Linus Tech Tips apology video

Damn they tried to plug LTT store too. GN made a long serious video with stats, data, no jokes, no sponsors or plugs.
- Yeah no they're not salvageable. Linus is a clown. My friends even told me, but I didn't see it. That's the consequence of growing up surrounded by toxicity: you think it's normal and don't see it.
  
  Linus is a clown. Literally. That is his brand of entertainment, clowning around with tech.
  That's where he fucked up with Billet labs - he argued that he was defending consumers because nobody should buy that thing - but that's not the job of a clown, a clown is meant to entertain people.
  I'm not saying Linus is a clown as an insult, I mean that's genuinely his brand and how he entertains people - memes, jokes, laughs, that's great stuff most of the time but when you arbitrarily switch lanes it better be for a good reason.
  Otherwise, stay in the clown car and make people laugh.
  
  I watched LTT videos for entertainment, not product suggestions / benchmarks / as an information source. Clown it is!
  Granted I already unsubscribed from the channels I followed and won't use him for even that anymore.
  
  He's a very rich clown.
  Big mainstream appeal though. Even to otherwise quite smart tech normies. I have some scientist friends (scientists but very much not computer people. Mac fanboy types) who love him.
- Yes, but actually no. I think it was rather self aware. And nick whispering lttstore when saying what he does was fine imo.
- GN did have their merch on display in the video. They didn't ANNOUNCE it or make any direction to it. But they still had merch ON DISPLAY. Not trying to dampen the shit that is going on with LMG, but I feel it's an important thing to make clear.
  
  expired
  
  GN did have their merch on display in the video
  That's because it's part of the set.
  
  Cool linus, cool
  
  yeah and they still had merch on display, exactly

Good Lord bro. Imagine having self-awareness. With the Madison stuff also coming to light, they would have already been in the pit regardless, but this 'apology' video is kind of insulting.
Yes I also watched the whole thing and still found it equally as insulting as the highlights.
- My wife and I watched the whole thing, and I’ve frequently watched LTT in the past. We both agreed that the humor wasn’t really well placed, given the situation and came off a bit cringey in my opinion. I know some folks are saying damned if you do, damned if you don’t, which is fair. However I think that if they kept the humor out and it was a “generic apology video” there would be less criticism about it. But again, that’s just my opinion.
  
  I found it very tone deaf. I do think this was written and shot before the harassment allegation came out so they wouldn't have had that attitude given the video had been delayed for 24 hours.
  
  That's just it for me. At this stage there really isn't much more to do than to give a generic apology and the promise to investigate, improve and make up for things. Nobody (should) expect to see any instant consequences.
  The bar is so low and yet they can't even do that. And GN even showed them how it is done in their video. Specifically calling out that this is a matter that should not be monetized.

Linus should have employed a professional CEO, Managers, PR and HR years ago, right at the start of the labs expansion.
Their problems in the last couple of years could have been avoided or greatly reduced with better management, and employees not afraid to be open when things go wrong, this will set them back years.
- Probably not many to be honest. This will be a minor blip in 12 months time, they way every drama seems to be, but as the business gets bigger and bigger, without having a proper management team the knife edge gets sharper and the risks increase.
  And on the issue of harrassment allegations (since all the rumours point to the main problem being a long serving crew member, not a faceless new hire in a back office), you can do everything you can to discourage it but inevitably people will do stupid shit, say stupid shit, they will fuck up, they make mistakes, they are even malicious at times, but if you cant reprimand them or fire them for it because they're your mate, a member of the OG crew or they're popular with the audience then you are going to have a major problem on your hands as problems silently snowball in the background.
  
  Their paid service saw a significant loss in users. Something like 12% before they shut down the counter.
  
