Linus Gabriel Sebastian & Linus Media Group / Linus Tech Tips - Narcissistic corporate shill YouTuber driving his media empire into the ground. KILL COUNT: 2

[p1138]

I was just going to post about this character. If you read between the lines she seems to be mischaracterizing or taking very mild incidents you'd probably get anywhere and forming them into a narrative that sounds much worse than it actually was when condensed together. And the end result is a moderately incompetently run outfit is made to seem like a hellscape dungeon.

These type of women and they usually are women I like to call 'drama torpedos'. They sit in storage for years or sometimes decades then usually after an entity or individual is accosted by some scandal and is foundering. They hop aboard the victim bandwagon to deliver a drama explosion that dramatically raises the stakes and tanks the reputation of the target in what was formerly a minor controversy because the drama payload almost always includes some accusation of a sexual nature and bEliEve aLl woMyN .

We've seen this over and over again from organizations that insist on hiring from the they/them crowd. Channel Awesome is another recent example that comes to mind.

Not sure I'd call that mess at CA recent since it's been quite a few years at this point. RT did have a bunch of people try to jump on the sadbucks clout train when Micah Burton wrote about her time at RT and then some of those people had their own stories blow up in their face when people started doing a little digging.

 

[mandatorylurk]

Whatever happened to that Russian guy they used to have?

Ivan was his name I believe, he left because of visa issues since he was russian, and this was four or five years ago, which seems weird when you see Linus seems to hire chynamen all the time which probably has even more nefarious anchor baby greencard systems in place to leech off Vancouver.


Here is the video I believe of their inventory/ingest system, but I think they've cleaned it up more since then. Look at poor anthony, before he wanted to suck dick for online likes, he was just the chubby guy who looked like he could do tech stuff instead of the fat tranny slob who we've seen absolutely can't.

As for Max, she was the most attractive woman working at LTT, which isn't saying much but when you remove her dangerhair and nosering there was some natural beauty, so of course she probably got swamped with autistic nerd flirting

One thing I think needs to be brought up is there was an employee at LTT who died, Tyler. They just said he passed away during a Wan Show a year or two ago, and it was during covid so they tried to imply that's how he died, but anyone with a brain realizes it was an hero due to depression or something because they never just said "covid." He was at 6:08 here, I think current employee Dan might have been hired to handle all of Tyler's former work.

 

[Raw Onion Enjoyer]

Ego, Linus wants to walk around thinking his 1 inch pecker is a 12 inch BBC because HE employs triple digit figures HE built A BRAND ON HIS FUCKING OWN.

Can we go a day without an american bringing up nigger dick?

 

[Bruno Powroznik]

Can we go a day without an american bringing up nigger dick?

Nope, amerimutts MUST talk about black dick at all times. no exceptions

 

[Londo]

The stuff with Madison is a massive yikes. Not just some of the things she describes but because as a long term LMG fan I actually can believe every description she's giving. This reminds me a lot of the Tek Syndicate drama when Wendell decided he was done taking shit from someone a fraction of his skill and intelligence.

Linus always did seem like a rat - like that lanky kid who sneaks around corners and gets super uptight over simple things. I foruoughly enjoyed his content for a long time but you could tell there wasn't quite something right in the way he interacts with his staff and several videos over the years had weird moments of his kinda being an ass out of nowhere or doing shit that clearly wasn't planned or cool with the other staff (like intentionally fucking things up or acting like a clown)

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Can we go a day without an american bringing up nigger dick?

I didn't have BBC in there initially but then I put it in cause I thought it would be funny.

 

[SNEED.EXE]

Have to laugh at the use of an algo friendly YT thumbnail, and description shilling merch
it just needs some giant red arrows pointing everywhere

 

[Canuck Breaker]

Probably a lot of this was old school, mills and lathes, due to the cost of getting good used ones for cheap. You can use both with extreme accuracy if you know what you're doing, its just slower,

Catching up on the thread when my autism was sparked.

Spoiler: Amatuer Machining Sperg

With something like this, you would almost prefer to use mills and lathes, just due to the ability to monitor everything as you go about making changes. Throwing some numbers in a CNC and then letting it run to examine afterward just isn't the same as watching and feeling the metal react in real time. Having your hands on the controls gives an extra sensory input that can help shape your design choices as you're implementing them.

One of the more enjoyable experiences I've had in my (limited) time spent doing machining jobs, was being able to use a lathe from the original Ford factory. This machine would have been used to make parts for Model Ts. The only non-original aspect is that they were belt-driven from a central axel in the ceiling at the factory, but this one had a small motor to run the belt-drive.

