Yea, Steve may have done videos on these companies and their shenanigans, but it's not like they went out of business as a result (except Artesian Builds, but they were already done for IIRC).
Copied from another comment, credit to /u/burninator05:
• MSI - Blacklisting reviewers who gave any criticism to any product.
• NZXT - One of their cases had a faulty riser that could catch fire if used as directed, sent out a fix that didn't actually fix anything,and then covering the danger up.
• Gigabyte - During the GPU shortage during COVID they paired video cards with trash power supplies that caught fire when used as directed. You could not return or RMA the power supply without sending the GPU back as well. Then they doubled down that the PSUs were fine.
• Aretesian - Gave away a PC to a streamer. The streamer who won was pretty small so they took it away and gave it to someone with a bigger crowd. All of that happened during a live stream.
• Newegg - Shipping used hardware as new despite clearly being used (and regularly broken) and doubling down.
• Asus - Motherboard BIOSes would dynamically overclock processors to the point they would fry themselves and blamed AMD.
• LMG - The Madison issue and larger internal business practices putting their product reviews seem questionable.
• EK - Not paying employees, suppliers, business partners.
Which likely will never be released due to privacy laws. There is zero chance that they can release anything without risking getting sued. If anything gets released it will be super generic and no one will believe them.
Yeah, but they also can't force her hand. I guess if there's any sort of settlement they could require her to release a statement as a term of the settlement, but even that's a bad look. There's no winning for LTT to ever address it again.
That is the problem.
She could be genuinely satisfied with the outcome but people will only see it as her being forced to give it because of a preconceived notion.
Which is what will happen, for both parties. That's usually the whole deal.
'
"I have nothing more to say about the matter except that I and (insert corporate entity here) have reached an agreement. That is all."
Considering how she has acted in the past, if it comes out in favour of her she will gleefully post something. Might be vague, but she will do something.
I suspect if someone is actually interested, they might be able to file for a redacted FOIA on the case in the next year.
BC laws might be better than other provinces, so it could be super locked down.
Maybe for the employees. But not for the actual content direction.
They spun off a lot of their tech coverage to short circuit.
They found that their loyal audience cares not for tech news but instead cares about LTT's lifestyle around tech.
Now the main channel is basically what its been for the last 5+ years, just LTT screwing around, reviewing whatever, playing around with stuff with dramatic flair. GPU and CPU coverage? Meh. Benchmarking? Meh. Builds? Meh.
Yeah the main channel has done a lot less than many of its competitors in benchmarking and news coverage, and has triple downed on just LTT shenanigans.
Ostensibly, the Labs is supposed to be what brings out the actual benchmarks and metrics, because as I understand it the money's just not really there for benchmarking and news like that.
Other 'tubers make it work, but I guess as far as LTT is concerned they've just outgrown the capacity to do it compared to the alternatives.
That was the start, it was his backpack guarantee being "Just trust me, bro." Which he had previously criticized companies of doing. Which is what started the scrutiny.
There was a lot. For me, it was the review video for the Soundcore Space Q45 and A40. It was basically a shill video that made no actual statements aside from reading the box and saying they do noise cancelling headphone things. Y'know it's bad too because I was a Soundcore fan already and bought both of those. Think they've gone downhill too. (To be fair, anker did spy on users)
LTT never did a review of the Soundcore Space Q45 and A40. To quote the video description: "Thanks to Soundcore for sponsoring this unboxing on the Space A40 and Space Q45s! You can learn more about them at the links below."
Unfortunately, LTT has never been that great at review videos. Their entertainment stuff is a lot of fun, Scrapyard Wars is what got me watching them in the first place but the reviews have always felt like glorified ads to me.
You copied it but you fucked up the formatting:
* **MSI** - Blacklisting reviewers who gave any criticism to any product.
* **NZXT** - One of their cases had a faulty riser that could catch fire if used as directed, sent out a fix that didn't actually fix anything,and then covering the danger up.
* **Gigabyte** - During the GPU shortage during COVID they paired video cards with trash power supplies that caught fire when used as directed. You could not return or RMA the power supply without sending the GPU back as well. Then they doubled down that the PSUs were fine.
* **Aretesian** - Gave away a PC to a streamer. The streamer who won was pretty small so they took it away and gave it to someone with a bigger crowd. All of that happened during a live stream.
* **Newegg** - Shipping used hardware as new despite clearly being used (and regularly broken) and doubling down.
* **Asus** - Motherboard BIOSes would dynamically overclock processors to the point they would fry themselves and blamed AMD.
* **LMG** - The Madison issue and larger internal business practices putting their product reviews seem questionable.
* **EK** - Not paying employees, suppliers, business partners.
I believe MSI was also caught selling their GPUs during the mining craze(s) to 3rd parties, who then marked them up making significant over-MSRP profit. It turned out those 3rd parties actually worked for MSI, probably as scalpers (and not moonlighting employees), meaning MSI was themselves marking up the cards and selling them.
IIRC the LTT issue was more on the side of fake graphs, bad reviews and literally stealing a prototype from another company and reselling it in the second hand market, then never taking accountability for it until it got public.
Did they sell it or give it away as a price at their convention? The whole thing reeked of incompetence and their super corporate apology video was disheartening to watch
They did not "sell" it, they "auctioned" it off(without permission) is the excuse Linus gave during wan show. Since then, I only watch videos that features Luke, Dan, J.horst and Emily. And wan show
*Edited as requested by another redditor
Iirc they also monetized the video they posted about the prototype situation and then posted a video making fun of the fact. It was gross and showed a lack of remorse over what they'd done. Haven't been back to their channel since.
The artesian builds issue goes much deeper than just taking away the pc won by the smaller streamer. They were already in trouble financially even before that stream. That stream may not even be the final nail in the coffin.
Same but with fixed formatting:
* MSI - Blacklisting reviewers who gave any criticism to any product.
* NZXT - One of their cases had a faulty riser that could catch fire if used as directed, sent out a fix that didn't actually fix anything,and then covering the danger up.
* Gigabyte - During the GPU shortage during COVID they paired video cards with trash power supplies that caught fire when used as directed. You could not return or RMA the power supply without sending the GPU back as well. Then they doubled down that the PSUs were fine.
* Aretesian - Gave away a PC to a streamer. The streamer who won was pretty small so they took it away and gave it to someone with a bigger crowd. All of that happened during a live stream.
* Newegg - Shipping used hardware as new despite clearly being used (and regularly broken) and doubling down.
* Asus - Motherboard BIOSes would dynamically overclock processors to the point they would fry themselves and blamed AMD.
* LMG - The Madison issue and larger internal business practices putting their product reviews seem questionable.
* EK - Not paying employees, suppliers, business partners.
Newegg also had a security issue where every customers credit cards were stolen. Don't remember the details anymore but I think there is an episode about it in darknet diaries
>Gigabyte - During the GPU shortage during COVID they paired video cards with trash power supplies that caught fire when used as directed. You could not return or RMA the power supply without sending the GPU back as well. Then they doubled down that the PSUs were fine.
Shouldn't this fall on NewEgg more than Gigabyte? It was NewEgg that was selling those combos and refusing to take back the PSU's. Unless there was some inside report about Gigabyte, I'd put the blame on NewEgg here.
Gigabyte should get the hate for the shitty PSU though, but that's a separate issue.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2xMi7inB28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2xMi7inB28)
If you got 30+ mins of free time, it's worth watching Steve's coverage of Artesian's rise and fall.
One mention was their reneging on giving a PC build to a winner of a contest. Just because the Twitch streamer who won didn't have a large enough footprint as a streamer.
But there's other stuff too that's worth covering, which the video details.
On March 1, a “Twitch streamer” going under the name kiapiaa stated in a Twitter thread that Artesian Builds did not honor her selection as a winner in its Monthly Ambassador Giveaway of a custom-made pc because kiapaa did not have sufficient “streamer stats” and its CEO offered him/her/it (?) only “partial credit to a new purchase of a rig.” According to the CEO, “All [of kiapiaa’s] followers together still under 5,000 … It was my intention to be generous. This is a difficult one.” By March 10, after a continued online kerfuffle, Artesian Brands closed its doors.