  I'll come back to Techlinked when they post again. I also listen to David (camera operator/writer) and Jon's (ex-marketing) podcast that they have outside of LMG. I still like the personalities. LMG is great at recruiting interesting on-camera people after all
  
  Problematically for LMG, the people who subscribe on floatplane and buy their merch make them the most money, and they are not "just watching the videos".
- Supposedly Linus didn’t think he could trust anyone else to essentially act as his proxy. And he’s just been bugging Terren for years to come to LTT. And it only now worked out. If you can call all this “working out”
  
  It's not just about trust, professional experienced ceos, who have been educated in business management know how to run businesses, it's what they do, it doesn't matter what the product or service is, that can be learned. Linus was too proud to hand control of his baby over, that's very, very common with businesses that start to grow faster than they can handle and it's a reason why start ups fail despite their successes and promise. Lmg is extremely lucky to have gotten as far and as large as it did without the necessary restructure to go to the next step.
  Once you get into the 50+ full time employee range you need pro's on the team because shit will happen, mistakes will be made, people will fuck up, that's unavoidable. Good strong businesses handle it well, it's rough cause sometimes you have to fire an OG team member and close friend and ruin a friendship. It sucks and people will hate you, but that's part of running a large company.
  Lmg had been incredibly successful and that's great, kudos the them for that, but you have to have the humility to stand up at some point and day "I don't know what the fuck I'm doing and I need" any business adviser or analyst will tell you that.
  
  Poor dude inherited a shit show
- You are completely right, but I wonder how self aware Linus is. I haven't been watching his channel closely, but I've binged on episodes in the past. I was not aware of his anti-labor views or how he had his employees working on his house - these are things that a non-self aware person does; someone who doesn't understand the optics are bad to the "commoner" who feels they are being taken advantage by business owners. I'll reserve judgement for now but I've found this entire thing very disappointing.
  
  Pretty un-self-aware indeed. He got so distracted/butthurt over internet reactions accusing him of maliciously stealing the prototype... Like obviously not, people are just pissed about the injustice. His ego benefits from the size and influence of his business qua business. But his ego leads him to see himself still as that scrappy YouTuber whose just tryna do what he does, forgetting that he's got greater power now and greater responsibility.
  
  To be fair on the working on his house thing. He's been literally going to his employees houses and installing stuff for them after handing them $5000+ to spend on a processor + whatever they want.

I cringed so hard, I got muscle cramps 😬
- It's actually less cringe than the full length vid, somehow.
  
  I agree, Seven Heo
  
  Agreed. I ended up watching it on double speed because it was painful to watch for too long.

To be fair to Luke, in regards to the "six nines" comment in the video that a lot of people think is part of a sex joke (and how the video is framing it), in the proper context he was talking about IT infrastructure and this comment actually refers to a target for high availability: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_availability
99.9999% availability (ie. uptime) = "six nines"
He was basically saying that they're setting a target for higher availability of their infrastructure, because it's been unstable at times, causing staff frustration and delaying certain workflows.
I can't blame a lot of average people who don't work in any sort of IT field for confusing it with the "69" sex position (wondering what the heck "six nines" means), but that's not at all what he was making reference to.
I'm not at all defending anything else in relation to this debacle besides this unfair portrayal of this particular snippet.
EDIT: Just wanted to add, I think it's pretty sad that pistol fingers and a wink these days apparently must mean you're making a sex joke (or are trying to offend people in some other way). As a kid I remember this gesture being used to "act cool". We did it all the time back then, and it was all in fun. Luke's from my generation, so maybe he thought the same, or maybe we didn't get the memo that this gesture is off-limits now.
- Really? You don't see the innuendo? They intentionally chose the six nines figure. He even made the "nice" face, raised his brows and gave the camera two finger pistols. Are you like, new to human interaction?
  
