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

[Wodanaz]

If a user willfully installs an extension that snipes links, that's on the user.

is it on the user if they assume in good faith it also crawls the web looking for the best coupons, like it fucking says it does? or is that more akin to false advertising?

It's not unlike adblock extensions.

adblock doesn't claim one thing and do another. your time is precious and so adblock gives it back to you, end of story. the fact that you try to compare it to honey is so jewish I'm forced to conclude you love linus since he also has retarded opinions about it.

 

[#lurker]

They promised you to give you the best discoun

Correct me if Im wrong, but in the original video about this topic, didnt he acknowledge that Honey already walked back this claim?

If Honey outright admitted "we curate the coupon codes" I dont think it changes anything.

adblock doesn't claim one thing and do another. your time is precious and so adblock gives it back to you, end of story. the fact that you try to compare it to honey is so jewish I'm forced to conclude you love linus since he also has retarded opinions about it.

Neither does Honey. They claim to give you savings, and they do. Your contention is over the whether the consumer consented to the change in affiliates, except constent was never given in the first place as affiliate programs are already flawed systems.

Also Brave browser literally blocks ads and replaces it with its own. Can you explain the difference?

And you can look at my history in this thread crticising Linus. It's not about defending him at all. Sorry that I dont jump on every single bandwagon.

 

[Wodanaz]

Correct me if Im wrong

Gladly! There is nothing in the original MegaLag expose video indicating they have walked that back. I don't see why that would even matter, considering they racked up 7.8 billion views spouting that lie. There are millions of kids and dumb people watching LTT and MrBeast videos right now who don't know the truth, and are installing honey because their favorite jewtuber is shilling it by saying it crawls the web and finds the best coupon codes. How is this not harmful to consumers? (the original point that gamers nexus is making, and you are taking umbrage with)

They claim to give you savings

While not correcting the record as SEVEN POINT EIGHT BILLION VIEWS worth of misinformation has been spread over a decade.

Hey man it's just an honest mistake, pinky swear.

Also Brave browser literally blocks ads and replaces it with its own. Can you explain the difference?

The difference is that Brave never paid a thousand youtubers to shill it with misinformation, and never exploited what you literally called a flawed system to make money. Maybe the advertising model is a flawed system if you think about it, since it's so easy to bypass with adblockers. Maybe the whole economy is a flawed system, and it's just full of people exploiting it in a hundred different ways, and here's why that's a good thing and we shouldn't ever file lawsuits to try and change things. Because jewish youtubers make shitty videos. My logic is flawless.

In fact Brave is pretty clear on what it is. There's no double messaging trying to appeal to consumers on one hand and trying to appeal to businesses on the other. They are making money by putting their own ads in their own browser, and if you choose to enable it, they will share tokens with you that you can redeem for whatever the value of the token is, as determined by a decentralized community at the time. Well maybe that last part isn't so clear but that's only because the nature of crypto is... cryptic to the average person.

 

[lego racers]

Thats funny, the same can be said of all affiliate links.

no, it can't. nice try, though.

It still doesnt concern consumers because it was never your money.

if you can't understand how a company committing fraud is harmful to consumers you're just being obtuse.

 

[#lurker]

There is nothing in the original MegaLag expose video indicating they have walked that back

You made a big post trying to debunk me and failed with the first sentence. Thats impressive!

At 21:35: "honey immediately discontinued the claims"

Not even going to bother with the rest of your dishonest post since you are unable to argue in good faith.

 

[lego racers]

walked that back

discontinued the claims

do you understand the difference between these phrases?

 

[#lurker]

do you understand the difference between these phrases?

Lol now you want to argue semantics. Just take the L.

 

[lego racers]

Just take the L.

only one taking the l will be honey when they're forced to pay millions of dollars in damages for fraud.

 

[#lurker]

only one taking the l will be honey when they're forced to pay millions of dollars in damages for fraud.

And if they win the case, what will you say?

 

[Eventide]

I'm glad he's doing more work highlighting Linus's extremely inappropriate response to the drama because I feel like it was glossed over by Linus's community and the tech community at large. He had a responsibility to inform his audience what the extension he'd been hocking to them for hundreds of videos was actually doing. LTT was personally responsible for huge swaths of the tech reviewer community having potentially millions of dollars worth of affiliate revenue taken away due to the sheer amount of mindshare his ad spots gave Honey within the tech YouTube audience. Gamers Nexus calling him out hopefully drags Linus back out to reassess his stance on things.

