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

[seri0us]

They've done nothing with LTT labs and there is still more than enough room there to have held him lan party. With much less work than he needed to do at his home.

He needed somewhere employees haven't been pissing on the floors. As much.

 

[Administrator Flotsam]

Unless your Gamers Nexus apparently, who appear to be looking to beat LTT to the punch on the labs data front by just doing it better, first.

I don't think GN is trying to beat anyone, least of all this hyperactive rainbow leaf. As posted by Cum Elemental here:

I don't think that LTT is a "technology" channel, it's a spectacle channel. Linus is basically Mr. Beast except he builds expensive computers instead of hosting expensive game shows. Viewers don't tune in to get informative, practical computing advice, they tune in to see whatever the stunt of the week is.

Good data is simply not something LTT vids can be said to have anymore. As far as I'm concerned, the only reason they aren't put on blast more frequently is precisely is because they make stuff other than benchmarks so everyone who actually claims LTT's numbers are accurate probably don't even watch the benchmarks in the first place.

Don't forget that all errors in the callout video were mistakes that they found across the few weeks they were researching for it. LTT regularly has more mistakes and just judging from their style of publish first think if people get angry enough; I think there are far more errors that just fell by the wayside because the fanboys shouted down the people pointing them out or they were buried because of even bigger errors that still didn't gain enough traction to warrant a response.

The labs seems to have fallen prey to being incompatible with the LTT content cycle,

This as well; who's going to spend time verifying numbers when shitting out a video requires so much action from so many retards who all need to be retarded somewhere else? Seeing their current trajectory, LTT would be better off cutting their losses, killing the lab and abandoning benchmarks altogether because its only a matter of time before some colossal mistake makes Intel / Nvidia / AMD angry.
I'm not kidding, LTT's benchmarks are just window dressing to make people think they're comparable to channels that bench properly. In reality they're as good "reviewers" as MKBHD or random unboxers who all seem to have loads of street cred but don't seem to do much beyond feeling up the products their reviewing.

 

[Cyberpunk Panatela]

Hit the nail on the head but also reveals the sad truth because it wasn't always like that. His forums are full of people who actually know their stuff and I think there are still ex-subscribers who are still nostalgic for LTT's glory days where they actually shared tech tips. Anthony also seems to have been a a key ambassador for LTT's credibility and currently he's either being rugswept by Linus and upper management or is enjoying all the mental ramifications of being hecking valid transwoman.

His was the first and still is the biggest channel in the tech space and he has the funds to create something utterly unique.

Mega-detailed / autisimo hardware reviews are an untapped market that no normie platform has in its roster.

Very good point raised here - a serious tech reviewer (IOW not the "Unbox Therapy" level of trash that LTT has become) is not only appreciated by the autists who are into that subject matter, but also by normies who want information untainted by advertising flim-flam prior to making what for most people is a high-ticket purchase.

Alas, the "tech" part of that channel name has been long left behind.

Case in point (apologies if we already have this)

Linus: "Sponsor block? Never heard of it."

LOL!

Or are they still believing their own lies and think they're as technical and informative and relevant as they were before?

I'm pretty sure that lot are still high on their own farts and think they're still what they used to be.

@Cum Elemental made a very astute comparison with his description of Linus as the Mr. Beast of expensive computing. Both of them are basically good at pissing away money and both think they are really hot shit.

He just has to fall slightly further to become the equivalent of TechRax (a Slavic wastrel whose one and only "talent" is/was breaking expensive technological goods while filming this in high resolution. Only for the deep  thinkers)

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

Seeing their current trajectory, LTT would be better off cutting their losses, killing the lab and abandoning benchmarks altogether because its only a matter of time before some colossal mistake makes Intel / Nvidia / AMD angry.

I see it as a damned if they do, damned if they don't sort of scenario. LTT is one of the 'Culture' tech reviewers out their as you point out, where the presumption of their expertise carries a lot of the weight that their actual actions and data fail to back up. What's important here is that these people need to retain that atmosphere of "knows what they're talking about". Through regular issues and mistakes the image doesn't get marred much, and people forget. But what kills this sort of stuff is when you make such a colossal fuckup on a major product launch that you end up making a LOT of enthusiasts waste a LOT of money on a subpar product, publicly, while everyone else is drawing attention to it. The narrative becomes less about the fucked up product, and more about your tech incompetence - Think back to that infamously bad computer build everyone memes on years back. Instant kill of any reputation you might have.