  "Six nines" is practically a meme in the IT infrastructure and DevOps world, and has nothing at all to do with any kind of sex joke. For years "six nines" has been touted as the pinnacle SLA target for high availability and uptime of services. You'll find references all over the Internet to this SLA from all kind of companies, both big and small, in their marketing.
  Examples from a quick and random Google search:
  "NetApp’s six nines guarantee": https://www.netapp.com/blog/asa-san-storage/
  "CenturyLink Targets Six Nines": https://availabilitydigest.com/public_articles/1106/centruylink_six_nines.pdf
  "HPE Get 6-Nines Guarantee [...]": https://www.hpe.com/psnow/doc/4aa5-2846enw
  Companies such as Microsoft, Amazon (AWS specifically) and Google tout the "six nines" as their HA SLA in loads of their marketing, and it's easy to find.
  I could go on forever but that should give you an idea. You can read more about "The Rule Of Nines" here if you're interested: https://vastdata.com/blog/the-rule-of-nines
  My point is, this isn't a figure they made up for a sex joke. It's a very real SLA that is explicitly touted in IT marketing all over the Internet and has been for some time.
  So where does the "innuendo" come from then? The uninformed viewer's own imagination, I think. Because from my perspective, I just see an IT guy trying to brag about how he's going to ensure his infrastructure reaches a slick "six nines" target for high availability, snapping his fingers and showboating the camera in pride about it.
  It's up to the viewer to interpret what they see, of course, but it's also wrong once you know what the true intention more likely was to continue to insist that it was something else entirely. If anything, what he really meant is inconclusive, I personally think it's a real stretch to assume it was a sex joke.
  
  I haven't watched the video, so am asking legitimately. Assuming it was a sex joke was it out of order, or fine? In my mind, as an adult, the odd innuendo at an appropriate moment can be hilarious. If he's not objectifying etc etc, then surely that's OK? But, I've not watched it, so seeing what your onion is.
  Edit. Down voted for asking. Is this reddit? What happened to lemmy?
- Oh the term was alright, it's his 100% intentional innuendo that was the problem.
  He didn't hide it nor he even slightly direct viewers to actual term.
  He only meant 69 and he showed it that way
- Yeah the wink and the finger guns and the coy voice really scream “server uptime” to me
  Go touch grass. It was an double entendre and LMG is fucking gross.
  
  6 nines is a fucking meme. It's literally impossible, but everyone claims it. That's the joke.
  It's pretty fucking funny too.
  
  I don't know man, I just saw it as some IT guy on screen setting an SLA goal I see all the time and trying to do an "act cool" gesture. People can interpret it how they want, but that's how I saw it.
- Reading through some of these pearl clutching comments and reactions here relating to Luke's statement specifically is pretty jarring, you'd think he'd been best mates with Bill Cosby or on the management team at Blizzard for how people are reacting.
  
  Yeah, I just don't get where all the high tension emotional comments about his segment are coming from. It's honestly weird.
- Unrelated, but also interesting imo and mildly hilarious. Also a little sad.
  The Wiggles do the finger guns constantly because as men around kids and taking photos etc etc, they may be accused of things. If the hands are always visible, nobody can cast aspersions about what the hands may have been up to.
  https://www.kidspot.com.au/lifestyle/entertainment/celebrity-news/the-sad-reason-the-wiggles-created-their-famous-dance-move/news-story/ec1133c0de831576f7e38c2b1f9ad59c?nk=4cdd707eb78f480bc00fd90eba6eb361-1692438972
  I don't think Luke was referencing this, but if anything... Pistol fingers means this ISN'T a sex joke. At least imo
  
  Doubt he was referencing that, but I think it's clear that pistol fingers isn't inherently something to be offended by on its own.
- Its an innuendo. 5 nines is basically impossible, not even FAANG can really hit it 100%.
  
  It doesn't matter if the SLA is realistically reachable or not, it's basically a marketing meme and one of the most common target SLAs in IT ("target" doesn't mean you can actually reach it, you're aiming for it though).
  See here: https://lemmy.pub/comment/1046563
  
  I cannot believe how many brainwashed PCMR zealots are in here downvoting legitimate points.
  How the hell does this guy have such a hold on you all? Wake up!
- Man, if you're gonna be so deep up in their ass, at least do them a favor and watch for Polyps.