His community may still stan for him, but everyone on Reddit (like in YoutubeDrama) seems extremely pissed at Linus over the Honey stance. Well, more pissed at him than usual (he's always being criticized on Reddit. Posters there seem to really hate him).

 

[Roboute Guilliman]

So here's one problem with the case, the affiliate switching, while scummy, is probably legal. I'll explain my thoughts here, I also explained my thoughts to a practicing attorney who works with relevant cases, who had retweeted the GN video, and he agreed, but also explained why parts of it may work. With the affiliate links Honey can only switch it if you actually use it on a given page. If you don't use it than no switching. Because of this Honey's lawyers will not have a hard time pointing out that even in the instances where no other discount was found Honey still did provide the service. It will be very hard to say that they deserve nothing for performing said service, which is what they would get without switching the affiliate. The argument that they are stealing just won't hold up in court, it won't, which is why Legal Eagle's Lawsuit will likely fail and is inferior to GNs in every way, but I digress.

All of the affiliate stuff while scummy, is a very uphill battle for anyone, and that's already in the case of instances where Honey found no further discounts, in instances where it did you have to ask "Would the consumer rather save more money or that a portion go to what ever affiliate they followed?" That muddies the issue significantly, and if a retard on the internet with no legal experience can see that than so can Honey/Paypal's lawyers. Now why it's not a lost cause, but is still a long shot GN is taking attack from two points the one I just discussed which likely will not work and a secondary one with the Tortious Interference point. The lawyer explained to me that while it was a long shot they do have some very good arguments on that point, if it can get through the preliminary stages than it has a decent chance.

This is true of the other argument as well because juries are easier to convince that a scuzzy action should be punished, but getting there with those arguments is not an easy thing. So when it comes to the affiliates I wish GN would have kept that part out, if it looks like it's not going there way though they could amend the lawsuit to remove it and just keep the tortious interference aspect.

The other part of the lawsuit has a very very good chance of not just going forward but winning. This likely not only violates the relevant NC law they are suing under but federal laws as well. It is both false advertising, fraud, and conspiracy to commit fraud. This part of the suit and the thing that everyone has been talking about the least is a pretty egregious violation. There are already rumors that they are under investigation by the FCC and FTC, they are just rumors though so we will have to wait and see.

TL/DR
Affiliate swapping bad argument
Consumer Fraud and False Advertising good argument

I hope they win on all their arguments, but I'm guessing to even get the case certified, they will have to drop the affiliate swapping as theft argument from the suit. I cannot disagree with the reasons why they are doing any of it. If Linus wasn't a greedy, selfish, Hard R Retard, faggot. He could have helped a lot of Creators and consumers who wanted to help them get the word out about the legal but scummy practices, he didn't.

 

[Wodanaz]

Lol now you want to argue semantics. Just take the L.

It's not semantics. If you advertised a toothpaste that helps fight gum disease for a decade, and then proof came to light that your toothpaste in fact did the opposite, you would not equate discontinuing that claim with walking it back. One indicates acceptance of responsibility, the other does not. One indicates there will be a recall of a product or a correction because of a mistake. If you think this is semantics, you are fucking jewish and trying to get out of doing the right thing.



You didn't reply to the rest of my post because you have no argument against the 7.8 billion views worth of misinformation still active to this day about honey, from the scummy jewtubers who you hate so much because they can make money doing something you can't. Much like the millions of views worth of misinformation about those glasses that were advertised as enabling colorblind people to see color, which MegaLag also did a video about. Coincidentally, that company also discontinued their claims after being exposed as fucking lies.

 

[TheRaptorJesus]

Well, yes and no, I think. They promised you to give you the best discount, which was a bold faced lie, which increased the revenue of the companies in cahoots with Honey. Honey marketed itself as providing the best coupons but when you went looking yourself you could find much better ones. The difference was maybe not technically stolen by Honey, but they and the Stores together manipulated the clients in not saving more.
But this is probably splitting hairs now. In any case I hope Honey gets sued for all they have and more, because fuck them, they are scammers.

Really? I've seen linus put in $5 coupon codes in his descriptions and had honey give me a better discount. Its always equal or better.