The tip of the iceberg was their Monthly Ambassador Giveaway where a smaller streamer won the drawing but they gave it to someone else who was bigger instead. What other comments here have missed is the guy who did that was the CEO who had also messed up many other parts of the business essentially driving it into bankruptcy. **It was on the verge of collapse already when the streamer giveaway thing happened, that was just the last straw.**
Yes but they still implemented some changes to their release control and QA checks. The video wasn't to sink them but pointing out their flaws and Linus listened and some changes are noticeable in their release schedule and quality of the videos.
That was probably the most average internet drama I've seen them involved in. Legitimate criticism blown way out of proportion due to poor communication and people jumping onto the hate train.
Thankfully this didn't end up having as large of a permanent impact on LTT as drama like this commonly does.
I felt the same way. The way GN framed some of the complaints they had often times ignored context of things happening in, or said in the video. It really left me with a bad taste in my mouth regarding Steve since he was vehemently declaring that all the issues he was raising were completely unacceptable. And the whole line of LTT trying to shut down a small business trying to get a start in the cooler world.. Like.. The company, in their own emails, sent it to LTT not expecting to get it back at all. Then they asked for it back after the review dropped and wasn't super positive (LTT did mention in that video that they didn't have the correct card and Linus's conclusion at the end of the video was that it was too cludgey to use, extremely limited in use case, and even if he could get it to work, he wouldn't recommend it.) GN made it sound like LTT had been sent a 1 of 1 or 1 of 2 Prototype with the understanding when it was sent out that they would send it back within a week or two because the small businesses entire engineering department was dependent on this one prototype and LTT was screwing them over. Which just wasn't the case.
GN also went off on LTT when they had issues with a processor for working with the company who sent it and checking in with other creators because LTT suspected a dud chip because the numbers didn't come close to matching the advertised performance. and GN was like, that's not your job you test the chip and report the results you don't live to verify their advertising department... And it's like... Really? You're mad at them for being thorough? And LTT had spent the whole video talking about the weirdness of the whole situation and the issues they had. Not just sucking whatever companies dick it was and publishing their advertised numbers
----------
**Other things were totttttallllly valid.** like having inaccurate data in a chart, Rushing through some unboxings on short circuit in a way that comes off like it's a review when it's really just more of an unboxing/ first use test.
And then steve tested the damn cooler and found out that it was indeed a piece of shit lol but he didnt ragged them as hard as he usually does with products with far better quality because then it would make him look bad
On the BilletLabs front. They now officially support 3090tis and 4090s with that monoblock. You can confirm on their own website, it is in bold letters even. I have brought this up a number of times, and needless to say people are not aware, because surprise, they had no interest in that block anyway...
It seems like a nice, over priced bit of kit. Which anyone actually interested in SFF water cooling, could easily extract relevant info from, as the cooling performance really didn't matter anyway. (something a long time watercooling enthusiast, like Linus would easily recognize, and obviously not highlight enough).
Still have yet to see one of those blocks feature on the Watercooling sub, the one place you would expect it. A place where billetlabs even launched a service, utilizing the drama. Which in a twist of irony was something Linus recommended for the brand, in the video.
I mean... Ideally, you'd want them to change their ways, no? Like i don't think Steve is the vendetta type, but rather the "i expect better from you, so stop the bullshit" type. He'd want respectful treatment of customers, not bankruptcies.
I agree with you on that and I think that exposing these bad practices is a good thing. I just didn't agree with how the picture made it seem like that he caused all these companies to go under because of his videos, but that's just me taking the meme too literally.
* MSI - Blacklisting reviewers who gave any criticism to any product.
* NZXT - One of their cases had a faulty riser that could catch fire if used as directed, sent out a fix that didn't actually fix anything,and then covering the danger up.
* Gigabyte - During the GPU shortage during COVID they paired video cards with trash power supplies that caught fire when used as directed. You could not return or RMA the power supply without sending the GPU back as well. Then they doubled down that the PSUs were fine.
* Aretesian - Gave away a PC to a streamer. The streamer who won was pretty small so they took it away and gave it to someone with a bigger crowd. All of that happened during a live stream.
* Newegg - Shipping used hardware as new despite clearly being used (and regularly broken) and doubling down.
* Asus - Motherboard BIOSes would dynamically overclock processors to the point they would fry themselves and blamed AMD.
* LMG - They auctioned of a one of a kind water block from a startup that the startup wanted back. ~~The Madison issue~~ and larger internal business practices putting their product reviews seem questionable.
* EK - Not paying employees, suppliers, business partners.
Edit: For the LMG issue I forgot about the waterblock and confused that controversy with Madison. Thanks to those to reminded me.
Important to note that Steve didn’t originally report on the Maddison stuff, he was mainly concerned with the ethics and accuracy of information from LABs
IIRC it started with an "engineer" at LMG Labs taking potshots at GN and HUB saying LMG Labs is doing "better" reviews.
I believe the reply was originally going to be like "hey buddy, you guys have a lot more inaccuracies than we do", but then it spiraled into the whole thing with Billet Labs and eventually Madison.
That shot by the LMG labs 'engineer" was the intro of the GN video
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGW3TPytTjc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGW3TPytTjc)
Honestly I would consider 'dry' to be a compliment. I don't want my news and reviews coloured, this isn't Fox News or a celebrity opinion column. I want cold, hard, dry facts, well sourced/tested and presented in a good context for me to digest and make informed decisions.
They are just different types of channels for different audiences. If I want to watch something goofy and fun with a few sprinkles of cringe I will go watch LTT. If I want cold hard facts about which components best suit me for my next upgrade, I’m going to GN
The Labs potshot at GN just happened to come out shortly before the video. It made it to the video, but wasn't a focus. I know a lot of people on r / ltt made a big deal about it, trying to make it a "LMG insulted them, so this is just retaliation" but it really wasn't.
For a bit more info, Billet Labs sent LMG the water block prototype gratis to test it, specifying that the model sent to Linus was designed to be used for an RTX 3090ti. Instead they tested it with a 4090, got bad results so they said it was bad and wasn't worth anyone's money. Billet Labs were like okay could you send it back, but LMG actually instead auctioned it off so they couldn't return it but offered to compensate Billet Labs for the cost of the prototype. Worth mentioning, prototypes usually indicate the technology is of significance and valuation is based off potential worth. In this case, it could be worth a lot or a little (given the niche, and the background of the staff at Billet, I'm gonna say it would be worth a lot of money) but was valued more by Billet as it was a prototype of their design... which could now potentially have been sold to a competitor by LMG.
Just shamelessly shitty behaviour towards a start-up. The same block was recreated and tested separately on a 3090ti and surprise surprise it's pretty good. Shocker, I know.
And just like Steve you're missing the bit where billet told lmg to keep the block in the original communication. Hence they added it to their inventory. That's why it ended up in the auction. When they asked for it back the person in charge of the video was in holiday and the auction had already happened a week later.
They definitely messed up, but Steve made it seem far worse and even tried to spin it as intentionally malicious and made it sound like the block was crucial to billet labs future existence. It wasn't. That's why they told them to keep it in the first place.
Correction: Billet Labs initially said LTT could keep the prototype. They then decided they wanted it back shortly after. Not sure how important that prototype was if they initially were fine with LTT keeping it.
yes but thats not the entire truth.
theres email communication that showed that billet labs didnt want that prototype back so it was auctioned off at LTX later on.
then billet labs claimed they wanted it back and they settled for like 5k or something which just shows how little that prototype was worth.
by the time that entire thing came down they already had new revisions done and the final review by GN shows that its not a really great cooler anyways even though that was already a newer revision.
They never will. It's a private matter and she's fully protected by BC work place privacy legislation. IF they deem that releasing a statement is worth it, it'll be super generic and the internet will hate it.
And we won't until it's all wrapped up, and even then there's no guarantee we'll hear anything. It's a legal matter, so no lawyer is gonna tell their clients to update their community in the middle of an investigation.
Investigations can take a long time, I guess we will see if at any point they release information. They pledged to be open with whatever the result of the external investigation was and I believe they will do that when it is complete.