I never understood why their channel have been so popular? Every video felt like a scammer who want to sell me stolen stuff.
Can someone explain the popularity of them?
- top gear of tech
  no one has any idea about the things they talk about but they do "wacky hijinx" and whinus is " nerdy endearing"
  
  Yup, they went viral based off of Linus's tech "fame". Then went full sell out from there. Almost like the History channel did
  
  I understand what they say, but in some cases I just don't agree with them. They only show the newest gadgets and scream into the camera....
- I don't know about anyone else but is stuff makes fairly good background noise. They bring up a lot of tech news on wan show that I normally wouldn't seek out, and at least there you have Luke to kind of be the f****** voice of reason, right? Most of that show is just sitting in the background for me waiting to hear Luke call Linus out.
  As far as reviews, It's great to have an early look at a card here and there or some of the stuff at a trade show. because they get access to it, but watching them actually try to test something is like watching Mythbusters. None of their actual product reviews are trustworthy in my mind. They're too wrapped around sponsors there's so much content you lose track of what's being sponsored and what's not. Like him buying into that laptop company, then putting them on every time he gets a chance. Your average person isn't going to properly compartmentalize the cool features of the laptop versus he selling it to you. And honestly he is pretty damned effective at sales.
  It's very low investment entertainment for me. If I'm in the middle of a show and my wife says hey can you go do blah blah blah I just stop the show and walk away it's no big deal. If I don't come back and watch the rest of that episode there will just be another 6 hour long episode a week later.

Ok, I was wrong...I haven't watched the whole video yet, but the bits this video showed really does make it seem worse than the Spez AMA. At least Spez was smart enough to keep the answers short and concise, even if they ignored all the questions.
- That was all of the cringy parts. The whole of the rest of it is basically fine. Just people saying "We messed up in these ways and we think it was for these reasons. We are going to do xyz to try to make sure we don't mess up in similar ways moving forwards."
- I hope you've since watched the video. Besides the dumb stuff that was specifically clipped here, the rest provides a decent insight into LMG.
  
  I really have no interest, honestly. I've watched one LTT video where they reviewed knockoff game systems, oddly enough right before all the drama started, and the main guy seems to be a bit of a douche. None of the drama is really that surprising to me, because he seems exactly the type to do all the shit he's being accused of. From what I've seen of the rest of them in the posted video, I have no desire to delve that deep into any of this. I'll just watch the ship go down in flames instead.

They simply tried to lower the tension. This type of humour is their watermark, they even mention in the video that they are available to make changes but not to take away the goofiness.
Some of you are raging over something innocuous.
- They simply tried to lower the tension. This type of humour is their watermark
  Yeah, I agree with that assessment, but that tone is absolutely not okay in the current context.
  If very dark humour is your "type of humour", it doesn't mean you can just go "business as usual" and make dark jokes around someone right after they lost a loved one, had a tragic accident, got SA'd, etc.
  Linus tried to weasel out of the GN accusations by saying he "failed to read the room". That was because entertainment is about reading the room, while reviewing is about accuracy and objectivity. Then, he failed to recognize that (but GN was there to remind everyone, fortunately).
  In this case, however, when going with their usual "entertainment" vibe, he should have "read the room". Which not only he failed miserably to do, but all of the LMG management (including the new "they're gonna solve all the problems" additions) too apparently.
  This does not bode well for LMG. It is proof they are clueless, do not have the skills to fix their problems, and aren't to be expected to get any better. It's a shame, because it was good entertainment. At least for as long as I had Linus in my blind spot. Now, I can't unsee it, and I can absolutely imagine how much of a bully he is remembered being by people from his past (he mentioned that in passing here and there).
- There's a time to be goofy and a time to be serious. This isn't a goofy time. Your inability to tell the difference is something you should look into.
  
  The problem is that at LTT it's always goofy time. If they just sit down and start talking, yes that is much more professional but at the same time it really feels disingenuous, coming from someone who has stated on multiple occasions that he wants dbrand to sponsor the video eventually made about his own funeral. I do think they could have gone for less jokes, but it's hard to get the balance right, especially if the video in question is (somewhat ironically) rushed.
  
  So what would you like from them?
  At this point it's a mea culpa. Even with the expected goofy angle. That's at least 1000 times better than what basically any other multi-multi million dollar corporation would say or do.
  Or is your only concern having a target for outrage?
  I'm not saying they are forgiven, but it's more than basically anybody else. And should the pressure stop? Also no.
  
  While I agree, I think you're unnecessarily smug and this is rhetorically ineffective.
- While I tend to agree, the fact that the video was initially monetized retroactively made all that stuff horrible. Like, they joke about being greedy money-grubbers, and then they grub the moneys.
- I feel like if they hadn't acted like LTT does with the humor and hallmarks, people would have called it a worthless generic apology video.
  Now they call it insensitive and all that. I have a feeling there was no winning for them.
  