The Labs, as I see, is the only real opportunity they have to avoid, or get ahead of this before it happens. Either the Labs provides enough genuine technical knowledge and experience that they avoid a quality shatter moment during a Nvidia XX90 series launch, or the lab at least provides a smokescreen of "We didn't YOLO it, we have serious people this really was just a mistake". Without the Lab, its not a question of if LTT nukes their current presumption of expertise, but when, and they've already come damned close many times, most recently being GN triggering a lot of people to critically analyze their work.

If they ditch the labs, they ditch this last failsafe for their presumption of expertise. If they don't ditch the labs, I agree in part that its likely they'll eventually misstep and piss off a major player - Although I suspect what'll actually happen is they'll try to pull a GN and be "hard truth seeking" on something with the lab, get over aggressive about it and make way too big of a deal out of a normal failure state/mode/etc, and end up losing their access journalism to one of the big players. If you like watching shitty rushed reviews, just wait until they're trying to review an overlapping new hardware release scenario where they couldn't get anything weeks early.

 

[AltisticRight]

LTT is like the Walmart of review channels. Accessible, does a decent enough job, and sometimes does a pretty good job.

Many people shop at Walmart. Likewise, many people actually follow the advice of LTT simply because how easy and accessible their content is. Walmart PCs are a joke, but grandpa is still buying one for his grandchildren or himself. They still sell. LTT will stick around and only a subset of nerds will see them as a joke, similar to how I see Walmart as a joke, as I smugly shop at these pretentious organic/sustainable/low-emissions/ethical outlets, paying a premium for quality, but also to make myself feel better.

 

[Administrator Flotsam]

but also by normies who want information untainted by advertising flim-flam prior to making what for most people is a high-ticket purchase. Linus: "Sponsor block? Never heard of it."

I think the vids always being crammed so badly with sponsored sections isn't the only issue, though it is one as well. All the hardware reviewers including GN have sponsors at the start of the video but its Linus' special brand of presenting them that's gotten on everyone's nerves. Unfortunately, I don't think its something purely limited to the videos either but something that's seeped into everything from the ALL CAPS $$$$ thumbnails to modelling their merch-underwear by themselves to money talk every minutes in non sponsored video sections to his spergy attitude about adblock to his apparent unwillingness to spend a few hundred Canada bucks to re-review a hilariously misrepresented product. Its not that his videos have some shilling, its that his whole brand oozes and reeks of shilling

If they don't ditch the labs, I agree in part that its likely they'll eventually misstep and piss off a major player - Although I suspect what'll actually happen is they'll try to pull a GN and be "hard truth seeking" on something with the lab, get over aggressive about it and make way too big of a deal out of a normal failure state/mode/etc, and end up losing their access journalism to one of the big players.

Without the Lab, its not a question of if LTT nukes their current presumption of expertise, but when, and they've already come damned close many times,

I see it as a damned if they do, damned if they don't sort of scenario.

Yup you're right about that. Even for someone as out of touch as Linus, pivoting to a completely new style of content by abandoning benchmarks will probably be a hard no for him; at least for now. But he has to actually make sure that he keeps up the quality with...whatever he calls what he does these days because as many other youtubers are evidence of; you can easily dismiss well meaning criticism as hate and slowly spiral yourself into irrelevance and obscurity. He's happy to make merch shirts out of "hater" comments now but he won't always have his NPC yesmen laughing with him.

Agree about their desperation possibly being an lose-condition as well. At this stage of the game, the last thing LTT needs is anyone, least of all themselves comparing LTT to GN. Linus probably wants to revenge in some form but LTT is far too bloated and inefficient to compete with GN at GN's own game. Hell, it'd be best if Linus just forget the rest of techtubia and focus on milking and growing his current audience because if there is such a huge audience for his current bad to mediocre content, then he can still continue running the channels as long as he doesn't fuck up like you say.

LTT is like the Walmart of review channels. Accessible, does a decent enough job, and sometimes does a pretty good job.

I agree with the first part but at the same time Walmart doesn't believe and act like its the best in the business. Walmart can be huge and rich and nobody needs to care who they rip off but as soon as they start claiming to be the best they have basically painted a giant target on their chest. That's what Linus needs to keep in check and that's something Unbox Therapy and MKBHD do very well, because you don't see them trying to take shots at people who are much more competent than they are and instead focus on their niche of misinformed or tech-noob fans who presume they're the hecking best without any real reason proving so.

