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

[Love Is Blue]

even worse than all of that, he's a leaf

 

[TheLastFart]

Madison had posted about her stuff prior to this drama, for what it's worth. It just didn't get any traction.

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Tbh. i have strong doubts about the accuracy of what she is saying to be true or that she maybe is the type of person who expects everyone to be 100% professional at all times which is unreasonable and quite honestly sounds very depressing place to work at. After all we are humans, we are not perfect and expecting this 100% clean slate of people unreasonable. The places i worked at, big and small, there was distinct groups of people getting along better than others, there was always some shit talk about different departments and people did talk about their personal lifes here and there and made some jokes that i would imagine people that are into cancel culture would jump on in a heartbeat.

But everyone involved knows that most of was either just some venting and jokes. There was no drama and the only actual issues were employees that just simply were trash at their respective jobs, some malicious, some just overestimated their abilities and sooner and later you part with such employees. That she actually self-harmed herself over being told to not take her sick days is one of the biggest clues that she is not all that well upstairs.

And lastly, if everything was so terrible as she said then more would have come up over the years, but it didn't. The only account of hers that seem legit is that she was likely overburdened with too much work as other employees of LTT spoke out about that too.

 

[Wodanaz]

I see no conflict of interest here, it does not exist. Sufficient steps have been taken to mitigate the conflicts of interest as GN only takes sponsorships from products, not brands.

I see why you would believe this, but I simply do not agree. Despite GN's best intentions, he fact is that they are taking money from these companies whose products they review. They can tear apart a sponsor's products as many times as they want, but that still won't save them if they get caught in the future fucking up like LMG. Or honestly, maybe it will. There are plenty of people who simply refuse to accept there may be something wrong here, just like those who blindly support LMG. Maybe it'd just because I'm too autistic, but I can't overlook this.

Not a user, how can you know it's good? Oh, it's the money? Whore.
2. Get sponsorships from relevant brands?
- Conflict of interest.
- Can we trust your review?

I think they could solve this by simply not reviewing products that sponsor them. If Steve is trustworthy, and tells you that he has no problem using xyz for his personal use, then would you trust him? That is the question, and one that has no business being thrust upon their hardware reviews.

 

[CYKA RUSH B]

I see why you would believe this, but I simply do not agree. Despite GN's best intentions, he fact is that they are taking money from these companies whose products they review. They can tear apart a sponsor's products as many times as they want, but that still won't save them if they get caught in the future fucking up like LMG. Or honestly, maybe it will. There are plenty of people who simply refuse to accept there may be something wrong here, just like those who blindly support LMG. Maybe it'd just because I'm too autistic, but I can't overlook this.

I think they could solve this by simply not reviewing products that sponsor them. If Steve is trustworthy, and tells you that he has no problem using xyz for his personal use, then would you trust him? That is the question, and one that has no business being thrust upon their hardware reviews.

They are all paid shills, some are just more careless about it than others. If you're gonna spend money, read/watch a variety of reviews and read between the lines, and buy from a place that has a good return policy.

GN aren't the good guys. They just called out Linus Dumb Tips for the trash content they produce and occasionally put out some interesting stuff. Their data is better quality than average but the conflict of interest is obvious. This cringelord Coreteks is right about GN but this applies to all commercial review/content mills,

At this point the only tech youtubers I trust are tiny unknown channels and even then i do my own autistic research.

 

[Thugnificent]

I think they could solve this by simply not reviewing products that sponsor them.

Over how long of a timeframe? Say that they review are sponsored by a specific cooler SKU in 2023, are they forbidden from reviewing that same SKU forever? How can we know if the cooler's competitors didn't put him up to the review to highlight it's cons more than it's pros? What if the manufacturer asks GN not to review a certain product because they know it's shit?

Here's the reality, you will never know these things and simply abstaining from reviewing a certain product doesn't remove the possibility of undue influence or corruption. The only way to be certain that they're being objective is by analyzing their testing methodology and the conclusions gleaned from them, which is ironically what GN was railing against LTT for with their slapdash testing methods and absolute lack of data validation.

 

[LiquidKid]

Catching up on the thread have f followed the drama on Youtube and really for years at this point

GN is pretty much the only PC tech channel I routinely watch. Yeah, his videos aren't fruity and over the top and 'entertaining', but they're actually useful info and aren't full of bullshit. They actually do a journalism, personal relationships be damned.
LTT is the twinkie of tech youtubers. Fluff, filler, no actual nutritional value.

And my cat just puked on the floor behind me, that's what she thinks of LTT, too.


EDIT: I listened to LTT *once*. When they said the noctua d-15 cooler was better than water coolers and showed their 'charts', so I got one. While it is a great air cooler it is in no way better than even a mediocre AIO. Just look at any of the CPU cooler charts GN puts out.