 

[metroid_fetish_ii]

Really? I've seen linus put in $5 coupon codes in his descriptions and had honey give me a better discount. Its always equal or better.

You install extensions YouTubers advertise? LMAO

 

[Susanna]

So here's the thing. If I, as a consumer, order without Honey, I don't get any discounts. With Honey, I would get a small discount. I can find discount codes and enter them myself, which might net me a bigger discount than Honey, but nothing's stopping me from just using Honey and adding my own discount codes, which gives me either both the small and the large discount, or just the large one. Honey is at worst no added benefit, and at best gives me a small discount for zero effort.
Further adding to Honey's value is that affiliate link cashback thing that was mentioned earlier in this thread. Purchases made with Honey and PayPal net me a percent back or whatever, out of the money Honey earns by hijacking affiliate links. If I were to buy with Linus' affiliate link, I wouldn't get any cashback whatsoever.

Honey is objectively good for consumers. I can see why shills like Linus and GamerNexus might loathe it for what it does, but from my perspective Honey is doing no harm, and actually provides a small value to me (which is all they ever claimed to do in the first place).

Besides, I consider it a moral good to not let influencers get affiliate link money. That money comes out of product advertising budget, which comes out of the price I pay for the product. I'd rather get a percent of what I pay extra back, than have that percent go into a shill's pockets.

 

[Blue Miaplacidus]

Really? I've seen linus put in $5 coupon codes in his descriptions and had honey give me a better discount. Its always equal or better.

 

[HootersMcBoobies]

I can find discount codes and enter them myself, which might net me a bigger discount than Honey, but nothing's stopping me from just using Honey and adding my own discount codes, which gives me either both the small and the large discount, or just the large one.

No, I think it actually removes the other code if you put it in first, and replaces it with their coupon, literally removing the larger discount. That part of the scam was covered in the MegaLag video too.

Honey is objectively good for consumers.

How is it good for consumers if someone intentionally clicks an affiliate link, makes a checkout, and thinks the reviewer they read/watch got a small tip? They might legit want to support a reviewer, and this makes them think they've supported them via affiliate link, when in reality, PayPal is stealing that commission. Its like if the cashier at a MicroCenter removed the sales rep tag from your purchase and swapped in their own, stealing their co-workers commission.

besides, I consider it a moral good to not let influencers get affiliate link money.

You can have your own views about affiliate links in general. I never click on them. If I want to support someone like GamersNexus or TechMoan, I buy something from their store. I agree with not liking the concept, but that still doesn't change the fact that these programs exist with known rules and contracts. Honey is literally breaking those rules, in a way that fraudulent and civically (maybe even criminally) actionable.

 

[Roboute Guilliman]

Honey is objectively good for consumers

If Honey didn't collude with some of it's partners to give you a lower discount than what is available you might have a point. However the fact is that they (likely illegally) contracted with numerous businesses and stores to withhold available codes from consumers. This is false advertising, fraud, and conspiracy to commit fraud. None of those things are particularly good for consumers.

Edit: Obligatory Fuck Linus for helping push and popularize this and then not let any of his other creator friends know. This is his and his company's thread, not Honey's.

 

[#lurker]

because you have no argument against the 7.8 billion views worth of misinformation still active to this day about hone

Ignoring your cope about blatant semantics, your contention is now about "misinformation"? Really? Ok, lets audit all the YouTubers you unironically shill for, for "misinformation."

I can only guess you have a YouTube channel. It makes no sense to be in the tank this much.

No, I think it actually removes the other code if you put it in first

Wrong again. Its evident you guys barely paid attention during the videos. Entering your own code works - there is no issue using 3rd party codes.
The only thing they found is that when people submitted their own code to the database it wouldnt show up for others to also use. Now is that intentional, accidental, incompetence, misinformation? Who knows, but that is not the same as stopping a working 3rd party code.

 

[Crispy Jakes]

is it on the user if they assume in good faith it also crawls the web looking for the best coupons, like it fucking says it does? or is that more akin to false advertising?

Bob's Used Kia and Hyundai doesn't have "the best selection in all of Maryland", Best Buy doesn't have "unbeatable prices" and Carlsberg is not "the best lager in the world".

You have to be literally autistic to not understand advertisement puffery.
It's a shitty affiliate code plugin. Who cares?