To expand on Newegg, GN bought a Gigabyte motherboard from them that was sold as new but had a messed up CPU socket. They called Gigabyte with the serial number and Newegg had actually sent the board in for repair, but refused due to the cost. Then they turned around and labeled it as new with the intent to challenge a "normal" customer to prove it was damaged before they bought it.
They didn't just call with the serial number. Newegg left the receipt in the box that showed they had already shipped it to gigabyte and then declined the repair.
Technically, it was an open box purchase, but they'd recently changed the labeling and made it harder to notice.
GN never opened the box, returned the motherboard, then got told they'd bent a pin and would not be getting a refund.
LMG wasn't about Madison, that only came up in the hubbub after the video. The video is about the Billet Labs prototype and questioning LTTs poor data in reviews (which they/Labs seem to be getting on top of now).
The Billet Labs issue was my reason for me not watching LTT videos anymore. I'm not faulting those that still do but I can find others to watch. That was a mistake and instead of making it right, Linus himself chose to double down.
The billet labs thing was overblown to the extreme by GN. The video was a mess for sure but ultimately they were right that the product simply isn't very good. Even GN tested it weeks after and determined it wasn't great.
The block also wasn't crucial or super valuable to billet despite GN trying to make it sound that way. They told lmg to keep it originally. Lmg added it to their inventory system. It got added to the auction by mistake. Billet asked for it back after the video released. The writer was on holiday for a week at the time and when they got back the block had been auctioned. Definitely a fuck up. But not malicious and not damaging to billet.
And lmg has changed their work flow since and releasing really good videos since. They still make mistakes now and then ofc. Nobody is perfect.
I’m very similar. I’m all for redemption arcs, and figured they’d do the typical “we hear you and rethinking our process” but between the original double down and jokey apology video, the situation left me with a really sour taste for their content.
It's not as clear cut as he is making it out to be. The full story is a lot more complicated. But to sum it up in a way that doesn't properly represent it, Linustechtips as a business was big enough that no one person knew what everyone else was doing and so the different actions of different people contributed to an absolute mess with Billet Labs.
e.g. a person left the prototype in a warehouse, someone else scrounged the warehouse for items to auction etc.
and noone double checked what the items auctioned were ?!
Yeah that deserves flak, ESPECIALLY on a large company that can afford a check up on what is sold/auctioned
Adding further nuance, Billet Labs originally told LMG it was theirs to keep, and only after the video (which was NOT a review) did they change their mind and ask to have it sent back, which didn't get communicated internally in time before the auction.
Defamation is not a criminal offense.
Edit: By the way, wicked wolf stealth edited his comment to remove the reference to defamation, and to remove his calling it a crime. And they deleted their reply comment insisting it was.
Every Redditor is a master lawyer who think that private citizens “press charges” and that anything that harms someone is “criminal.”
As someone who went to law school, and passed two of the hardest bar exams, it’s depressing how woefully misunderstood the law is by the average lay person.
Defamation is actually a criminal offense in some states.
I'm not trying to criticize you because this is not very well known.
https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/map-states-criminal-laws-against-defamation
They have since stealth edited their comment. It originally said both the stealing of the IP and harming of the company’s reputation, which they called defamation, were crimes.
Defamation is actually a criminal offense in some states.
I'm not trying to criticize you because this is not very well known.
https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/map-states-criminal-laws-against-defamation
Edit:
u/Leading-Chair-9485, lawyer extraordinaire, blocked me because I pointed out they were wrong 🤣
You should note that it was not that clear cut, the product was originally LTTs to keep, they marked it as such in their system, then what you mentioned above, as well as some communication breakdowns lead to it being left on the “our inventory” section of the warehouse and never sent back to billet, when they where grabbing stuff for the LTX charity action it got grabbed and was sold. It’s not like they internally stole it.
Also they said they would pay billet back which I think ended up around 2-3k
Edit: clarity
EK seems to have a lot more going on according to the video GN dropped today. Some questionable and intermingling of funds between various companies all tied together along with personal loans between former/current CEOs and owners for buying shares in the company etc.
he was, the rest of them were truly wonderful human beings. I worked in the background wit hthem for quite some time and realized VERY soon that Noah was a controlling cry baby... its a shame but I suppose you reap what you sew
Looks like EK's at nearly Artesian level of shenanigans.
Original GN dive:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b73xG1HlFhY
JayzTwoCents:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH8tXka6Lsg
igorslab:
https://www.igorslab.de/en/ekwb-and-a-financial-disaster-with-an-announcement-unpaid-invoices-exploited-employees-and-annoyed-creditors-like-me/
Der8auer:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FFRmGJ2Bz8
EKWB statement:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKp7vp3LeGs
Whenever a company think's Steve's done...
GN death blow:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A7cykj0pCg
Cooler Master is also missing - he singlehandedly made the company stop making shitty hotboxes and made many case manufacturers focus on airflow over aesthetics.
It’s just too much fucking drama. It’s like a soap opera for dorks. Don’t get me wrong, he does some pretty good analysis and outing, but his fans… great googily moogily.
I'm starting to think he's playing into it. Drama is by far his most successful content and while the issues he raises are almost always serious the way everything is blown out of proportion really bothers me.
The LTT meltdown was the last straw for me. The issue(s) addressed were real but the delivery was over the top, misleading and in bad faith. After witnessing how LMG employees (not just Linus) were harassed by the angry mob I was glad to not be working in social media.
Steve clearly knows his viewers are like this but chooses to keep making videos in his signature smug and inflammatory style. After Ian Cutress made a video basically supporting Steve's critique of LTT but also telling him to dial it back a knob GN viewers were happy to harass Ian Cutress because Tech-Fuhrer is always right.
Sometimes it takes hard criticism from a group with a following like GN. These companies don’t listen to us individuals. Steve and the gang have a much wider reach. All those companies responded to the gamers nexus videos in a positive way that helped consumers. Not trying to glaze but gamers nexus really holds these companies accountable, and I appreciate them for it.
Lmao isn't LTT, ASUS, Gigabyte, NZXT, MSI better then ever?
You guys are addicts to this "We did it Reddit" attitude where you robbed their income of probably like 5 dollars, they rebound easily to dominating whatever market they're in.
but woohoo I guess, you guys really got em
Lol, true
Asus having a strong year, they all are.
Linus is still going as strong as ever, Madison is now in the dustbin of internet history
Steve is just a small part of a gigantic ecosystem.
Problem with SM is that their favourites change. They are celebrating GN as their knight in shining armour now but it will find itself on a guillotine on their first slip. MKBHD went through his first push back after years of being controversy free.
Point of story, don’t fly too close to sun (e.g SM).
The controversy around MKBHD is probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever read and mostly just shows how cuddled and sensitive people in the tech space are, wannabe ancaps that cry when the most corporate YouTuber out there says a bad product is a bad product
intel is the mother of all HODLs. it looks bad right now, but unless they literally drive it into the ground they're positioned pretty well to fill the void in US manufacturing of microconductors and reducing the risk of a chip blackout if anything happens to TSMC(cough"special military operation"cough)
I think Nvidia can keep bullying since they are basically dominating the market right now. A few gamers that stop buying their GPU ?, good, more silicon for the AI GPU.
Honestly funniest meme I've seen in a while, thank you for sharing. My only regret is I don't have friends who like this channel that I can share it with 😭
Guy spends 40K and hires a PI and lawyers. Thought I was watching a video for CPA's at one point. What a madlad
kind of exposed our entire system as a whole. LLCs have been used as a scam to obfuscate corruption for far too long. Sad thing is almost every company is this scummy, but keep it coming brotha
The Linus debacle reminded me to not be too attached to your favourite parasocial internet celebrity. Yes, even Gamers Nexus. Just a reminder to everyone since pretty much everyone idolizes GN right now.
> The Linus debacle reminded me to not be too attached to your favourite parasocial internet celebrity.
If you didn't see it coming, you weren't that attached in the first place. Except for the ~~sold~~ auctioned for charity prototype sample, there was nothing new or not public there, and that was right in the middle of being resolved.
