In one of their videos one of the employees said they do better and more accurate GPU tests than other YouTubers called Gamers Nexus and Hardware Unboxed. Then of course those mentioned YouTubers started to hit back and show how often LTT is wrong and makes wrong assumptions, because they don’t do proper due diligence. Since they have to release several videos per week. Gamers Nexus also exposed that LTT auctioned off a prototype GPU cooler from a small startup. But they had no permission to sell the unit. It was only for reviewing. The startup even asked to get the unit back several times. Linus, the owner of LTT, then released a non-apology. Afterwards a former employee came out and told why she left the company and it turns out the work environment is very toxic at LTT. She also reminded everyone that pettiness by Linus caused his fans to harass a small YouTuber called MindChop. Who eventually committed suicide. He fell into a depression because of the harassment and later his mom also committed suicide. She couldn’t bear the loss of her son.
Twenty-five (25) videos a week. Five a day, four if they work weekends which they likely do. Plus the WAN show and other social media. Their velocity is far too high for accuracy to be a priority. As their own employees said in their video, they wish they had more time. And as Linus himself said, their velocity is so high that the instant they publish a video it has to be forgotten because they have to turn to the next one.
They have like a hundred employees, which makes it a lot easier to figure out. Though some of those employees aren’t directly involved in creating videos, such as doing accounting or creating the many kinds of custom merch that they sell.
They have a bunch of employees doing specialized roles. Not just the usual roles like editing or writing, but they also what they call a “lab” that does stuff like identify findings about tech. But even with so many employees and all the specialization, they’re still clearly rushing. Eg, if they make a massive error, rather than fix it and do a reshoot, they’ll release it with the error, which is a terrible approach.
That’s exactly what happened in their biggest controversy with an expensive water block cooler. They used a completely wrong graphics card despite knowing that it was completely wrong and with an incompatible motherboard, then spent most of the video bad mouthing how it didn’t fit the motherboard or card instead of recognizing that they needed to just identify a compatible board, find the right card, and redo the shoot.
There is no actual proof for the suicide of the son and the mom, would love to see actual proof if you have it but i wouldn’t really use this as an argument. I admit his behaviour was too much but pointing the blame for the suicide of a child is also too extreme
Edit: I don’t know if I want to believe if MindChop truly did what the reddit post is talking about, but I feel like Linus wasn’t at fault for his community bullying the Owner.
THAT whole thing SHOULD NOT be included in this round of criticism. NO ONE is responsible for everything their fans do. That was a messed up situation that LTT only happened to be involved in. Most of their angst and trouble came from a terrible YT media group (not LMG) pulling their small channel around.
Indeed, the lack of professionalism and lack of respect in the work place are fully legit concerns. Though piling on someone’s tragedy just to hurt LMG is a frankly shameful act.
I don’t fault those curious about the event, but it is almost wholly and completely unrelated, AND not a fault of LMG per se. At least the severity of the outcome they had nothing to do with.
And then offered to pay for the BOM of the device acting as though that completely makes up for the mistake, ignoring the potential harm to Billets intellectual property.
Then their apology is all butt hurt that they THOUGHT they’d offered to pay for it, but only sent the email internally, not realizing their mistake until called out again. Then whining that no one is giving them the benefit of the doubt when they’ve demonstrated lack of judgement throughout the whole ordeal.
Forgetting to put the actual recipient in the TO filed is such a weird mistake too. You got all the CCs, but ignored the TO?
I get that shit happens, but its not like it was a complex email they drafted several times and wanted to make sure it wasent sent by mistake. Its whole contents was “oops, our bad. Can you send us an invoice and well get this sorted out.” Why did they not hit “reply all” like a sane person for something that mundane?
Its just so weird, and honestly is either made up, or points to odd workflows and more sloppy processes, even over on the buisness side.