  Why does there need to be a way for them to win? An apology is the bare minimum. It doesn't wipe away what they've done.
  
  Linus's forum post made this a no-win scenario for them. They had to bring in half a dozen people to try to clean up after he shit the bed.
- So when Linus cries to camera about YouTube affecting his income that's goofy is it? Imagine defending this abhorrence.
  
  I haven't followed LTT channels in years.
  I am simply concerned because I believe they couldn't have handled the aftermath better. So I don't understand many reactions I see on the WWW.
  They did quite some mistakes, yes. Those mistakes would be enough for me to stop following their content, yes. But why enrage?
- Damn I mean that was cringe AF.
- By lower tensions, do you mean deflect and whine about people questioning integrity, especially after countless videos from Linus himself chastising other companies for their poor crisis responses and/or inability to accept full responsibility?
  
  He's a hypocrite, I am not denying that.
  Linus Media Group is not Linus, though.
- Exactly this. I get everyone wants to dog-pile but the vast majority of the video was outlining issues and the steps they're going to take to rectify it. It was a good video and miles above what other brands have done with other controversies (which is generally doing fuck all or putting out a basic tweet)
  
  We can celebrate when the results happen

Fuck Linus and everything he touches

- Linus has many talents, but efficient formal communication with people doesn't seem to be one

YouTube drama is crazy

Sorry, I'm out of the loop on this one. Would anyone mind elaborating on what happened exactly? Thank you for your time!
- Oof, you wanna TL;DR half a week of "influencer" drama? I'll bite.
  On July 28th, Tim "Big Bald Mouth" Holowachuk decided, of his own volition, during the LTX labs tour, to entirely undeservedly diss friendly tech youtubers GN and HUB in a MurfsGaming video released the same day (timestamp: 8:30).
  During LTX, a full copper block, artisan prototype owned by Billet Labs (apparently their best performing), previously inaccurately (of course) "tested" by Linus, was fraudulently sold on the silent auction.
  HUB answered via a tweet throwing some well deserved shade; while GN, unbeknownst to LMG, had accumulated months worth of data about their repeated egregious errors, inaccuracies and general unprofessionalism, and made an outstanding, demonetized, 45 min long video about it. I highly recommend watching all of it.
  Linus responded within hours essentially reading "Yeah, you don't really deserve an answer, be happy you got one privately. As for the guys we wronged, they don't matter, and they made an absurdly atrocious product, so who cares. And I didn't sell it, I auctioned it to profit a charity; plus we already have an agreement on how to compensate Billet Labs." (that last part was a lie).
  GN took the first 12 minutes of their next upload to react on Linus's atrocious take, commenting how unsavory it is.
  Madison Reeves (@suuuoppp), seeing the tide turn after 2 years of silent suffering, decided to publish everything (apparently) she had about her horrible experience (TW: outrageous abuse of authority, humiliation, self harm, sexual harassment & abuse) at LMG. Unfortunately, being mostly ignorant of OpSec, she apparently did not manage to collect much proof. Fortunately, Colin Worobetz (@DubMFG) chimed in, corroborating her version of the facts, and adding a much needed third party confirmation (reddit thread about it).
  LMG decided to then publish a sort of "Apology" video (sort of, because not only they managed to sound nauseatingly bland, dishearteningly corporate, incredibly unconcerned, they also plugged their merch, and threw goofy jokes with sexual references around, proving the absolutely laughable extent of their seriousness).
  Freeman decided to make a video montage of the much worse, much more boring, much longer video released by LMG, and posted it here. And he's right. That's all you really need to see.
  
  Legend for putting that all together with links and everything.
  
  I didn't know that Colin came out and said that about Madison's allegations. Thank you for including that, and I'm glad he did.
  
  Tim “Big Bald Mouth” Holowachuk
  Is that the guy who looks like Andrew Tate? (Who also kinda looks like that ogre in Harry Potter 1)
  
  Who is Colin and where can I see this account? Please?
  