 

[Spud gun]

GN are operating on a level of autism that a retarded leaf like Linus just can't compete with. The level of detail they go into with their reviews is definitely not for everyone, as proven by the Reddit normies who complain that GNs content is boring and too long. Said normies are the target audience of the leaf and his troon tips.

 

[Susanna]

GN are operating on a level of autism that a retarded leaf like Linus just can't compete with. The level of detail they go into with their reviews is definitely not for everyone, as proven by the Reddit normies who complain that GNs content is boring and too long. Said normies are the target audience of the leaf and his troon tips.

It's not that the reviews are too long, it's because the guy just drones on and on and on. He either needs to do some voice training, or hire another presenter to split the narration with. It's interesting content and he's one of the few tech reviewers who actually cares to do it right, so I still find myself watching the videos every now and then, but god he's boring.

 

[Harbinger of Kali Yuga]

He needed somewhere employees haven't been pissing on the floors. As much.

He probably needed them for "Could you guys reroute some cables and stuff, while the whole gang is here, heh?"

 

[Corn Flakes]

It's not that the reviews are too long, it's because the guy just drones on and on and on. He either needs to do some voice training, or hire another presenter to split the narration with. It's interesting content and he's one of the few tech reviewers who actually cares to do it right, so I still find myself watching the videos every now and then, but god he's boring.

As far as I'm concerned, that's a sign that he's doing it right. The subject matter and their approach to it is dry as fuck, so there's essentially no way to make it "fun" while still retaining all the information. You could put a Mexican soccer announcer to narrate those videos and they'd still be boring. Steve's not the kind of youtuber you should be watching every. single. video of, he's there to provide reference material (to be consulted on demand) and for the occasional bit of news. Their weekly news shows tend to be short and to the point for a reason.

 

[Susanna]

As far as I'm concerned, that's a sign that he's doing it right. The subject matter and their approach to it is dry as fuck, so there's essentially no way to make it "fun" while still retaining all the information. You could put a Mexican soccer announcer to narrate those videos and they'd still be boring. Steve's not the kind of youtuber you should be watching every. single. video of, he's there to provide reference material (to be consulted on demand) and for the occasional bit of news. Their weekly news shows tend to be short and to the point for a reason.

Have you watched any of his videos? The problem isn’t that the subject matter is boring (for the most part it isn’t), it’s that he speaks in a really hard to listen to manner. You don’t need annoying presenters like Linus and his outfit, but it would help him to have a co-presenter so his monotone droning is less constant.

 

[Corn Flakes]

Have you watched any of his videos? The problem isn’t that the subject matter is boring (for the most part it isn’t), it’s that he speaks in a really hard to listen to manner. You don’t need annoying presenters like Linus and his outfit, but it would help him to have a co-presenter so his monotone droning is less constant.

I have, yes. I tend to check GN every couple of weeks, pick 4-5 videos that look interesting and listen to them while working or driving. I really don't find him hard to listen at all. In fact, he speaks more naturally than a lot of hosts on youtube, particularly the ones that have a habit of mixing their audio so it sounds like they're chewing on their microphones.

 

[jalopy]

It's not that the reviews are too long, it's because the guy just drones on and on and on. He either needs to do some voice training, or hire another presenter to split the narration with. It's interesting content and he's one of the few tech reviewers who actually cares to do it right, so I still find myself watching the videos every now and then, but god he's boring.

I get that in the opposite way, ServeTheHome has great content for a lot of niche hardware (1l PCs, small managed switches, and other lower cost "enterprise" items) but the presenter is way to bouncy smile exuberant it's honestly off putting, for me at least. Fortunately, they do written content. Personally find written tech content better since it's generally easier to parse.

This reminds me that Linus wanted Labs to have written content. Wonder how that's progressing.

Linus: "Sponsor block? Never heard of it."

That's Luke. He runs Floatplane and was Linus's first hire. Linus thinks SponsorBlock is Le Bad. Judging by Luke's expression he doesn't give a shit.

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

I have, yes. I tend to check GN every couple of weeks, pick 4-5 videos that look interesting and listen to them while working or driving. I really don't find him hard to listen at all. In fact, he speaks more naturally than a lot of hosts on youtube, particularly the ones that have a habit of mixing their audio so it sounds like they're chewing on their microphones.