Ironically, GN responses to that video in one of their reviews by explaining that Linus’s results were likely from not using the AIO’s long enough for them to get the effect as a air cooler works instantly while water needs to run for a few a bit to reach max potential

The most shocking revelation from this video is that LMG has access to a 'drop-in place' video editing system that, as far as I'm aware, has only been a rumor. There have been claims that big dinosaur media agencies have been completely replacing very old videos that made current major politicians look bad, but I thought that was probably a bridge too because it would involve YouTube directly. Now that I know the big channels actually have this feature to use on their own, I believe it.

Make fun of me for this, but I have seen proof of this video editor. Back in 2021 he ran his “Verified Actual Gamer” program(yes, VAG) where he sold 3080 and 3090 GPUs for MSRP at a time when they were scalped. Go get it, you had to watch a video about the GPU crisis and wait for Linus to drop a secret link, at the link you then filled out a multiple choice quiz of gaming trivia and if you succeeded you could buy the GPU.
As it happens, I opened YouTube the minute the video dropped, guessed it would be in the middle so scrubbed to that section, and got the gpu. The only time I have ever given Linus money. After I received it I sent back to check the video, same upload, but missing the section where he mentions the link. I thought it was odd but didn’t think of it as a big deal, I don’t upload to YouTube though

Spoiler: Order confirmation to show I’m not lying

It worth noting that a year later, the tariff was refunded

Linus probably hired friends and family regardless of talent, and they hired other complete idiots.

This is confirmed, he hired his son’s former nanny to be an accountant and even had her be the “secret shopper” for several videos. That said he does openly post job listings

The only reason why I know of Linus is because of the algorithm and clickbait titles, Once I broke free from the algorithm I never saw his vids again.

I have to watch his videos with ad and sponsor block on so i don’t have to sit through the annoying sponsor segues or shilling for their crappy merch store.

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.

They indeed made a PC for an indie metal band and the case did indeed fall into the ocean and delayed the build. But that had nothing to do with Artesian Builds. These videos just happened to come out around the same time.

I think a lot of people here (and /g/) probably aren't going to like this video but this "What do we do now" video is pretty much the only way to address the concerns that Gamers Nexus brought up.

The proof is in the pudding as they say so we'll have to wait and see if any of these promises bear fruit.

edit: The Linus section is the only big miss step here, he simply can't just say "I'm sorry" without first trying to explain (excuse) his and his company's actions. Just say sorry and take all the responsibly. An apologise to Gamers Nexus would be nice too.

The jokes about sponsors in a monetized video was a mistake, as is the “we’re spending our week doing X” stuff, which just seems tone deaf. To me this video felt like Exxon pretending to be sorry about an oil spill.

I love that Yvonne threw DBrand under the bus. Sure it was a joke, but her “joke” made the company seem even more Slimey then it already is. As if I needed more reasons not to buy from them.

The also bring up the 4069 video as a positive when they was one of the negative points in GNs video, showing they don’t get what they’re doing. All the video shows is how bad these people are at their jobs and how much worse they are at apologizing for being bad

 

[Blue Whirlwind]

After I received it I sent back to check the video, same upload, but missing the section where he mentions the link.

Worth noting that all youtubers can remove and blur sections of videos. Full video replacement used to be only for record companies, but I guess regular large channels can get it now.

 

[The Wokest]

Before and after LTT

Also apparently dog killers are on Linus' side:

https://twitter.com/stillgray/status/1691960823252693174

 

[Wodanaz]

They are all paid shills, some are just more careless about it than others.

Counterpoint: if GN never accepted sponsorships for components, then nobody would be able to accuse them of being paid shills. Being supported by their own merchandise, adrev, and patreon would cause no problems, and you would be able to trust them.

Say that they review are sponsored by a specific cooler SKU in 2023, are they forbidden from reviewing that same SKU forever?

Pretty much, that's a conflict of interest. Steve has built up an inordinate amount of public trust but I simply cannot overlook this, especially when he is criticizing LMG so heavily.

How can we know if the cooler's competitors didn't put him up to the review to highlight it's cons more than it's pros?

Good point. We can solve this by nixing component sponsorships from the equation entirely.

What if the manufacturer asks GN not to review a certain product because they know it's shit?

Also a good point. Again, solved by not being involved monetarily with these companies in the first place.

Here's the reality, you will never know these things and simply abstaining from reviewing a certain product doesn't remove the possibility of undue influence or corruption. The only way to be certain that they're being objective is by analyzing their testing methodology and the conclusions gleaned from them, which is ironically what GN was railing against LTT for with their slapdash testing methods and absolute lack of data validation.

I completely agree. And we probably never know if GN suffered from some of these things. I don't even want them to, I want them to be the best they can be, and if that means taking some meaningless keyboard sponsorships their audience may be less interested in, instead of a cooler sponsorship, then so be it. Because it is that very audience interest that is the crux of the issue. Steve should not assume he is the good guy who only pushes the best products, he should assume he is the bad guy, and attempt to be a good one instead.

 

[Thugnificent]

Counterpoint: if GN never accepted sponsorships for components, then nobody would be able to accuse them of being paid shills. Being supported by their own merchandise, adrev, and patreon would cause no problems, and you would be able to trust them.