 

[Thugnificent]

No, I think GN was making a custom PC for some metal band or bullshit like that.
Then, the custom parts GN ordered from their chinese insectoid overlords that they love to worship fell into the ocean after leaving the mainland with 5000 years of history on it's way to the fat pig USA land.
So the build was delayed for a long time because of it and whoever this metal band was couldn't play CSGO on max settings thus causing bad things to happen to them I suppose, maybe the drummer killed himself or something I'm not sure.

It was a PC they built for Trivium, and it was primarily for their editing station at their sound stage. I don't think any drama came out of it because the lead singer even left a comment on their video.

 

[Big Miss Steak]

I never said I thought it was right. My point is that any social media account is going to get that shit, constantly, on any platform. I guarantee you there's degenerates sending dick pics to the Wendys twitter account asking if she wants this meat between her buns. Its the internet, its how it works. And if you suffer actual harm from that, you don't have the skin and attitude to run these in the first place.

What Linus did wrong was succumb to social pressure and hired this bitch in the first place, only to completely disregard and abuse her and her input every step of the way. Truly a set up to fucking fail. The onlyfans was just the cherry on the shit souffle.

To act like normal social media accounts get as many sex pests and unsolicited nudes as an OnlyFans account is silly. If you take a job managing social media for a famous internet figure you might expect the occasional weirdo sending nudes or gross messages, but on OF that has to be an hourly occurrence and if she wasn't comfortable doing it, they shouldn't have made her. Guarantee you it wasn't a part of her job description.

Why do ex-tech people always sound like they escaped a mindless cult? It's a fucking job. What we decide to do for a living is a choice we make everyday and make it a calling if you want. However, what they do for the company is simply called working and the point is to be compensated for it. Don't ever become that imbecile who truly believes they'll receive special treatment based upon a false premise that their corporation is somehow a highly superior force in the universe that has evolved beyond the limitations of human nature. It's a quick way to be used and abused and to get oneself into trouble.

As fun as it is to bitch and moan about Millennials and Gen Z (and it's often warranted), startups headed by charismatic narcissists are often run like cults and younger people have less experience and wisdom and are more likely to get sucked into such workplaces. Speaking from experience having worked for such a company. Looking back, it was an incredibly bizarre and toxic (lol) environment and it's crazy the things I and other coworkers tolerated or thought was normal. And we see a lot of tech startups atm so makes sense there would be a lot of these instances with young people in tech.

That said, I am sure Madison is exaggerating for pity. Although I do believe she was likely harassed by weirdo sex pests in the workplace. Generally normal, nice nerds can lose their heads around a natal woman regardless of her availability or attractiveness (again, speaking from seeing this with my own eyes). And although BPD women do make up things for clout, they are also an easy target for predators and pests.

 

[Soggy paper straw]

Ivan was his name I believe,

Posted his twitter in the last page - nothing so far. He really does not use Twitter that much

he left because of visa issues since he was russian

Was this confirmed? Because every time it is brought everyone has a different explanation, including, ironically, mishandling of a company test sample

---

Random round-up of twitter tech channels & more - sorry if some of this has been posted already, most should definitely be new

David painted-nails has a podcast with Jono (who now works for MHKDB). The podcast is not going ahead this week as it has been an emotional "week"


He also liked all/most of Madison post. This dude needs to be fired. It does however most likely exclude him from being the bad touch in the company (unless he is doing some 5D chess)

Spoiler: Most of the likes

A MHKDB responded to Madison's allegations



Jayz2cent showed his support for Billet Labs, while not completely throwing Linus under the bus


Snazzy labs wrote 3 tweets

Spoiler: Text

I despise the “grind” mindset. It’s not allowed at Snazzy Labs. It’s cancerous. It stresses out all workers, lessens product quality, and creates culture/operational problems without the time to address them. I’ll never be super rich, but I’m happy. And I hope my team is too. Work isn’t life.

Good people make bad mistakes because of poor work culture that comes as the result of “grinding” for the company. Businesses are not families. Any company pitching culture to the contrary is toxic and taking advantage of its workers.