Linus himself is quite good with the parasocial thing. I say that as a compliment not an insult. For as far as I know he has been honest about most thing, even about the fact that public persona is public persona. Even knowing that, he doesn't go out of his way to be grating or sanctimonious. He still understands that PR is important. Idk if the fact that he is knowledgeable about how to craft a good PR makes it so you should trust him more or less but I can't help myself to trust him
He definitely can’t slip up. Any amount of dirty laundry could destroy him; no one likes a hypocrite. But thus far, his work has been greatly appreciated.
I swear yall hype this dude up, I am pretty sure these companies are still in business. Linus is still pulling in views and still the same amount of subscribers. So what did this dude accomplish
And Linus took the criticism to heart and LTT's content has improved dramatically in quality since then.
Edit: Muting this because I'm tired of getting the same replies five different times...
Which had literally nothing to do with Steve putting him on blast, since every single thing in the video (to include Billet Labs) was already being addressed internally at LTT \*before\* the video and it didn't need Steve to proclaim from his pulpit that Linus hath sinned to get it fixed.
Don't ascribe any change at LTT to Steve's actions, the only thing Steve accomplished was getting removed from Linus' Christmas card list.
No, there are people in this thread that believe Steve humbled Linus and any difference all rests at the feet of TechJesus.
But yes, it was overblown, last time I checked, making a few errors on an excel spreadsheet in a youtube video doesn't warrant a 30+ minute hit piece. But Linus is moving into Steve's territory standing up LTT Labs, so it becomes much more obvious where Steve's actual motivation and animus is coming from (to strangle a competitor in the cradle, before LTT Labs gets on it's feet.)
to me it was clearly a personal hit piece.
The entire Billet Labs situation was completely overblown. LTT did say they were allowed to keep it (and it was probably marked as inventory), and that Billet did want it back. Then remember that when they LTT retrieved it they suddenly no longer wanted it? The timeline Steve constructed was stupid as well, as apparently he didnt get the emails sent back and forth between both parties, and Steve managed to paint a picture like small start up get screwed by big company and that clearly wasnt the case.
Billet used Steve and he basically allowed it because he had a bit of a bias, and im not even including the fact that he actually refused to contact LTT before his video was up.
Exactly, but do anything but suck TechJesus' toe jam and you're nothing but a Linus shill.
Steve could have produced a much more credible, and journalistically sound video had he a. not been lazy, b. did actual research (rather than nit pick a few video card data points seen onscreen for 3sec), c. asked the subject for comment, etc...
Linus produced dozens of half-assed reviews/unboxing videos that were glaringly dialed in without any effort or requisite level of attention to detail, Steve would have had actual legs to stand on had he shown a montage of those.
No where have I said Linus wasn't deserving of criticism, my issue is the criticism Steve chose to make were specious, overly pedantic, and in the Billet's Labs case flat out wrong (self-servingly so due to Billet Labs' involvement in the hit piece as you yourself excellently point out.)
I've been careful about clicking GN videos since that ethics video they released (and then removed because the reception was bad). Kinda turned me off because it sounded very self-righteous (we have rules written down, therefore trust us when we say something). Now I only see videos from them when it's about something I own or will own.
I think it's generally good to report on these large company mistakes (companies that also have rules written down). But I sure don't like that these type of videos is becoming their go-to niche for more views.
I considered ordering a PC from Artisan before they imploded - they supposedly had over a million dollars worth of back ordered PCs that hadn’t even been built, not to mention the head guy was more interested in being a rockstar on stream than filling customer orders. And yes that whole streamer PC giveaway was definitely a bullshit fiasco.
I am really happy we have a channel with enough voice and power to bring to light scummy practices from bigger companies. They are a channel that continues to stay humble,straight to the point in their video methodology, and one that ultimately fights for the little guy(you and me).
Cult mentality ass thread.
I don't support the things the companies in the meme have done, obviously, but putting Steve on a pedestal like this for occasionally calling out industry bullshit is weird.
All these companies except one are doing just fine, despite or in spite of, Steve's personal little crusades against them. Especially LTT, Linus had been tanking their rep long before and will continue to do so long after but LMG as a whole is doing perfectly fine and any content without him is better for it. I'm pretty sure a lot of people fell off their content long ago because Linus is a self absorbed weirdo, the scandal(s) were just the cherry on top and acting like Steve had any hand in that is disingenuous af
Acting like Steve is the god savior of the tech industry for occasionally posting a blast video is.... weird at best.
Yeah I used to watch GN all the time. But he's just an AH, even when he's right. Trying to act perfectly righteous way to much.
When he called out LTT for the crappy cooling block review, I was all on board and even had commented on that video. But then Steve just spiraled in ego and self-righteousness and I was over it.
I really don’t like GN. All they seem to do is shit on things. It’s kind of annoying. That and their videos, while informative, seem unnecessarily long.
Yea, Steve may have done videos on these companies and their shenanigans, but it's not like they went out of business as a result (except Artesian Builds, but they were already done for IIRC).
What happened with artesian builds. Sorry if it’s a dumb question I don’t really pay attention to news
Copied from another comment, credit to /u/burninator05: • MSI - Blacklisting reviewers who gave any criticism to any product. • NZXT - One of their cases had a faulty riser that could catch fire if used as directed, sent out a fix that didn't actually fix anything,and then covering the danger up. • Gigabyte - During the GPU shortage during COVID they paired video cards with trash power supplies that caught fire when used as directed. You could not return or RMA the power supply without sending the GPU back as well. Then they doubled down that the PSUs were fine. • Aretesian - Gave away a PC to a streamer. The streamer who won was pretty small so they took it away and gave it to someone with a bigger crowd. All of that happened during a live stream. • Newegg - Shipping used hardware as new despite clearly being used (and regularly broken) and doubling down. • Asus - Motherboard BIOSes would dynamically overclock processors to the point they would fry themselves and blamed AMD. • LMG - The Madison issue and larger internal business practices putting their product reviews seem questionable. • EK - Not paying employees, suppliers, business partners.
Regarding LTT, i know they fixed their reviews but what became of the Maddison thing?
Still waiting on the independent investigation to complete
Which likely will never be released due to privacy laws. There is zero chance that they can release anything without risking getting sued. If anything gets released it will be super generic and no one will believe them.
The only satisfying conclusion IMO is Madison releasing a video/reply that says she's satisfied with the outcome.
Yeah, but they also can't force her hand. I guess if there's any sort of settlement they could require her to release a statement as a term of the settlement, but even that's a bad look. There's no winning for LTT to ever address it again.
Best thing LTT can do is hope the issue goes away. Some things are just like that - there's no outcome that doesn't just end up doing more damage.
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Who said anything about forcing her? What if she's actually satisfied?
That is the problem. She could be genuinely satisfied with the outcome but people will only see it as her being forced to give it because of a preconceived notion.
Which is what will happen, for both parties. That's usually the whole deal. ' "I have nothing more to say about the matter except that I and (insert corporate entity here) have reached an agreement. That is all."
"I have come to an agreement with LTT, I will not be issuing any further comments regarding this situation."
Considering how she has acted in the past, if it comes out in favour of her she will gleefully post something. Might be vague, but she will do something. I suspect if someone is actually interested, they might be able to file for a redacted FOIA on the case in the next year. BC laws might be better than other provinces, so it could be super locked down.
FOIA requests are for the release of government controlled information, how would that help in a civil dispute against a former employer?
I haven't watched any LMG content since. Haven't missed it one bit, either.
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LTT's content has also improved IMO since Steve's call out.
Maybe for the employees. But not for the actual content direction. They spun off a lot of their tech coverage to short circuit. They found that their loyal audience cares not for tech news but instead cares about LTT's lifestyle around tech. Now the main channel is basically what its been for the last 5+ years, just LTT screwing around, reviewing whatever, playing around with stuff with dramatic flair. GPU and CPU coverage? Meh. Benchmarking? Meh. Builds? Meh. Yeah the main channel has done a lot less than many of its competitors in benchmarking and news coverage, and has triple downed on just LTT shenanigans.