Love that they clarified that after being called out, as if that somehow makes it more acceptable. “See? It was to charity guys, you think making money for charity is a bad thing?” While still missing the mark completely and refusing to send said prototype back.
It’s still a bad mistake, absolutely. If the cooler hadn’t been sent out already, I’d call it malice. I don’t think they’re claiming themselves blameless, just admitting that while they’re dumb, they’re not greedy.
You don’t get to claim a tax credit on someone else’s charitable donations. In this situation, the buyer gets a proof of donation that they get to claim on their taxes. It wouldn’t be LMG deducting it.
Do people still not understand how donations/charities work? If they sold it for $100 and donated $100. Yes, they technically get a tax deduction. But it doesn’t change how much profit they made. If they had tossed it in the trash they’d still have the same amount of profit. They just aren’t paying tax on the $100 they sold it for because that money is being donated.
I mean…they were reviewing it in-house. They had already “taken” it. The question is whether they give it back after - and it’s a very common routine for manufacturers to just not care, in which case a charity auction would be normal.
It sounds like it was just a unique case where they slipped the directions, and forgot the company had asked them to return the prototype after. It was a dumb mistake, yes, but a lot of people are acting like it was super scummy and intentional which I don’t get.
It seems like the other circumstances around poor work environment and low review quality are a lot more important.
In one of their videos one of the employees said they do better and more accurate GPU tests than other YouTubers called Gamers Nexus and Hardware Unboxed. Then of course those mentioned YouTubers started to hit back and show how often LTT is wrong and makes wrong assumptions, because they don’t do proper due diligence. Since they have to release several videos per week. Gamers Nexus also exposed that LTT auctioned off a prototype GPU cooler from a small startup. But they had no permission to sell the unit. It was only for reviewing. The startup even asked to get the unit back several times. Linus, the owner of LTT, then released a non-apology. Afterwards a former employee came out and told why she left the company and it turns out the work environment is very toxic at LTT. She also reminded everyone that pettiness by Linus caused his fans to harass a small YouTuber called MindChop. Who eventually committed suicide. He fell into a depression because of the harassment and later his mom also committed suicide. She couldn’t bear the loss of her son.
“Several videos a week”.
Twenty-five (25) videos a week. Five a day, four if they work weekends which they likely do. Plus the WAN show and other social media. Their velocity is far too high for accuracy to be a priority. As their own employees said in their video, they wish they had more time. And as Linus himself said, their velocity is so high that the instant they publish a video it has to be forgotten because they have to turn to the next one.
Holy shit, I can’t wrap my head around channels that release more than one video a day
It’s still mostly one per day per channel, more or less. It’s just that they have many channels
They have like a hundred employees, which makes it a lot easier to figure out. Though some of those employees aren’t directly involved in creating videos, such as doing accounting or creating the many kinds of custom merch that they sell.
They have a bunch of employees doing specialized roles. Not just the usual roles like editing or writing, but they also what they call a “lab” that does stuff like identify findings about tech. But even with so many employees and all the specialization, they’re still clearly rushing. Eg, if they make a massive error, rather than fix it and do a reshoot, they’ll release it with the error, which is a terrible approach.
That’s exactly what happened in their biggest controversy with an expensive water block cooler. They used a completely wrong graphics card despite knowing that it was completely wrong and with an incompatible motherboard, then spent most of the video bad mouthing how it didn’t fit the motherboard or card instead of recognizing that they needed to just identify a compatible board, find the right card, and redo the shoot.
Hbomberguy
One video in six months, if we’re lucky.
The next video might have him lose the plot and have an existential crisis on camera over a 15 hour rant
Jesus fucking Christ
There is no actual proof for the suicide of the son and the mom, would love to see actual proof if you have it but i wouldn’t really use this as an argument. I admit his behaviour was too much but pointing the blame for the suicide of a child is also too extreme
found this twitter post about it: https://twitter.com/reddit_lies/status/1691895748286177765 Just realized that Twitter account is quite stupid but I still can’t find any evidence for it being true or not
Edit: I don’t know if I want to believe if MindChop truly did what the reddit post is talking about, but I feel like Linus wasn’t at fault for his community bullying the Owner.