With that said, I do want to say something that won’t be popular… we need to set reasonable expectations and timelines for process changes at
@LinusTech
. It would do us well to cut them a little slack. I don’t think
@linusgsebastian
is a bad person (I actually think he’s a very good person with some major blind spots) and I think that’s the case with the vast majority of the team. Very few people in the community understand the absolute scale at which they operate and the rate at which they’ve grown. Going from a dozen to 130+ people in a few years is insane. They need to make changes—a lot of them—and I think Linus’ employ of Terren is an attempt to “hire out” what isn’t his strength. My only plea is that Linus let Terren do his job. Someone who isn’t emotionally attached is the only one that can make needed changes. What are the needed changes? There are people in management that might need to be fired. There are absolutely revisions to HR, writing, production, et al that need to take place. Nobody really knows except for those that currently work and have worked for LMG. The rest of us on the outside are pretty clueless and so we shouldn’t jump to conclusions based on limited information. I do, however, know that companies often try to fix processes in crisis faster than they should which leads to new rules and guidelines that don’t really fix underlying issues. There are clearly many things that are broken over there and they need to “tear the place down to the fire-pole” to discover what needs fixing. But LMG *is* fixable and made up of mostly incredible people. If we’ve learned anything about Linus in the last 15 years, it’s that he’s one stubborn bastard that cares about his content, community, and legacy more than anything. 80% of the time, that’s his strength. I just hope he can humble himself enough to address the 20% of the time it’s his greatest weakness.

I also found who Madison is dating (idk if this is new info)


Kyle also liked the podcast from HUB

 

[WelperHelper99]

Catching up on the thread when my autism was sparked.

Spoiler: Amatuer Machining Sperg

With something like this, you would almost prefer to use mills and lathes, just due to the ability to monitor everything as you go about making changes. Throwing some numbers in a CNC and then letting it run to examine afterward just isn't the same as watching and feeling the metal react in real time. Having your hands on the controls gives an extra sensory input that can help shape your design choices as you're implementing them.

One of the more enjoyable experiences I've had in my (limited) time spent doing machining jobs, was being able to use a lathe from the original Ford factory. This machine would have been used to make parts for Model Ts. The only non-original aspect is that they were belt-driven from a central axel in the ceiling at the factory, but this one had a small motor to run the belt-drive.

That too. If you fuck up in CnC, there goes the block. A mill and lathe set up means you can work at your own pace.

 

[Londo]

 

[Sir Baz the Intolerant]

This is so fucking insane I am beyond words. for fucks sake a 15$ expense being denied. on an (allegedly, total bullshit) valuation 100MM company

The correct attitude is, if it's under 500$ don't even talk to me about it, approved by default. But you know, this is what a SERIOUS COMPANY does, not LINUS MEDIA GROUP

Moneygrubbing to that extent over expenses is a massive red flag in large companies, and if it's something anyone here ever encounters in your own careers, gtfo of there and don't look back.

Spoiler: Anecdote/Trauma Dump

I used to work for a large multinational that was a leading global supplier in it's industry, and my job involved a lot of domestic and international travel. Those cheap fucks would literally make me justify every last cent of expenses from the travel to the fucking coffee I ordered at the airport, with each individual purchase requiring a written paragraph as to why it was necessary for the business. And the kicker was this had to be done via a literal fucking HANDWRITTEN form. Unsurprisingly this was by far on the worst managed basket cases of an organisation that I have ever worked for

I'm stating the obvious here, but shit like that is just indicative of far deeper problems with the company's management.

 

[CHARizard]

Ceo says an investigator will be hired

I was in a state of shock reading through these allegations, plain and simple. They aren’t consistent with my recollections. They aren’t consistent with our internal processes. They aren’t consistent with our company values.
We pride ourselves on maintaining a safe and inclusive environment. In addition to our existing report systems (both anonymous and otherwise) we’ve proactively reached out internally today to encourage members of our team to report any workplace bullying or harassment they might be experiencing so we can take quick and decisive action.
Our HR team will be conducting a more thorough assessment of the allegations, and when we are ready, we will release a more complete statement. For now I would ask that we allow our team the time they need be as thorough as possible. -Linus

Linus Media Group CEO Terren Tong also responded via email, saying he was “shocked at the allegations and the company described” in Reeve’s posts. He went on to note that “as part of this process, beyond an internal review we will also be hiring an outside investigator to look into the allegations and will commit to publish the findings and implementing any corrective actions that may arise because of this.”

Spoiler: Text

Linus Sebastian’s Linus Media Group YouTube empire is currently in crisis, with accusations of theft, lapses in ethics, and most recently, allegations of sexual harassment. The company has currently paused all production to improve its review processes, and CEO Terren Tong tells The Verge an outside investigator will be hired to examine the harassment allegations.
In a video posted this morning titled “What do we do now?” Linus Media Group CFO Yvonne Ho announced the entire channel was pausing production for the next week to address the issues raised by the YouTube channel Gamers Nexus about errors in videos and concerning ethical practices. “I agree with the community,” Ho said in the video, “so I’m putting my foot down. Effective immediately all YouTube video production is on pause.”

