he doesn’t care. He cares about his public image and his money. Full stop.

              He wanted to trash Billet on the air because he’s a narcissist, and it feels good for him to exert his power and watch others suffer. If you know the patterns, if you’re familiar with the red flags, his tone switch when he says no one should buy Billet’s cooler is all too telling.

  • Boozilla@beehaw.org
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    I always wondered if Linus was actually a slimy POS

    I believe you. Not everyone on here will, though.

    • SilentFury@lemm.ee
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      I never liked LTT even though my friends do. He always gave off this fucking scumbo vibe to me.