  Damn! You have done more research than Linus Labs does for a product test!
  
  6 and 7 are in wrong order, and it makes a huge difference. They didn't have anything about Madison in the video because it was released first.
- Gamers Nexus (another highly respected tech YouTuber) called out LTT for their mistakes and performances over the last few years, the overall point being that they're moving too fast and causing multiple mistakes in their content.
  There's a current controversy with a company called Billet who gave LTT a custom water block to test and instead of testing it properly with the 3090 it was made for, they tried it with a 4090 card (and it obviously didn't work)
  Linus doubled down on their results saying it wouldn't have mattered anyway because it's a rubbish product and no one should buy it (which came across very poorly, why even agree to test a product if you know your going to trash on it)
  The whole situation specifically looks like it's triggered some upcoming changes in LMG and hopefully the outcome is better, more accurate video content
  
  The Billet stuff is even worse because he trashed a startup company (that could be crushed by bad press from someone with so much reach) for his own mistakes, then doubled down to avoid blame saying that they couldn't spend a few hundred dollars to test it correctly with the right card (despite having millions of dollars) and that the results wouldn't change anyway (though it clearly would). Then, LTT auctioned the block off without Billet's permission, then tried to not pay Billet for it.
  
  Seems the general discussion burries what I sense is perhaps the more agregious part; LTTs business ethics.
  It is inexcusable to become too big or too busy to care about how you represent those you partner with. Steve poiniently outlined significant instances where LTT took actions that negatively and unfairly impacted the vendors that expected more of a partnership in the exchange.
  The Madison info just heaps onto the poor business practices.
  
  The worse part is that the GN video was triggered by someone in LMG name dropping GN trying to cast shadow on their journalistic integrity and methods during a video and then indirectly by Linus himself during a wan podcast. GN only did the video as a self-defense roast to stand their ground. Accidentally happened to blow a giant hole on the top of the company. Because that's how bad they are as an organization.
  
  Hey now, be fair. LTT also lost the video card Billet sent to run the test on and sold their prototype.
- Regarding the initial drama, the timeline is as follows:
  GN exposes LTT's sloppy-at-best practices: https://youtu.be/FGW3TPytTjc
  Linus responds emotionally in forum thread: https://linustechtips.com/topic/1526180-gamers-nexus-alleges-lmg-has-insufficient-ethics-and-integrity/?do=findComment&comment=16078641
  GN responds to Linus' response: https://youtu.be/X3byz3txpso
  LTT responds more thoughtfully: https://youtu.be/0cTpTMl8kFY
  I will not try to summarize these different events, since that risks not covering all of the finer details in the issue.
  Then there is also some very recent issue that has been raised about a former employee at LTT that allegedly has been the victim of sexual abuse, and very harsh working conditions, but I'm not fully read up on that yet.
- I would just like to thank all the kind souls that helped recap the situation. It is very appreciated.
- Everyone can't learn everything. When you watch the news, do you fly down to Maui to interview victims and analyze the state of power lines yourself?
  You have to remember where you got something and learn to evaluate the bias of a source, but going on an active forum full of people with various levels of knowledge on the topic is the best way to get a complete picture in a reasonable time frame. They'll call out inaccuracies in reporting, give background that might speak to problematic motivations or conflicts of interest, and argue bad takes.
  Is it perfect? No. It's DD though, more and more usernames are quoted in the news - hell, even in this video forum posts are referenced frequently

I still don't understand the drama and do not want to watch a 20 minute video to make myself care.
- At that point you might as well don't comment at all
- Peak complacency

Are we just really posting selective parts of this video? I could have sworn that when journalists / the media do this everyone is up in arms about bias and creating a narrative, but when we do it I guess it's fine?
- It's called "entertainment". You know, as opposed to serious journalism. If you ever watched any LMG video, you should know all about this particular distinction... ;)
  
  Stop stop he's had enough!!! Let him live
  
  Ooooh that's good
- I don’t think this is meant as a replacement for the original. It seems like the creator just wanted to clown on LTT for their subpar and disrespectful response to the controversy.
- I’ve seen the whole video as well, it’s somehow actually worse than this clipped version lol