The controversy started earlier this week, when Gamers Nexus posted a video outlining a number of factual errors and ethics concerns in recent Linus Tech Tips videos. “We’ve been seeing an alarming amount of conflicts from Linus Tech Tips as it relates to their corporate connections, their flow of money, and the potential bias as a result of those things,” said Gamers Nexus host Steve Burke.

Burke’s biggest concern was around a GPU cooling block made by Billet Labs. According to Gamers Nexus, Linus Tech Tips reviewed a copper cooling block from Billet Labs on the wrong GPU, then auctioned it off at a recent fan event without the company’s permission

The afternoon after Gamers Nexus posted its video, Sebastian began responding to concerned fans in the Linus Tech Tips forums. “We are using this, like everything else, to continue to drive ourselves to do better,” he said in one post. He also said that the auctioning of the cooling block was an accident due to miscommunication and that the company was working with Billet Labs to resolve the issue.
The situation escalated on August 14th, when Gamers Nexus posted the video in response to Sebastian’s comments on the forum, with a segment titled “Linus Tech Tips response is disappointing nonsense.” Meanwhile, fans expressed frustration and outrage on the Linus Tech Tips forums and subreddit, with some fans demanding a public apology to Billet.

Do you have additional information about the allegations discussed here? You can always reach us at tips@theverge.com or contact me at alex.cranz@theverge.com.

That led to Linus Tech Tips posting that video this morning that features Sebastian and other Linus Media Group employees outlining their plans to address the concerns raised by Gamers Nexus — including halting production for one week to focus on improving documentation and processes around testing. “I was the one at the head of the company for each and every mistake that our community has rightly brought to our attention,” Sebastian said in the video.

Linus Tech Tips posted its latest video at approximately 7AM ET. However, last night, at approximately 2AM ET, a former employee, Madison Reeve, posted a thread on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, accusing Linus Media Group of cultivating a toxic work environment and encouraging a work culture that was detrimental to her health as well as sexual harassment directed at her by Linus Media Group employees.

“I chose to quit my role at LTT because it, and the working environment I was facing, were ruining my mental health,” her statement begins. “My work was called ‘dogshit’ I was called ‘incompetent’. When I would reach out to managers and try to get help with these situations, I would be told to ‘put on my big girl pants’ and be ‘more assertive’.”

Reeve went on to accuse the company of barring her from videos after she reported being “grabbed multiple times in the office” and being told to “calm my tits” and “stop being such a bitch.”
“It felt like a horrible teenage drama movie,” she said.

We reached out to Sebastian about these latest accusations, and he responded via email, saying:

I was in a state of shock reading through these allegations, plain and simple. They aren’t consistent with my recollections. They aren’t consistent with our internal processes. They aren’t consistent with our company values.
We pride ourselves on maintaining a safe and inclusive environment. In addition to our existing report systems (both anonymous and otherwise) we’ve proactively reached out internally today to encourage members of our team to report any workplace bullying or harassment they might be experiencing so we can take quick and decisive action.
Our HR team will be conducting a more thorough assessment of the allegations, and when we are ready, we will release a more complete statement. For now I would ask that we allow our team the time they need be as thorough as possible.

Linus Media Group CEO Terren Tong also responded via email, saying he was “shocked at the allegations and the company described” in Reeve’s posts. He went on to note that “as part of this process, beyond an internal review we will also be hiring an outside investigator to look into the allegations and will commit to publish the findings and implementing any corrective actions that may arise because of this.”

Archive

 

[Tsoliassssssssssssss]

The CAD work and machining time for a one-off prototype like that is more than $2,500 USD.

I worked at a company making pan-tilt units for the defense industry. The enclosure was all aluminium, the cad was all ours.
Then it was sent off to a machinist who had to carve the inside with a cnc, then create a negative one and place it in the carved section, then start eating it from the outside.
Why that? Because when you want .5 cm walls, you can't have it unsupported from the other side. Special tools might have to be made for a piece to be processed.
Also, don't forget that prototypes are never successful. Design errors, machining errors and errors between one shop to another happen. If you send 2 correct designs to 2 different shops you might get 0 working prototypes.

 

[CHARizard]

Isn't his wife the HR person? I dont see it listed on their team page.

 

[Bastet]

Youtubers descending on a wounded channel like vultures to eat up those precious drama views.

 

[CYKA RUSH B]

Ceo says an investigator will be hired

MAXIMUM DAMAGE CONTROL LMAOOOOOOOO

Isn't his wife the HR person? I dont see it listed on their team page.

Yes. She (it?) is the entire HR team.

 

[CHARizard]

Yes. She (it?) is the entire HR team.

The whole Madison stuff will fall on her then and I would put money on her stepping down. I am really surprised that she is so highly ranked, from a nepotism standpoint it looks bad.