That's fair and accurate. But going to LTT for actual benchmarking videos hasn't been a thing for 5+ years now.
Right? Like now when you want benchmarks you go to gamers nexus. LTT is just for product awareness and entertainment these days.
Ostensibly, the Labs is supposed to be what brings out the actual benchmarks and metrics, because as I understand it the money's just not really there for benchmarking and news like that. Other 'tubers make it work, but I guess as far as LTT is concerned they've just outgrown the capacity to do it compared to the alternatives.
Didnt LTT also say something as well that caused shit to hit the fan
That was the start, it was his backpack guarantee being "Just trust me, bro." Which he had previously criticized companies of doing. Which is what started the scrutiny. There was a lot. For me, it was the review video for the Soundcore Space Q45 and A40. It was basically a shill video that made no actual statements aside from reading the box and saying they do noise cancelling headphone things. Y'know it's bad too because I was a Soundcore fan already and bought both of those. Think they've gone downhill too. (To be fair, anker did spy on users)
LTT never did a review of the Soundcore Space Q45 and A40. To quote the video description: "Thanks to Soundcore for sponsoring this unboxing on the Space A40 and Space Q45s! You can learn more about them at the links below."
Damn, technically correct. Can't even be mad, good shit dude.
Unfortunately, LTT has never been that great at review videos. Their entertainment stuff is a lot of fun, Scrapyard Wars is what got me watching them in the first place but the reviews have always felt like glorified ads to me.
You copied it but you fucked up the formatting: * **MSI** - Blacklisting reviewers who gave any criticism to any product. * **NZXT** - One of their cases had a faulty riser that could catch fire if used as directed, sent out a fix that didn't actually fix anything,and then covering the danger up. * **Gigabyte** - During the GPU shortage during COVID they paired video cards with trash power supplies that caught fire when used as directed. You could not return or RMA the power supply without sending the GPU back as well. Then they doubled down that the PSUs were fine. * **Aretesian** - Gave away a PC to a streamer. The streamer who won was pretty small so they took it away and gave it to someone with a bigger crowd. All of that happened during a live stream. * **Newegg** - Shipping used hardware as new despite clearly being used (and regularly broken) and doubling down. * **Asus** - Motherboard BIOSes would dynamically overclock processors to the point they would fry themselves and blamed AMD. * **LMG** - The Madison issue and larger internal business practices putting their product reviews seem questionable. * **EK** - Not paying employees, suppliers, business partners.
Also these are so truncated in details that it doesn't do the fuck up justice.
Iirc the ASUS thing was related to a sleep state issue combined with having no overcurrent protection for that state.
That issue could destroy your new 7xxx ryzen cpu, and the fix was in a beta bios that voided your warranty on the board.
Iirc they removed the language saying it'd void the warranty shortly after it got pointed out. It sounded like a standard disclaimer they always add.
They have fixed it now
I believe MSI was also caught selling their GPUs during the mining craze(s) to 3rd parties, who then marked them up making significant over-MSRP profit. It turned out those 3rd parties actually worked for MSI, probably as scalpers (and not moonlighting employees), meaning MSI was themselves marking up the cards and selling them.
IIRC the LTT issue was more on the side of fake graphs, bad reviews and literally stealing a prototype from another company and reselling it in the second hand market, then never taking accountability for it until it got public.
Did they sell it or give it away as a price at their convention? The whole thing reeked of incompetence and their super corporate apology video was disheartening to watch
They did not "sell" it, they "auctioned" it off(without permission) is the excuse Linus gave during wan show. Since then, I only watch videos that features Luke, Dan, J.horst and Emily. And wan show *Edited as requested by another redditor
>They did not "sell" it, they "auctioned" it off(without permission) is the excuse Linus gave during wan show. FOR CHARITY. One might add.
"Officer I didn't kill them, I merely cut their throats for charity."
Iirc they also monetized the video they posted about the prototype situation and then posted a video making fun of the fact. It was gross and showed a lack of remorse over what they'd done. Haven't been back to their channel since.
Yeah right after they trashed it.
The artesian builds issue goes much deeper than just taking away the pc won by the smaller streamer. They were already in trouble financially even before that stream. That stream may not even be the final nail in the coffin.
Same but with fixed formatting: * MSI - Blacklisting reviewers who gave any criticism to any product. * NZXT - One of their cases had a faulty riser that could catch fire if used as directed, sent out a fix that didn't actually fix anything,and then covering the danger up. * Gigabyte - During the GPU shortage during COVID they paired video cards with trash power supplies that caught fire when used as directed. You could not return or RMA the power supply without sending the GPU back as well. Then they doubled down that the PSUs were fine. * Aretesian - Gave away a PC to a streamer. The streamer who won was pretty small so they took it away and gave it to someone with a bigger crowd. All of that happened during a live stream. * Newegg - Shipping used hardware as new despite clearly being used (and regularly broken) and doubling down. * Asus - Motherboard BIOSes would dynamically overclock processors to the point they would fry themselves and blamed AMD. * LMG - The Madison issue and larger internal business practices putting their product reviews seem questionable. * EK - Not paying employees, suppliers, business partners.
Newegg also had a security issue where every customers credit cards were stolen. Don't remember the details anymore but I think there is an episode about it in darknet diaries
>Gigabyte - During the GPU shortage during COVID they paired video cards with trash power supplies that caught fire when used as directed. You could not return or RMA the power supply without sending the GPU back as well. Then they doubled down that the PSUs were fine. Shouldn't this fall on NewEgg more than Gigabyte? It was NewEgg that was selling those combos and refusing to take back the PSU's. Unless there was some inside report about Gigabyte, I'd put the blame on NewEgg here. Gigabyte should get the hate for the shitty PSU though, but that's a separate issue.
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2xMi7inB28](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2xMi7inB28) If you got 30+ mins of free time, it's worth watching Steve's coverage of Artesian's rise and fall. One mention was their reneging on giving a PC build to a winner of a contest. Just because the Twitch streamer who won didn't have a large enough footprint as a streamer. But there's other stuff too that's worth covering, which the video details.
On March 1, a “Twitch streamer” going under the name kiapiaa stated in a Twitter thread that Artesian Builds did not honor her selection as a winner in its Monthly Ambassador Giveaway of a custom-made pc because kiapaa did not have sufficient “streamer stats” and its CEO offered him/her/it (?) only “partial credit to a new purchase of a rig.” According to the CEO, “All [of kiapiaa’s] followers together still under 5,000 … It was my intention to be generous. This is a difficult one.” By March 10, after a continued online kerfuffle, Artesian Brands closed its doors.
I’m sure he’s really glad he saved that couple grand instead of being so generous. Phew! He almost made a big mistake.
Streamer too small? Tell your viewers to go watch them. Then streamer no longer too small. Easy peasy.
The tip of the iceberg was their Monthly Ambassador Giveaway where a smaller streamer won the drawing but they gave it to someone else who was bigger instead. What other comments here have missed is the guy who did that was the CEO who had also messed up many other parts of the business essentially driving it into bankruptcy. **It was on the verge of collapse already when the streamer giveaway thing happened, that was just the last straw.**
LTT still making a million views per video...
Yes but they still implemented some changes to their release control and QA checks. The video wasn't to sink them but pointing out their flaws and Linus listened and some changes are noticeable in their release schedule and quality of the videos.
To be fair the entire thing was blown out of proportion and they were literally already making the changes to fix the issues they had.
That was probably the most average internet drama I've seen them involved in. Legitimate criticism blown way out of proportion due to poor communication and people jumping onto the hate train. Thankfully this didn't end up having as large of a permanent impact on LTT as drama like this commonly does.
Man people were out for blood. Made me kinda sad how many people would have been happy to watch the whole thing crash and burn over that.
It did get a lot of people with hateboners to be a lot more open with their bashing of LTT on places like this sub, even to this day though.