Another thing I just found: https://www.reddit.com/r/LinusTechTips/comments/15sjv78/for_anyone_wondering_why_madison_stayed_silent/jwfeg5a/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button
This whole thing is very complicated and I am not trying to discredit the madison allegations with this, they are a completely different topic
THAT whole thing SHOULD NOT be included in this round of criticism. NO ONE is responsible for everything their fans do. That was a messed up situation that LTT only happened to be involved in. Most of their angst and trouble came from a terrible YT media group (not LMG) pulling their small channel around.
That’s also my opinion on this
Hoc cognito, ergo dico hoc.
deleted by creator
Indeed, the lack of professionalism and lack of respect in the work place are fully legit concerns. Though piling on someone’s tragedy just to hurt LMG is a frankly shameful act.
I don’t fault those curious about the event, but it is almost wholly and completely unrelated, AND not a fault of LMG per se. At least the severity of the outcome they had nothing to do with.
Can you point to the comment by Madison about the MindChop thing? As far as I can see she never brought it up.
Yikes.
Small note on the cooler subject; the cooler was auctioned to charity - they didn’t keep the money for themselves.
It doesn’t matter. It literally doesn’t matter.
The problem is THAT it left LMG to anywhere except the manufacturer, NOT how it left. The problem is it left the company at all to the wrong place.
And then offered to pay for the BOM of the device acting as though that completely makes up for the mistake, ignoring the potential harm to Billets intellectual property.
Then their apology is all butt hurt that they THOUGHT they’d offered to pay for it, but only sent the email internally, not realizing their mistake until called out again. Then whining that no one is giving them the benefit of the doubt when they’ve demonstrated lack of judgement throughout the whole ordeal.
Forgetting to put the actual recipient in the TO filed is such a weird mistake too. You got all the CCs, but ignored the TO?
I get that shit happens, but its not like it was a complex email they drafted several times and wanted to make sure it wasent sent by mistake. Its whole contents was “oops, our bad. Can you send us an invoice and well get this sorted out.” Why did they not hit “reply all” like a sane person for something that mundane?
Its just so weird, and honestly is either made up, or points to odd workflows and more sloppy processes, even over on the buisness side.
Love that they clarified that after being called out, as if that somehow makes it more acceptable. “See? It was to charity guys, you think making money for charity is a bad thing?” While still missing the mark completely and refusing to send said prototype back.
Talk about moving goalposts. They fucked up.
It’s still a bad mistake, absolutely. If the cooler hadn’t been sent out already, I’d call it malice. I don’t think they’re claiming themselves blameless, just admitting that while they’re dumb, they’re not greedy.
Idk, taking someone else’s property, when not given permission, for your own tax deductions still sounds pretty shitty
You don’t get to claim a tax credit on someone else’s charitable donations. In this situation, the buyer gets a proof of donation that they get to claim on their taxes. It wouldn’t be LMG deducting it.
Do people still not understand how donations/charities work? If they sold it for $100 and donated $100. Yes, they technically get a tax deduction. But it doesn’t change how much profit they made. If they had tossed it in the trash they’d still have the same amount of profit. They just aren’t paying tax on the $100 they sold it for because that money is being donated.
I mean…they were reviewing it in-house. They had already “taken” it. The question is whether they give it back after - and it’s a very common routine for manufacturers to just not care, in which case a charity auction would be normal.
It sounds like it was just a unique case where they slipped the directions, and forgot the company had asked them to return the prototype after. It was a dumb mistake, yes, but a lot of people are acting like it was super scummy and intentional which I don’t get.
It seems like the other circumstances around poor work environment and low review quality are a lot more important.
That’s even worse. Giving charity stolen money is pretty fucked up.