You've missed my point, even if they don't do any sponsor spots the possibility of corruption still exists. The only way to definitively know if they've been compromised is to analyze the data and conclusions they produce. Sponsor spots are irrelevant, thus there is no reason not to take them.

 

[Null]

Make fun of me for this, but I have seen proof of this video editor. Back in 2021 he ran his “Verified Actual Gamer” program(yes, VAG) where he sold 3080 and 3090 GPUs for MSRP at a time when they were scalped. Go get it, you had to watch a video about the GPU crisis and wait for Linus to drop a secret link, at the link you then filled out a multiple choice quiz of gaming trivia and if you succeeded you could buy the GPU.
As it happens, I opened YouTube the minute the video dropped, guessed it would be in the middle so scrubbed to that section, and got the gpu. The only time I have ever given Linus money. After I received it I sent back to check the video, same upload, but missing the section where he mentions the link. I thought it was odd but didn’t think of it as a big deal, I don’t upload to YouTube though

Cutting stuff out is available to everyone. Completely re-uploading videos is not.

 

[LiquidKid]

Worth noting that all youtubers can remove and blur sections of videos. Full video replacement used to be only for record companies, but I guess regular large channels can get it now.

Cutting stuff out is available to everyone. Completely re-uploading videos is not.

Good to know, I was unaware of that. But like I said, I’ve never uploaded to YouTube so I’ve never needed to Sue that feature.

 

[Ethan Ralph Is 5'1"]

Harmful Opinions reacted to the whole LTT vs GN shitshow on a stream:

 

[Fate Fan]

Completely re-uploading videos is not.

What do you mean by this? I saw you mention it earlier in the thread that it was rumored it was being done for politicans but do you mean a video itself from youtube being re uploaded (not the person re uploading the video file but it being natively done from youtube)

 

[Drama Fan]

Linus contacted XQC

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EDIT: How the fuck does anyone watch this retard?! I could barely get through this 1 minute clip.

Do they have a previous relationship or is xQc the only person he thinks is dumb enough to buy his response?
Either way, weird choice when he's got his own other separate drama happening

 

[Average K-On Fan]

What do you mean by this? I saw you mention it earlier in the thread that it was rumored it was being done for politicans but do you mean a video itself from youtube being re uploaded (not the person re uploading the video file but it being natively done from youtube)

Reuploading the video you under the same youtube link as the previous one. (i.e. replacing it)
Your comments, likes, dislikes and viewer counts remains intact and there is no way of knowing if or when the video gets replaced.

 

[Hall of Cost Payer]

What do you mean by this? I saw you mention it earlier in the thread that it was rumored it was being done for politicans but do you mean a video itself from youtube being re uploaded (not the person re uploading the video file but it being natively done from youtube)

Okay, imagine YouTube. You upload a video. Once, you've uploaded it, it's represented by the unique video id, Youtube gives it. You can change the title, the description box etc however you want. But if you made a mistake in the video, you only have a limited amount of ways to act. YT has an editor where you can do small changes, like cutting out small parts. But if you want to be cheeky and change around the audio track with some images, or have big transitions between cuts, you can't do that.

You can do the changes in your video editor and reupload it. But then it's an other video on YouTube, with it's own id, video link and it's own comment section. And it's own placement in the algorithm. So you lose velocity, because how many people want to watch the same video twice?

But as we saw here, big boy channels like LTT can just reupload the video and change everything and keep the URL, previous comment section and position in the algorithm.

 

[Wodanaz]

What do you mean by this? I saw you mention it earlier in the thread that it was rumored it was being done for politicans but do you mean a video itself from youtube being re uploaded (not the person re uploading the video file but it being natively done from youtube)

Linus, being an exceptional golem of animated mud, has been given special privileges from his jewish masters that allows him to completely rewrite history and pretend he did nothing wrong by uploading a different video over a past one. Mere mortals who exist outside the thrall of kabbalah magics do not have access to this feature. It's all very semitic.

 

[Last Ride]

What do you mean by this? I saw you mention it earlier in the thread that it was rumored it was being done for politicans but do you mean a video itself from youtube being re uploaded (not the person re uploading the video file but it being natively done from youtube)

Wham!'s Last Christmas got a remastered music video in 2019.

Note that the upload date on this 4K video is 2009, because they replaced the existing video file but kept all the metadata - likes, comments, etc. A literal drop-in replacement.

 

[Null]

What do you mean by this? I saw you mention it earlier in the thread that it was rumored it was being done for politicans but do you mean a video itself from youtube being re uploaded (not the person re uploading the video file but it being natively done from youtube)

REUPLOADING THE ENTIRE FUCKING VIDEO

???? what word is confusing you

big media companies can now take an existing 15 year old YT video and replace the entire fucking thing without a single hint they've done so

there is NO way to verify if any video you watch on YouTube is the original video or even a derivative. there is zero integrity in the platform.