Linus is always dropping shit, and this is no different.
Also, don’t fuck with tech Jesus
HW News - Linus Tech Tips' Terrible Response, ESMC, & Starfield x AMD GPUs
Submitted 1 year ago by misk@sh.itjust.works to technology@lemmy.world
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=X3byz3txpso
Comments
HurlingDurling@lemm.ee 1 year ago
Animortis@kbin.social 1 year ago
I agree with Steve on everything, this was a huge blunder and fail in messaging from Linux. But you are supposed to reach out and ask for comment before running a story. I was a news reporter and have a master's in public relations.
briongloid@aussie.zone 1 year ago
You ask for a comment regarding an accusation, this wasn’t something to get a comment for, it was the details and evidence itself which is not refutable.
If there was a claim against someone of an event that cannot be shown, you would ask them for their version of events, if the news had a clear video of an irrefutable event they would not require comment for what the video itself would clearly demonstrate.
Animortis@kbin.social 1 year ago
Nope. You call them up and go, "This is happening and we're running a story. Care to comment?" You should even have a list of questions to ask if they agree. They can give you bullshit answers if they want, then you point those out and add that to the story. It doesn't have to affect the story. Facts are facts, and they can try to explain it away, but can't. You're still holding them accountable. You're just also giving them a chance to apologize or own up to it. And if they dont' comment, you include that.
Steve and crew are amazing tech journalists. They're doing great work. But that's a miss in this whole thing.
Bobert@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
But you are supposed to reach out and ask for a comment before running a story.
In certain cases yes. This is not one. What comment could Linus have given that would contextualize the story in such a way to excuse factual information?
Steve was absolutely vindicated in refusing to ask for comment due to Linus’s behavior. Had he asked for comment, Linus would have contacted Billet prior to the release. Instead, Linus makes a statement that heavily (if not outright) implies that had Steve asked for comment he would have context to know that an agreement had been made between LMG/Linus and Billet Labs before the video dropped. Because Steve did not reach out for comment we now know that this was a lie or an attempt to obfuscate the truth.
If you are extolling factual information you do not owe the subject a comment. If your work could be damaged (see above) by doing so you do not owe the subject a comment. If a person has already commented publicly you do not owe the subject a comment.
Steve reported objectively factual information that cannot be excused with any context. The story that was written at the time would have been damaged had he asked for comment. Linus has a public presence and has made his feelings known about previous scandals before, and his actual response was entirely telegraphed in tone, if not also content, by long time viewers.
There is not some ethics masterclass that would have come to the conclusion that Steve violated journalistic integrity by running this story without comment from Linus. You may not like it, but you’re also not some ethics in journalism arbiter.
BlinkAndItsGone@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I agree it’s generally good practice to ask the subject for comment, and Steve seems to know that because he explains at length why he didn’t here. I personally thought his explanation in this new video for why he didn’t contact Linus first is pretty good; I’m not sure why you’re being downvoted here, but if you are a former reporter I’d be interested in hearing specifics on why you disagree with it.
Vlhacs@reddthat.com 1 year ago
Yea, I think that and a few other nitpicky things are the only flaws in GN’s argument. Otherwise, the testing results and Bullet’s response speaks for itself. LTT is going too loose and fast and while that’s bad, it’s understandable if you’re a fledging company. That’s all LTT had to point out. And instead of being humble and retrospective they put out this PR nightmare of a response.
I used to be a regular watcher of LTT, but really noticed their latest videos have declined in quality and it’s apparent that they’re just pumping out as much videos as possible.
balance_sheet@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Aside from the whole drama, I remember them having quite a nice relationship before… wonder what changed
UhBell@lemmy.world 1 year ago
A labs employee mouthed off and GN went full scorched earth
gray@lemmy.boltwolf.net 1 year ago
Steve actually said in the first video that they didn’t respond at all to the labs’ employee comment.
NSA_Server_04@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Linus is tech cancer plain and simple, now more so.
binboupan@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I’ve never understood the appeal of Linus Tech Tips anyway. Anthony was great but Linus is just terrible as a host. “Oh no, Linux sucks because it is not Windows! Oh no I broke the system because I couldn’t read the text on the screen!”
