this post was submitted on 16 Aug 2023
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Linus Tech Tips

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Evil Linus meme aside, it's big time damage control at LMG right now: https://youtu.be/0cTpTMl8kFY

As usually happens with stuff like this, once started, many others will come out of the woodwork and it's already started: https://lemm.ee/post/4433736. Of course we have to take some of these things with a grain of salt. However, if even a tiny bit of what Madison went through is true, this is unbelievably horrible.

I'm sure there will be plenty of LMG/LTT fans that will take this apology and happily move on. I for one will not.

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[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 50 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It's about time he had some humble pie, he was already aware he wasn't really CEO material for a company of the size LMG has grown to. It's very good there's now someone above him whose job it is to tell him no. Until now, the no's have only come from below his position. Clearly that's not enough anymore.

What happened to Madison shows they should have had professional HR on staff far, far sooner than they did. Her employment there having gone the way it did, means LMG has some serious cracks in its company culture, policy, and the views of its leading staff, including Linus.

But looking at the way LMG operates, and the kinds of things Linus wants to do, and the way he says he wants things to go, shows hes not malicious. It shows he is not sufficiently competent.

This is a fuckup. One that might kill the company. And if it does, they will have done it to themselves. But it's a fuckup, not the evil masterplan of a villanous leader.

[–] plumbercraic@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I am out of the loop on the Madison thing. Anyone care to fill me in? If its possible to do quickly that is.

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 16 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Basically everything that can go wrong between employee and employer, did. Managerial overreach, ignored complaints, sexual misconduct, deterioration of mental health to the point of self-harm. All of it gas-lit away by her direct superior/s at LMG. She hasn't named names, but someone at the company made her job a living hell, and sabotaged all her attempts at improving her situation to cover their own ass. She had it rough.

Her posts

[–] Killing_Spark@feddit.de 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What weirds me out the most is the onlyfans account. Why force a young woman to manage an onlyfans account, that expressed she didn't want to do it from the start? It couldn't have been important for the brand to have that account, it's a tech channel FFS. This is one of the things that can't be explained away by misunderstandings or misread situations or "just Bois being Bois". This is a manager abusing power in one of the weirdest ways

[–] MentalEdge@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yep. That said, when she was there, she was the only employee who was hired specifically to handle the LMG social media accounts.

OnlyFans could be considered to just about fall under that umbrella, to be shoved onto her plate along with all the rest of the way too many tasks she was expected to handle. It was an april fools thing that LMG did a few years back.

She became the lead of a single-person team, given the workload and responsibilities of an entire department, with no-one to delegate to, with just her one voice to protest with. And then her concerns got muffled by someone atop all that.

I can totally imagine how even just one person in a managerial position could do that to her, by simply pulling the right strings to pressure her, and to prevent anyone who'd care from realizing it's happening.

[–] plumbercraic@lemmy.sdf.org 7 points 1 year ago

Big yikes. Thank you.

[–] Cubes@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

TL;DR: She's a former employee that recently came out to detail her abusive time working for LMG filled with sexism, harassment, and working her to the point that she injured herself just to be able to take a day off work

[–] plumbercraic@lemmy.sdf.org 5 points 1 year ago

Oh that's who the self harm references were about. Was wondering wtf. Cheers

[–] WalkableProgrammer@lemmy.world 19 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Damn I’m so disappointed, does anyone have recommendations for general tech channels that are short and sweet like LTT

[–] thesprongler@lemmy.world 25 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Gamers Nexus is great and unbiased, focused more on analytics than entertainment.

[–] ashok36@lemmy.world 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I like GN in theory but they are boring as fuck. Even some of the B tier presenters on LTT like Plouffe are more interesting to watch/listen to than Steve.

[–] fiah@discuss.tchncs.de 16 points 1 year ago (2 children)

that begs the question, are you looking for entertainment or information?

[–] shitescalates@midwest.social 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Even ignoring the entertainment factor, Steve is too long winded and doesn't convey much subjectivity. I understand objectivity is generally favored in reviews, but subjectivity is also desired, especially in a video. Otherwise you can just read the data.

[–] fiah@discuss.tchncs.de 2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

eh, I agree that he gets long winded especially when it's just a bunch of data that he goes through in a review, but I don't agree on the lack of subjectivity. IMO he's plenty clear about what he personally thinks about the things they review

[–] maiskanzler@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah the same is true for JayzTwoCents. The content is great and I like both guys, but they would do well by keeping it a bit shorter. Especially JayzTwoCents likes to ramble about tiny video material for twenty minutes and still fails to properly get his point across. He could use a more fledged out script before turning on the camera. They both made videos about failing AiO coolers and the main point was just to mount the pump below the reservoir or at least low enough for air to not get trapped in it. There. One sentence. Both wandered about and lost most viewers in the process. It left people so confused, they anded up watching both guy's videos.