Yea, can confirm, I find his content extremely easy to listen to, in no small part because he's not trying to force anything. There's no unnaturally excited or despondent moments, just a constant flow of decent information, interspersed by the occasional dry wit joke delivered when appropriate, but not really feeling forced in. And when GN dumps down with 40 minutes of video, its well documented with thorough timestamping both in the comments and along the vide timer, so if you feel the need to revisit a particular segment because you checked out or it became relevant again later and you happened to take a break, its good to go.

Maybe I'm just jaded by what the modern idea of "Engaging" Content is like with constant attention grabs and audience hooks and the presenter trying to sell themselves rather than the story, but Steve just doing his thing is refreshing.

 

[TheRaptorJesus]

Judging by Luke's expression he doesn't give a shit.

I don't think luke gets paid enough to deal with all the shit linus stirs. He must be paid well to work on deadplane, or he has a big stake in the company to stay and deal with linus' messes.

 

[Flaming Dumpster]

I don't think luke gets paid enough to deal with all the shit linus stirs. He must be paid well to work on deadplane, or he has a big stake in the company to stay and deal with linus' messes.

Floatplane could've been good but they've squandered that by taking way too long to develop the product, not giving users what they want, and having an absolutely terrible first impression for any curious would-be users. The pricing model isn't even explained anywhere except the FAQ, where it's said that prices are set by creators. There is no way to tell what that pricing is ahead of time or what the user experience will even be like.

Why would I sign up for something when I have no idea how much it'll cost? You can't even tell who is on the platform from the home page. Patreon's homepage is filled with cancer, but they have a giant "Find a Creator" search box, Pricing menu and subscription costs are upfront.

 

[Pee Cola]

LTT is like the Walmart of review channels.

That's an insult to Walmart.

I don't think luke gets paid enough to deal with all the shit linus stirs. He must be paid well to work on deadplane, or he has a big stake in the company to stay and deal with linus' messes.

Either that or he's a huge DankPods fan. I can't think of any other reason why anyone would be interested in Floatplane.

 

[p1138]

Have you watched any of his videos? The problem isn’t that the subject matter is boring (for the most part it isn’t), it’s that he speaks in a really hard to listen to manner. You don’t need annoying presenters like Linus and his outfit, but it would help him to have a co-presenter so his monotone droning is less constant.

No, he's perfectly fine to listen to. I'd rather listen to the guy from GN than an artificially exaggerated idiot. All I want is facts, the occasional joke to break things up, spoken in clear understandable English(which he does just fine). He's not even very monotone, and having another presenter would just be a distraction as it doesn't take multiple people to cover some news or go over benchmarks.

I watch GN for news, testing, etc. not goofball entertainment.

 

[generic sauce]

Judging by Luke's expression he doesn't give a shit.

Luke really just wants to shitpost in peace. I know the feel.

 

[Kuritan Deplorable]

I don't think luke gets paid enough to deal with all the shit linus stirs. He must be paid well to work on deadplane, or he has a big stake in the company to stay and deal with linus' messes.

Almost assuredly he has a major ownership stake in floatplane. The whole thing seems to have been ran as a tagalong startup, including the early blood being paid in promises and stocks. Not super unusual. And despite floatplanes current face issues, its honestly not the worst idea for Luke to buckle down, try and avoid Linus's stupidity, and just keep that ship floating.

In the short term, who knows when youtube will next shoot itself in the face, and the frequency of these events means its likely one will happen at an intersection of increased interest in platforms like Floatplane. There is a genuine path towards becoming a bigger player with just a bit of luck as the wider market starts to try a shift away from "Everything must be free" and companies like Google will struggle to handle a customer first approach in their design and inevitably fuck it up. And in the long term if that doesn't happen, they do appear to have built a subscriber worthy streaming platform and infrastructure - Even if it turns out that Floatplane isn't going to become significantly profitable anytime soon, that infrastructure is genuinely worth a small fortune. Selling the company in the upswing of the next generation of investment speculation (This is a ways off but its probably inevitable) would easily be retire rich money for anyone involved.

As long as Linus doesn't get bored of his chief dumbfuck position in LTT, Lukes in a good place. Nobody else cares to step on floatplane too much, and it doesn't appear to be losing any money. As long as nobody messes with his shit, he can afford to sit back and wait for a chance to dip out. And if LTT goes to shit, he has the personal connections to probably leverage Floatplane away from the ship entirely.