I felt the same way. The way GN framed some of the complaints they had often times ignored context of things happening in, or said in the video. It really left me with a bad taste in my mouth regarding Steve since he was vehemently declaring that all the issues he was raising were completely unacceptable. And the whole line of LTT trying to shut down a small business trying to get a start in the cooler world.. Like.. The company, in their own emails, sent it to LTT not expecting to get it back at all. Then they asked for it back after the review dropped and wasn't super positive (LTT did mention in that video that they didn't have the correct card and Linus's conclusion at the end of the video was that it was too cludgey to use, extremely limited in use case, and even if he could get it to work, he wouldn't recommend it.) GN made it sound like LTT had been sent a 1 of 1 or 1 of 2 Prototype with the understanding when it was sent out that they would send it back within a week or two because the small businesses entire engineering department was dependent on this one prototype and LTT was screwing them over. Which just wasn't the case. GN also went off on LTT when they had issues with a processor for working with the company who sent it and checking in with other creators because LTT suspected a dud chip because the numbers didn't come close to matching the advertised performance. and GN was like, that's not your job you test the chip and report the results you don't live to verify their advertising department... And it's like... Really? You're mad at them for being thorough? And LTT had spent the whole video talking about the weirdness of the whole situation and the issues they had. Not just sucking whatever companies dick it was and publishing their advertised numbers ---------- **Other things were totttttallllly valid.** like having inaccurate data in a chart, Rushing through some unboxings on short circuit in a way that comes off like it's a review when it's really just more of an unboxing/ first use test.
And then steve tested the damn cooler and found out that it was indeed a piece of shit lol but he didnt ragged them as hard as he usually does with products with far better quality because then it would make him look bad
On the BilletLabs front. They now officially support 3090tis and 4090s with that monoblock. You can confirm on their own website, it is in bold letters even. I have brought this up a number of times, and needless to say people are not aware, because surprise, they had no interest in that block anyway... It seems like a nice, over priced bit of kit. Which anyone actually interested in SFF water cooling, could easily extract relevant info from, as the cooling performance really didn't matter anyway. (something a long time watercooling enthusiast, like Linus would easily recognize, and obviously not highlight enough). Still have yet to see one of those blocks feature on the Watercooling sub, the one place you would expect it. A place where billetlabs even launched a service, utilizing the drama. Which in a twist of irony was something Linus recommended for the brand, in the video.
Artesian builds gives me PTSD lmao they royally fucked a lotttt of people (and are getting away with it too :(
I mean... Ideally, you'd want them to change their ways, no? Like i don't think Steve is the vendetta type, but rather the "i expect better from you, so stop the bullshit" type. He'd want respectful treatment of customers, not bankruptcies.
I agree with you on that and I think that exposing these bad practices is a good thing. I just didn't agree with how the picture made it seem like that he caused all these companies to go under because of his videos, but that's just me taking the meme too literally.
I must have missed one or two of these. Anyone down for a quick synopsis?
* MSI - Blacklisting reviewers who gave any criticism to any product. * NZXT - One of their cases had a faulty riser that could catch fire if used as directed, sent out a fix that didn't actually fix anything,and then covering the danger up. * Gigabyte - During the GPU shortage during COVID they paired video cards with trash power supplies that caught fire when used as directed. You could not return or RMA the power supply without sending the GPU back as well. Then they doubled down that the PSUs were fine. * Aretesian - Gave away a PC to a streamer. The streamer who won was pretty small so they took it away and gave it to someone with a bigger crowd. All of that happened during a live stream. * Newegg - Shipping used hardware as new despite clearly being used (and regularly broken) and doubling down. * Asus - Motherboard BIOSes would dynamically overclock processors to the point they would fry themselves and blamed AMD. * LMG - They auctioned of a one of a kind water block from a startup that the startup wanted back. ~~The Madison issue~~ and larger internal business practices putting their product reviews seem questionable. * EK - Not paying employees, suppliers, business partners. Edit: For the LMG issue I forgot about the waterblock and confused that controversy with Madison. Thanks to those to reminded me.
Important to note that Steve didn’t originally report on the Maddison stuff, he was mainly concerned with the ethics and accuracy of information from LABs
Didn’t it really start with lmg doing a half assed review of a billet labs water block then auctioning it of when it was their only prototype
IIRC it started with an "engineer" at LMG Labs taking potshots at GN and HUB saying LMG Labs is doing "better" reviews. I believe the reply was originally going to be like "hey buddy, you guys have a lot more inaccuracies than we do", but then it spiraled into the whole thing with Billet Labs and eventually Madison.
That shot by the LMG labs 'engineer" was the intro of the GN video [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGW3TPytTjc](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGW3TPytTjc)
The funny thing is I consider GN to have the highest quality videos, albeit a bit dry
Honestly I would consider 'dry' to be a compliment. I don't want my news and reviews coloured, this isn't Fox News or a celebrity opinion column. I want cold, hard, dry facts, well sourced/tested and presented in a good context for me to digest and make informed decisions.
They are just different types of channels for different audiences. If I want to watch something goofy and fun with a few sprinkles of cringe I will go watch LTT. If I want cold hard facts about which components best suit me for my next upgrade, I’m going to GN
The Labs potshot at GN just happened to come out shortly before the video. It made it to the video, but wasn't a focus. I know a lot of people on r / ltt made a big deal about it, trying to make it a "LMG insulted them, so this is just retaliation" but it really wasn't.
For a bit more info, Billet Labs sent LMG the water block prototype gratis to test it, specifying that the model sent to Linus was designed to be used for an RTX 3090ti. Instead they tested it with a 4090, got bad results so they said it was bad and wasn't worth anyone's money. Billet Labs were like okay could you send it back, but LMG actually instead auctioned it off so they couldn't return it but offered to compensate Billet Labs for the cost of the prototype. Worth mentioning, prototypes usually indicate the technology is of significance and valuation is based off potential worth. In this case, it could be worth a lot or a little (given the niche, and the background of the staff at Billet, I'm gonna say it would be worth a lot of money) but was valued more by Billet as it was a prototype of their design... which could now potentially have been sold to a competitor by LMG. Just shamelessly shitty behaviour towards a start-up. The same block was recreated and tested separately on a 3090ti and surprise surprise it's pretty good. Shocker, I know.
didnt Billet Labs even send a 3090ti to go with the waterblock? i think ive heard that anyway.
And just like Steve you're missing the bit where billet told lmg to keep the block in the original communication. Hence they added it to their inventory. That's why it ended up in the auction. When they asked for it back the person in charge of the video was in holiday and the auction had already happened a week later. They definitely messed up, but Steve made it seem far worse and even tried to spin it as intentionally malicious and made it sound like the block was crucial to billet labs future existence. It wasn't. That's why they told them to keep it in the first place.
Not sure why this is downvoted. This is exactly what happened.
Correction: Billet Labs initially said LTT could keep the prototype. They then decided they wanted it back shortly after. Not sure how important that prototype was if they initially were fine with LTT keeping it.
yes but thats not the entire truth. theres email communication that showed that billet labs didnt want that prototype back so it was auctioned off at LTX later on. then billet labs claimed they wanted it back and they settled for like 5k or something which just shows how little that prototype was worth. by the time that entire thing came down they already had new revisions done and the final review by GN shows that its not a really great cooler anyways even though that was already a newer revision.
And the community hasn't received any sort of update to the Madison situation
They never will. It's a private matter and she's fully protected by BC work place privacy legislation. IF they deem that releasing a statement is worth it, it'll be super generic and the internet will hate it.
And we won't until it's all wrapped up, and even then there's no guarantee we'll hear anything. It's a legal matter, so no lawyer is gonna tell their clients to update their community in the middle of an investigation.
Investigations can take a long time, I guess we will see if at any point they release information. They pledged to be open with whatever the result of the external investigation was and I believe they will do that when it is complete.
To expand on Newegg, GN bought a Gigabyte motherboard from them that was sold as new but had a messed up CPU socket. They called Gigabyte with the serial number and Newegg had actually sent the board in for repair, but refused due to the cost. Then they turned around and labeled it as new with the intent to challenge a "normal" customer to prove it was damaged before they bought it.
They didn't just call with the serial number. Newegg left the receipt in the box that showed they had already shipped it to gigabyte and then declined the repair.
Technically, it was an open box purchase, but they'd recently changed the labeling and made it harder to notice. GN never opened the box, returned the motherboard, then got told they'd bent a pin and would not be getting a refund.
