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What's your opinion on the Linus Tech Tips saga? I admit I stopped watching LTT about a year ago because I got sick of hearing Linus go on about how much money he had..... "I just spent $$$$$ on a...."
I do like how Jay has stayed completely out of it though. I like Jay. There's already too many Youtubers with their opinions repeating what we already know... nope.. never heard of him..
https://kotaku.com/linus-tech-tips-gamers-break-nexus-youtube-pc-gaming-1850743611So, my thoughts on this are complicated. LTT and their other channels have been some of my favorite YT content since I was like...13 and learning to build computers. I'm not going to say I'm unsubscribing because I feel like everyone deserves an opportunity to improve, but they do have a lot of work ahead of them to regain people's trust.
Accurate information is a necessity for media outlets that purport to be reviewing tech which can have very specific bits that are fundamentally important. I believe the Labs project is an important one, but I don't believe LMG would have grown as big as they have (big enough to justify the expense of the LMG Labs) without cutting corners or making clickbait content or putting "more content!" ahead of "better content!". So it's a catch-22. They're big enough now to focus on improving the quality of their content now, but they still have that scrappy young growth mindset of constantly gotta be hustling. Youtube's algorithm certainly does not help anything, but my generation is all hopelessly addicted to the algorithms so nothing is gonna change there I fear.
I'm willing to give them time to sort that out.
The Madison situation is different.
The overworking, always on the grind bullshit is symptomatic of the "scrappy young growth" mindset I mentioned earlier. Nobody should have to self harm to get a day off work. That has to stop immediately. But there's more to it than that.
On the one hand, sexual harassment is never okay. Full stop.
On the other hand, LMG did stand behind Emily when she came out as trans, and the one employee that had a problem with it is no longer with the company.
I believe this is largely a case of the tech bros that are in charge being more tone deaf than is appropriate in a company of their size. I think the investigation is going to turn up one or two problem people who have been "missing stairs" and those people will be publicly let go.
It's a complicated situation, and I think a lot of long time fans are also feeling pretty conflicted and waiting to see what happens after the investigation.
I think Steve did the right thing calling out the issues LTT is having, and I also hope that's a wake-up call for LTT to improve their processes. All this mess could have good consquesences in the end.
Linus demonetized his latest video after complaints. It's got 3.8 million views so far. I wonder how much that would be in dollar terms?I do watch LTT but mainly to see what expensive part Linus drops or what sketchy solution they come up with to make something work.
I think the fact that LTT called out GN and HU saying LTT's testing was better was the ignition point.
The handling of the whole thing afterwards by Linus was just terrible.
At least it looks like they've got some business heads finally looking at it now so hopefully things will get better.I use to watch LTT quite a bit, but haven't for quite some time. I had to watch the video you provided to see what was going on. This in itself should be an indicator how dangerous some of these things are.
Average users that just want to know if a product is good or not, will gravitate towards videos with more views because that means the content is "trustworthy". A lot of people won't take the time to read the comment section to see if it has been updated, because frankly most people don't care to research that much.
The problem with a lot of content creators, influencers, and so on is everything is based in how much money can be made. Quicker video output before anyone else, means they will hold a stronger presence to get the views before anyone else. More videos also means more views, building into their "brand" and makes them more money. Also add in sponsorships, free products, and early access to projects, can and will make most content creators create biased reviews for fear of losing access to said companies.
Websites that allow reviews of products "that were sent out for free for a review" are also a huge problem because of the biased that someone may have as well because they got the item for free. Who do you know to trust? How do you know what someone is saying is completely accurate? A lot of times during surveys I usually recommend that the company look at their website and make sure there is an option to sort by verified purchases, but then again can be a problem as some companies will re-imburse someone for the cost of the product so it appears that a person has bought the item with no connections to the company.
That only matters if someone does their research and not base their purchasing patterns based on just the amount of positive or negative stars an item has and not reading the comments.
The are a lot of people out there that can and do make great content and accurate representations of reviewing products, and brands shouldn't mind real reviews and see it as a way to look at their products and make improvements down the line, as long as the findings are accurate.
In general the average user is just going to take it as face value, so those companies with strong arm holds on content creators will continue making content that favors them as long as they are able to make a profit. I think there should be some sort of regulation done to limit how companies can interact with creators and how reviews are conducted. It's really gotten out of hand and this is a great representation of how things have spiraled out of control, but the average user probably won't even notice just because they don't do the research (which they honestly shouldn't have to do just to find out if a review is honest or not).
LTT has a long history of poor quality testing of various products. They try to make their results seem scientific and accurate, yet their results and methods haven't been the best, and sometimes sloppy and inaccurate, in the past. I was wondering how they will improve their testing methods for the new labs.
"I was wondering how they will improve their testing methods for the new labs."
First he needs to decide if he wants to be a Youtuber churning out 10 videos a week or a reviewer who takes that job seriously.First he needs to decide if he wants to be a Youtuber churning out 10 videos a week or a reviewer who takes that job seriously.
The labs project is really ambitious and costs "Youtuber churning out 10 videos a week" money, though. That's the rock and hard place LMG is caught between right now.
Even worse then Chris. If their figures are inaccurate and/or unreliable they should be concentrating on that. LTT calling their videos "unboxings" or "entertainment" doesn't cut it for me.
Just thought I'd drop this little video meme.... absolutely priceless. Steve vs Linus feel the tension. Steve's so hot right now 😄.
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