Venomnik0@lemm.ee 1 year ago
I feel like the point of that video though was to point out how a common user using linux would just make these kind of mistakes which do happen and are legitimate. That’s one of the reasons why I enjoy Linux Mint so much really. Simple to use and not too much of a hassle while also slightly helping you understand some of the easier aspects of Linux.
sagrotan@lemmy.world 1 year ago
He’s an idiot. After I saw him installing Linux I was sure about that. What a bozo.
LightDelaBlue@lemmy.world 1 year ago
and now there stuf about sexual harasment…
Nefyedardu@kbin.social 1 year ago
So let me get this straight.
What a fucking piece of shit, fuck him. I hate people like this that simply can't own up to mistakes and have to deflect all criticism.
buckykat@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 year ago
It’s not just the Billet Labs thing, GN showed a pattern at LMG of rushing out bad test data and therefore wrong conclusions to keep up the frankly ridiculous volume of videos they put out.
fireflash38@lemmy.world 1 year ago
It’s the sort of thing that makes me really, really sad for the people working there. That crazy breakneck pace cannot be good for mental health.
Nefyedardu@kbin.social 1 year ago
I used to like LTT up until their "Linux Challenge" videos which were just a pain to watch. Shit like this coming from the biggest tech channel on youtube just drives me up the wall.
Bootheal0179@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Linus shits on entrepreneurship with his continual BS with easily caught bad data. No reputable companies should touch him. Anything he pushes to his viewers should be suspicious. I’ll be wondering how much LMG gets under the table for posting positive reviews.
Bobert@sh.itjust.works 1 year ago
Woah woah woah woah!
I dunno how many times this has to be said!
He didn’t SELL it! He AUCTIONED it!
That’s a distinction that needs to be made!
dorkian_gray@lemmy.world 1 year ago
Solid summary, yep. I will say though that while I understand your anger and certainly share in your disappointment, Linus has a pretty good (but not spotless, not by a long shot) track record of doing the right thing and being a decent dude, and I think he deserves a bit more grace than the more vitriolic comments have been giving him. Saying he’s a piece of shit is a bit much, in my opinion.
As a long-time viewer, it’s hard to see. I hope he sits and thinks on this whole situation, and comes around to apologise to Billet, to GN, and to the community he spent so long building. In the absence of that, I really hope someone from LMG outlines the steps they’ll take moving forward to address the points raised in the GN videos. I love LMG’s content, it would be a shame to lose them over all this.
frezik@midwest.social 1 year ago
I was almost ready to be with you, but after reading the tweet from Madison elsewhere in the thread, Linus is going to have to go above and beyond to fix things.
linearchaos@lemmy.world 1 year ago
I feel what you’re saying and I feel like I should be agreeing with you. But we do have to be careful here.
What we know and what we see coming out of LMG is what they want us to know and see. When there’s a video of Linus making it right, It’s because they wanted to make a video showing him making it right. You’re not going to see videos of him making it wrong and screwing over people, (if he does) It would be bad for business.
Likewise one ex employee’s statement of bad treatment there isn’t gospel He has hundreds of people. There are plenty of people that have left and there’s not a lot of consensus that I found that things are horrible there other than pace.
His response to GN is obviously trash, written in a moment of anger. He tends to put his foot in his mouth on live streams when he starts getting angry about a subject.
Him not sending back the prototype block, honestly is probably standard operating procedure. I wouldn’t send anything to them that I didn’t expect to lose. They receive so much equipment from so many places that they don’t even open for years, that they’re probably kind of blind to it actually being a hardship on a smaller place. I see the lie about him saying he already offered to pay them back a bit more problematic.
As far as his actual reputation or his character alignment sheet, we don’t really know. I would assume that if he was chaotic evil that we would hear a hell of a lot more about that. The guy he brought in to run the place is an insulating factor. When it was pitched it seemed that he was there to insulate Linus from the company, it’s also likely that he’s there to insulate the company from Linus.
Honestly the only thing out of all this that rings unassailably true is the untrustworthy data claim. He’s placing himself and his company to be a ultimate source of truth for benchmarking. But he comes right out and says that he won’t strive to make a better benchmark for a product for $500 when the number is obviously off. There really isn’t a lot of room for that in what he’s trying to build. If you’re going to come out and prove that power supplies, video cards, CPUs and motherboards make the numbers they say they’re going to make, you’re not going to do that with incorrect testing, shrugs and accusations. He’s going to need to be honest to a fault and transparent. If he expects us to take the data seriously he’s going to have to get out of this “oh that’s good enough I’d trust it so you should trust it” mentality.