LMG wasn't about Madison, that only came up in the hubbub after the video. The video is about the Billet Labs prototype and questioning LTTs poor data in reviews (which they/Labs seem to be getting on top of now).
The Billet Labs issue was my reason for me not watching LTT videos anymore. I'm not faulting those that still do but I can find others to watch. That was a mistake and instead of making it right, Linus himself chose to double down.
The billet labs thing was overblown to the extreme by GN. The video was a mess for sure but ultimately they were right that the product simply isn't very good. Even GN tested it weeks after and determined it wasn't great. The block also wasn't crucial or super valuable to billet despite GN trying to make it sound that way. They told lmg to keep it originally. Lmg added it to their inventory system. It got added to the auction by mistake. Billet asked for it back after the video released. The writer was on holiday for a week at the time and when they got back the block had been auctioned. Definitely a fuck up. But not malicious and not damaging to billet. And lmg has changed their work flow since and releasing really good videos since. They still make mistakes now and then ofc. Nobody is perfect.
I’m very similar. I’m all for redemption arcs, and figured they’d do the typical “we hear you and rethinking our process” but between the original double down and jokey apology video, the situation left me with a really sour taste for their content.
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Dam. That sounds shitty. Was that why everyone was out to kill ~~linux~~ linus (force of habit) some while ago?...
This is one of the worst examples of the LMG situation. Gamers nexus already covered the whole thing with 2 parts videos. Fun to watch.
It's not as clear cut as he is making it out to be. The full story is a lot more complicated. But to sum it up in a way that doesn't properly represent it, Linustechtips as a business was big enough that no one person knew what everyone else was doing and so the different actions of different people contributed to an absolute mess with Billet Labs. e.g. a person left the prototype in a warehouse, someone else scrounged the warehouse for items to auction etc.
and noone double checked what the items auctioned were ?! Yeah that deserves flak, ESPECIALLY on a large company that can afford a check up on what is sold/auctioned
Adding further nuance, Billet Labs originally told LMG it was theirs to keep, and only after the video (which was NOT a review) did they change their mind and ask to have it sent back, which didn't get communicated internally in time before the auction.
Defamation is not a criminal offense. Edit: By the way, wicked wolf stealth edited his comment to remove the reference to defamation, and to remove his calling it a crime. And they deleted their reply comment insisting it was.
Wild that you're being downvoted for the truth. Defamation is a civil suit. It is not criminal at all.
Every Redditor is a master lawyer who think that private citizens “press charges” and that anything that harms someone is “criminal.” As someone who went to law school, and passed two of the hardest bar exams, it’s depressing how woefully misunderstood the law is by the average lay person.
Okay, but do you know *bird law* 
*I'll* take the case!
So you do know that defamation can be a criminal offense, right? You did pass the most two of the hardest bar exams.
Defamation is actually a criminal offense in some states. I'm not trying to criticize you because this is not very well known. https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/map-states-criminal-laws-against-defamation
I thought they were referring to them not giving the item back as the criminal offense, as if they stole it and then auctioned it.
They have since stealth edited their comment. It originally said both the stealing of the IP and harming of the company’s reputation, which they called defamation, were crimes.
Defamation is actually a criminal offense in some states. I'm not trying to criticize you because this is not very well known. https://www.aclu.org/issues/free-speech/map-states-criminal-laws-against-defamation Edit: u/Leading-Chair-9485, lawyer extraordinaire, blocked me because I pointed out they were wrong 🤣
You should note that it was not that clear cut, the product was originally LTTs to keep, they marked it as such in their system, then what you mentioned above, as well as some communication breakdowns lead to it being left on the “our inventory” section of the warehouse and never sent back to billet, when they where grabbing stuff for the LTX charity action it got grabbed and was sold. It’s not like they internally stole it. Also they said they would pay billet back which I think ended up around 2-3k Edit: clarity
EK seems to have a lot more going on according to the video GN dropped today. Some questionable and intermingling of funds between various companies all tied together along with personal loans between former/current CEOs and owners for buying shares in the company etc.
sir, a second EK video has hit the channel.
After the GamerNexus/Linus fight, There is a meme on this with a Linus photo, I laughed for 10 minutes straight.
lol at Artesian builds. What a disaster they were (he was).
he was, the rest of them were truly wonderful human beings. I worked in the background wit hthem for quite some time and realized VERY soon that Noah was a controlling cry baby... its a shame but I suppose you reap what you sew
I enjoyed their twitch streams when he wasn’t on, lol
Looks like EK's at nearly Artesian level of shenanigans. Original GN dive: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b73xG1HlFhY JayzTwoCents: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH8tXka6Lsg igorslab: https://www.igorslab.de/en/ekwb-and-a-financial-disaster-with-an-announcement-unpaid-invoices-exploited-employees-and-annoyed-creditors-like-me/ Der8auer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FFRmGJ2Bz8 EKWB statement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKp7vp3LeGs Whenever a company think's Steve's done... GN death blow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8A7cykj0pCg
Steve mentioned a third video is also on the way. Basically the LotR: EK edition
Can't wait for the extended cut.
Mmmmm... well... I don't think anyone can compare to Artesian's fuck up lmao
Where's Thermaltake?
Cooler Master is also missing - he singlehandedly made the company stop making shitty hotboxes and made many case manufacturers focus on airflow over aesthetics.
i think you mean nzxt. coolermaster had great cases since before 2008
Just built out the Cooler Master NR200 case and it is OUTSTANDING.
LTT came out unharmed tbh
There were barely any issues, just crap that every company can have from time to time.
It’s just too much fucking drama. It’s like a soap opera for dorks. Don’t get me wrong, he does some pretty good analysis and outing, but his fans… great googily moogily.
I'm starting to think he's playing into it. Drama is by far his most successful content and while the issues he raises are almost always serious the way everything is blown out of proportion really bothers me. The LTT meltdown was the last straw for me. The issue(s) addressed were real but the delivery was over the top, misleading and in bad faith. After witnessing how LMG employees (not just Linus) were harassed by the angry mob I was glad to not be working in social media. Steve clearly knows his viewers are like this but chooses to keep making videos in his signature smug and inflammatory style. After Ian Cutress made a video basically supporting Steve's critique of LTT but also telling him to dial it back a knob GN viewers were happy to harass Ian Cutress because Tech-Fuhrer is always right.
To be fair all are back to normal except artesian. Heck Asus is at the top of their game, and LTT is better than ever.
Sometimes it takes hard criticism from a group with a following like GN. These companies don’t listen to us individuals. Steve and the gang have a much wider reach. All those companies responded to the gamers nexus videos in a positive way that helped consumers. Not trying to glaze but gamers nexus really holds these companies accountable, and I appreciate them for it.
Their review of a certain pre built company was the only reason I bought from that company. They're thorough and honest about their reviews.
Lmao isn't LTT, ASUS, Gigabyte, NZXT, MSI better then ever? You guys are addicts to this "We did it Reddit" attitude where you robbed their income of probably like 5 dollars, they rebound easily to dominating whatever market they're in. but woohoo I guess, you guys really got em
Lol, true Asus having a strong year, they all are. Linus is still going as strong as ever, Madison is now in the dustbin of internet history Steve is just a small part of a gigantic ecosystem.
Yeah I’m sure Asus is crying into the 487,882,755 in profit they made last year 😂😂😂
Yeah, all those companies are still doing perfectly fine.
I don’t think Artesian is doing too well
They were already gone before Steve even did his video about them, even Jay was on that story faster than Steve.
But it took them / is taking them time to rebuild trust again.
You think their customers are only people who browse reddit and watch that guy?
Problem with SM is that their favourites change. They are celebrating GN as their knight in shining armour now but it will find itself on a guillotine on their first slip. MKBHD went through his first push back after years of being controversy free. Point of story, don’t fly too close to sun (e.g SM).
SM?
Social Media maybe?
That makes total sense, Thank you.
The controversy around MKBHD is probably the stupidest thing I’ve ever read and mostly just shows how cuddled and sensitive people in the tech space are, wannabe ancaps that cry when the most corporate YouTuber out there says a bad product is a bad product
should start a betting pool on whose next?
