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The Problem with Linus Tech Tips: Accuracy, Ethics, and Responsibility

The Problem with Linus Tech Tips: Accuracy, Ethics, & Responsibility

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGW3TPytTjc

This video is not monetized. This video covers our serious concerns regarding the data accuracy of Linus Media Group, including Linus Tech Tips, ShortCircuit...

I originally posted this on lemmy.world, but then the instance went down again so fuck it, moving my c/videos subscription to here and restarting this post

34 comments

Ubermeisters

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Maybe just me but I've been really tired of Linus for like... years now. Typical youtuber clickbait thumbnail open mouth faced bullshit.

Chariotwheel

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Jesus Christ

https://i.imgur.com/nKxiZh4.png

I need to gag.

No idea how they expect to be taken seriously with these thumbnails and titles.

Realtrain

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He's said before that he hates it, but including one of those thumbnails boosts viewership by 30%. I certainly don't like it, but it would be really hard for me to resist that extra income too.

Chariotwheel

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This is the issue this is all about. Linus doesn't care about quality. Just about extra income. Clickbait thumbnails, rushed content that comes in quantity rather than quality, refusal to even invest 500 Dollar into redoing a utterly mistake of the video, no care to auction of stuff that don't belong to them - this is all coming from the same place, and which is why the thumbnails and titles are so bad. They are an indicator of the rest.

dan1101

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Money at the cost of credibility though, not a good long-term strategy.

vlad76

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Steve at GN and also Level1Techs kind of do the same thing a little bit, but not enough to turn me off from their content. It also helps that their content is accurate.

vlad76

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It's been that way for years. I had to stop watching shortly after they moved out of that first house when they stopped putting product names into video titles.

p03locke

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Is this really any better? Or this? Or this?

Put face on thumbnail, big text to sell subject, have some goofy reaction shot. It's not really an exception here.

Chariotwheel

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It's a bit better, but admittably not that much. We're not picking teams here, where you either pick Gamers Nexus or Linus as Gods.

I'd rather have a thumbnail without the face of the person (unless it really matters) and only the subject matter at hands.

danielbln

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Hello, can I talk to you about our lord and savior YouTube clickbait remover

ours

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Or DeArrow.

GreenAlex

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I don't really care about the thumbnails but the video titles are awful. I'm not going to click on a video if I don't actually know what it's about. What am I supposed to expect when I start watching just about any of these?

ReakDuck

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The title of the IPhone video just sounds very opinion based instead of a professional video talking about it. But maybe it still shows how limited the IPhone is and still talks about the technically aspect.

(While I mentioned "professional", they have a professional setup, but a hobby channel that has no money could be seen as professional while a professional cut video is not.)

I haven't watch the vid btw.

Ataraxia

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Every popular tech guru does this to be popular. Same with that Indian dude I forget the name.

GunnarRunnar

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It's hard to trust a face with a mouth agape.

Ataraxia

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While I agree he's just satisting the needs of the algorithm. You don't get millions of views otherwise. I don't see any of the people I sub on the main page because they don't use those tactics. Until parents keep their kids off the internet it will be shaped by their short attention span immature tastes

sharkfucker420

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Yeah I heard so many good things about Linus and it seems like everyone in the tech community loved him but I just couldn't get passed the thumbnails and clickbait. Really turns me off to a YouTuber when I see that

Realtrain

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There are some fantastic gems of videos that still get released, but they're really hard to find amongst the YouTube crap videos.

Lobrau

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Watched the whole thing. Many of the criticisms are valid and rightfully called out. However some of them really feel like it’s stretching and reaching beyond that. Of course they’re competitors now so it could be hard to truly remain objective.

Curious what other people thought of it.

AcesFullOfKings

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Lobrau

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There are a few of them and I’d have to go through to really narrow it down mostly just “tone” of it if that makes sense.

One that did stand out to me though was how Linus had very different results compared to other reviewers on I think it was an amd result however Steve said he shouldn’t even consider other reviewers results and should have published his without mentioning that. I disagree. I think it’s fair to point out that you got wildly different results.

Another thing was how he felt that putting annotations on the video when they vocally say something isn’t a good enough correction since people could be listening to only audio. I don’t really think that’s the case when the comparisons they’d be showing are going to be graphs. I think people actually viewing would be looking visually for it and would definitely see those.

nyctre

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Except the whole point of the annotation complaint was the fact that it further proved that they're pushing content out too fast. Instead of doing another take or at least some editing, they just add an asterisk and call it good enough. It's the big picture that's the problem, not just this one thing or any one thing individually

Okalaydokalay

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Lobrau

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Right and I agree with the criticisms as a whole absolutely. Just some of them felt like a bit of a stretch. You might have a different feeling on them though and that’s totally fine.

Vince

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For the last point, I think they were mentioning those to support the claim that LTT is going too fast. Too many minor errors are worth fixing properly but they don't give themselves the time to allow that.

Jentu

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I think the annotations are just backing up the claim that the videos are being too rushed- which is definitely true. It’s a video of a guy in front of a green screen, not some off-site video. They could’ve easily reshot the entire thing in an afternoon if they weren’t so rushed. The fact that it wasn’t reshot probably means that the video editors are likely being too tightly managed as well.

lowleveldata

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I think it’s fair to point out that you got wildly different results.

Wildly? The difference was like a few percent. See 21:30 of the video.

RickRussell_CA

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On the one hand, I think it's a bit ridiculous to hold LTT's feet to the fire over ShortCircuit/Unboxing/Tech Preview type content, and Steve Burke takes himself a little too seriously sometimes.

On the other hand, LTT set themselves up for that criticism by making explicit product recommendations in those unboxing videos, and invoking claims based on "lab testing". LTT needs to draw a bright line between unboxing content and reviews, and make it super clear that unboxing content is not a review. "I wouldn't recommend" is not the right language for a tech preview.

And really -- letting one of your employees smack-talk the competition in a lab walkthrough? Just cut that part of the video out. LTT waltzed into this with sloppy editing.

GunnarRunnar

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How is it ridiculous because like you yourself said they are offering an opinion on the products? And that wasn't the only point they had, it was just one of many and valid criticism.

And it's dumb to call that sloppy editing when the narrative they were trying to build was that they're more trustworthy than other outlets providing same kind of reviews. And that doesn't seem to be the case.

infinitevalence

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I unsubed from shortcircuit for this and the general low effort low quality of the content.

SpeakinTelnet

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I would also add that while the whole situation about billet labs is highly deplorable and a huge fuck up by LMG. You should never EVER leave a valuable prototype unnatended into someone else hands unless you're prepared to lose it. That's like R&D 101.

Rakust

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As big of a fuck up and deplorable action it was by LMG to sell that prototype, there's no reason any sensible business would send out their most advanced prototype to youtube click merchants. massive mistake from them

AcesFullOfKings

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sadreality

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Thank for sources but I am reading Linus' memo... any chance for TLDR? He sounded salty lol

CluckN

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I’m probably missing a few main points,

LTT will not address the video publicly GN should’ve emailed their complaints instead of going public They paid the prototype guy for accidentally auctioning their prototype Numbers don’t matter as much as the end conclusion for reviews LTT will admit mistakes so the community doesn’t have the right to be mad.