But on a more positive note, I recently built my first own PC and I relied heavily on Gamers Nexus and JayzTwoCents for their reviews and practical videos. Their stuff had top notch information and was tremendously helpful. I didn't really look at any LTT content in preparation for my build. I was a little surprised about that, because I have been an LTT subscriber since they were in that house with whole-room watercooling. They have somehow gone way beyound the regular gamer/pc-building related content and now have quite a big gap in their portfolio of videos. They have one big video that talks you through planning and building your PC which is great honestly (thanks Emily!), but it is also very general in order to stay relevant for longer. When I was looking for newer stuff and was trying to make choices, GN and JTC it was!

Edit: Accidental Dead-Naming. Sorry!

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)
[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 1 year ago

Hey, trying to get the image link on mobile is already difficult.

That's why I will appreciate the effort and shall edit my comment.

[–] Girtablulu@feddit.de 1 points 1 year ago

Yea as soon as he follows a script, it's hard to watch, where he doesnt he can be entertaining

[–] Appoxo@lemmy.dbzer0.com 0 points 1 year ago

Way to dry.

[–] MrSebSin@lemm.ee 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

I haven't found anything else that is directly comparable, most other channels I follow/enjoy are more specific on topics and/or technical. In no particular order, here are the channels that I'm currently subbed to that are tech/PC/Mac/gaming related...

https://www.youtube.com/@paulshardware/videos

https://www.youtube.com/@Jayztwocents

https://www.youtube.com/@GamersNexus

https://www.youtube.com/@mkbhd

https://www.youtube.com/@UFDTech

https://www.youtube.com/@HardwareCanucks

https://www.youtube.com/@snazzy

https://www.youtube.com/@Waveform

https://www.youtube.com/@OptimumTech

https://www.youtube.com/@Engadget

[–] randomaside@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] maiskanzler@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago

Wendel and team are gods! So much actual and deep expertise!

[–] F4nt0M@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Hardware Canucks, Optimum Tech <- insane guy

[–] DarkGamer@kbin.social 2 points 1 year ago

Gamers Nexus?

[–] HeckingShepherd@lemm.ee 2 points 1 year ago

I really love Dawid Does Tech Stuff. His videos are a lot of fun but are even further from being technical reviews than LTT. He just likes trying to make the jankiest stuff possible.

[–] MystikIncarnate@lemmy.ca 16 points 1 year ago

I'm fairly up to date with the current state of this and I'm actually really glad he's only had a small part in damage control since guys outburst on the forum, it shows that he's actually trusting his CEO to do their job, and with any luck at all, the new CEO will clean the shit out of LMG; that may, or may not include firing Linus. I honestly don't know if that will happen, and bluntly, given what happened to Madison, and Linus being dismissive of her concerns, it would serve him right.

Such a proposal is problematic since Linus has been the face of LMG since it was created (and of LTT before LMG), but it's not the first time a brand's face (aka the face of the company) has been removed, and I'm certain it won't be the last.

The fact is, he's not more involved because his new CEO isn't that stupid. Letting Linus run his mouth about this would likely lead to more problems, he's been silenced by his own people for good fucking reason. He can't be trusted. What he says is usually the story he wants people to believe, not necessarily the truth, and it's become blatantly obvious that he continues to behave in an unprofessional way towards everyone, feeding them the information he wants to be true, rather than the truth. The new CEO has an opportunity to come down firmly on it and stem the flow of shit from his mouth that's either the narrative he wants us to believe, or straight up lies, and instead present information in a pointed (though vague) way. A good CEO shouldn't count chickens before they hatch. An announcement of a resolution shouldn't happen until the ink is dry on it, and it's blatantly clear to me that Linus, as CEO, would tell his team to start working on something, then announce to everyone that it is already a done deal, as if everything has already been finished, when reality shows that the process is just starting.

Vague language is your ally in positions of authority, when the process starts (like when they committed to reimbursing the cost of the cooler), you inform people that the process is ongoing with rectifying the problem, not "we have reached an agreement with the company", because you haven't. You've reached an agreement internally which will hopefully result in reaching an agreement.... So either say that, or be vague, but lying will only destroy the trust people have in your company, and bluntly, LMG survives on trust.

To put it as simply as I can: for a company that makes money because people trust the opinions, testing, information, and methodologies of the content that they make, Linus has single handedly, on multiple occasions, demonstrated a direct and substantial misrepresentation of facts which will have a significant negative impact on the business. This is a termination worthy infraction. He'll always be the owner, but owning something doesn't mean that you will have any say in the day to day operations of the company, or that you'll be employed there, or collect a salary. Dividends are another matter.

It would not suprise me if we don't see much of Linus from LMG for a long time, and I would be even less surprised if they renamed the company altogether.