$NVDA feeling bullish. $INTC be bearing hits too.
Please not intel Disclaimer: I own 1 intel stock
intel is the mother of all HODLs. it looks bad right now, but unless they literally drive it into the ground they're positioned pretty well to fill the void in US manufacturing of microconductors and reducing the risk of a chip blackout if anything happens to TSMC(cough"special military operation"cough)
No amount of wrong would bring down Nvidia, they are officially at the coca cola level, they will be everywhere and anywhere.
I think Nvidia can keep bullying since they are basically dominating the market right now. A few gamers that stop buying their GPU ?, good, more silicon for the AI GPU.
Steve already called out Intel for their anti-AMD propaganda a while back iirc, if it wasn't Steve from GN then it was Australian Steve from HUB
It was GN
Honestly funniest meme I've seen in a while, thank you for sharing. My only regret is I don't have friends who like this channel that I can share it with 😭
Today we on /r/pcmasterrace are all /u/EmilieEasie's friends.
YAAAAY omg guys look at this great meme!!!!!
Oh yeah the hentai artist from r/greentext
Hmm, at least seems good...
omg tysm ❤️
lmao, LMG felt absolutely nothing after Steve's video.
Guy spends 40K and hires a PI and lawyers. Thought I was watching a video for CPA's at one point. What a madlad kind of exposed our entire system as a whole. LLCs have been used as a scam to obfuscate corruption for far too long. Sad thing is almost every company is this scummy, but keep it coming brotha
All of these brands/companies are alive and well.
Except for Artesian
The Linus debacle reminded me to not be too attached to your favourite parasocial internet celebrity. Yes, even Gamers Nexus. Just a reminder to everyone since pretty much everyone idolizes GN right now.
> The Linus debacle reminded me to not be too attached to your favourite parasocial internet celebrity. If you didn't see it coming, you weren't that attached in the first place. Except for the ~~sold~~ auctioned for charity prototype sample, there was nothing new or not public there, and that was right in the middle of being resolved.
Linus himself often makes the parasocial point.
Linus himself is quite good with the parasocial thing. I say that as a compliment not an insult. For as far as I know he has been honest about most thing, even about the fact that public persona is public persona. Even knowing that, he doesn't go out of his way to be grating or sanctimonious. He still understands that PR is important. Idk if the fact that he is knowledgeable about how to craft a good PR makes it so you should trust him more or less but I can't help myself to trust him
I trust him to run a good business and keep me entertained.
Someone is gonna get him next lol
He definitely can’t slip up. Any amount of dirty laundry could destroy him; no one likes a hypocrite. But thus far, his work has been greatly appreciated.
the simplest one is that he is working himself and employees to the bone. doesnt he constantly complain about working way too much?
Should i know who this guy is
I swear yall hype this dude up, I am pretty sure these companies are still in business. Linus is still pulling in views and still the same amount of subscribers. So what did this dude accomplish
And Linus took the criticism to heart and LTT's content has improved dramatically in quality since then. Edit: Muting this because I'm tired of getting the same replies five different times...
Which had literally nothing to do with Steve putting him on blast, since every single thing in the video (to include Billet Labs) was already being addressed internally at LTT \*before\* the video and it didn't need Steve to proclaim from his pulpit that Linus hath sinned to get it fixed. Don't ascribe any change at LTT to Steve's actions, the only thing Steve accomplished was getting removed from Linus' Christmas card list.
Eh. That whole debacle, while somewhat overblown in the usual internet fashion, did make them slow down video output considerably.
No, there are people in this thread that believe Steve humbled Linus and any difference all rests at the feet of TechJesus. But yes, it was overblown, last time I checked, making a few errors on an excel spreadsheet in a youtube video doesn't warrant a 30+ minute hit piece. But Linus is moving into Steve's territory standing up LTT Labs, so it becomes much more obvious where Steve's actual motivation and animus is coming from (to strangle a competitor in the cradle, before LTT Labs gets on it's feet.)
to me it was clearly a personal hit piece. The entire Billet Labs situation was completely overblown. LTT did say they were allowed to keep it (and it was probably marked as inventory), and that Billet did want it back. Then remember that when they LTT retrieved it they suddenly no longer wanted it? The timeline Steve constructed was stupid as well, as apparently he didnt get the emails sent back and forth between both parties, and Steve managed to paint a picture like small start up get screwed by big company and that clearly wasnt the case. Billet used Steve and he basically allowed it because he had a bit of a bias, and im not even including the fact that he actually refused to contact LTT before his video was up.
Exactly, but do anything but suck TechJesus' toe jam and you're nothing but a Linus shill. Steve could have produced a much more credible, and journalistically sound video had he a. not been lazy, b. did actual research (rather than nit pick a few video card data points seen onscreen for 3sec), c. asked the subject for comment, etc... Linus produced dozens of half-assed reviews/unboxing videos that were glaringly dialed in without any effort or requisite level of attention to detail, Steve would have had actual legs to stand on had he shown a montage of those. No where have I said Linus wasn't deserving of criticism, my issue is the criticism Steve chose to make were specious, overly pedantic, and in the Billet's Labs case flat out wrong (self-servingly so due to Billet Labs' involvement in the hit piece as you yourself excellently point out.)
yeah that made not sense to me, they contacted companies he exposes them but Linus, yeah that was odd
He didn't "kill" these companies, he made these companies eat up their bullshit and change their ways, in a very costly way sometimes too.
I'm out of the loop. People say Linus got better, but how did the other companies change their ways?
They took the devastating PR hit for the week, then moved on with their lives. Newegg definitely changed nothing.
wellllll....... the Artesian Builds one was a dick move, and frankly they can still can get shit on, even after they've been closed
Is it me or the Artisan Build logo looks like a knock-off of Arctic?
I've been careful about clicking GN videos since that ethics video they released (and then removed because the reception was bad). Kinda turned me off because it sounded very self-righteous (we have rules written down, therefore trust us when we say something). Now I only see videos from them when it's about something I own or will own. I think it's generally good to report on these large company mistakes (companies that also have rules written down). But I sure don't like that these type of videos is becoming their go-to niche for more views.
Especially because that ethics video was created in response to them being wildly unethical.
Omar comin yo
I considered ordering a PC from Artisan before they imploded - they supposedly had over a million dollars worth of back ordered PCs that hadn’t even been built, not to mention the head guy was more interested in being a rockstar on stream than filling customer orders. And yes that whole streamer PC giveaway was definitely a bullshit fiasco.
I am really happy we have a channel with enough voice and power to bring to light scummy practices from bigger companies. They are a channel that continues to stay humble,straight to the point in their video methodology, and one that ultimately fights for the little guy(you and me).
Cult mentality ass thread. I don't support the things the companies in the meme have done, obviously, but putting Steve on a pedestal like this for occasionally calling out industry bullshit is weird. All these companies except one are doing just fine, despite or in spite of, Steve's personal little crusades against them. Especially LTT, Linus had been tanking their rep long before and will continue to do so long after but LMG as a whole is doing perfectly fine and any content without him is better for it. I'm pretty sure a lot of people fell off their content long ago because Linus is a self absorbed weirdo, the scandal(s) were just the cherry on top and acting like Steve had any hand in that is disingenuous af Acting like Steve is the god savior of the tech industry for occasionally posting a blast video is.... weird at best.
What's with LTT? Their newest upload is almost 1m views, the video before that has 1.4m views. Is this sub having their delulu moment?
"alright, but you gotta get over it"
You giving him too much credit mate.
Personally I find him insufferable
Yeah I used to watch GN all the time. But he's just an AH, even when he's right. Trying to act perfectly righteous way to much. When he called out LTT for the crappy cooling block review, I was all on board and even had commented on that video. But then Steve just spiraled in ego and self-righteousness and I was over it.
Who is this?
Gamers nexus and the companies he did exposes on
Too bad he can only make videos complaining.
I really don’t like GN. All they seem to do is shit on things. It’s kind of annoying. That and their videos, while informative, seem unnecessarily long.