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This situation sucks and was something I would have been willing to see through. But after reading the thread from Madison this morning I’ve decided to cancel my Floatplane subscription. While the accusations she makes are currently accusations, they’re pretty damning and worth taking seriously in case they are more than allegations. I await LMG’s response to her thread, as I feel that will be the deciding factor in whether or not I continue to consume and support anything LMG does going forward.
Her thread: https://twitter.com/suuuoppp/status/1691693740254228741
You can hear James’ voice in some of the more heinous quotes :(
Gonna pop the ThreadReader link here for those who don’t want to log into Twitter: https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1691693740254228741.html
On the Floatplane thing, I am a bit worried for DankPods, who put a lot of backing into Floatplane after he got screwed over by Twitch. This whole thing might have some collateral damage towards the other creators on there, including him. Was considering subscribing to Floatplane for him and his drum streams before this.
I may not agree with a lot of things Madison does as a content creator, but what she’s described in that thread is absolutely egregious. This goes so far beyond “trust me bro”, and is already bathing in the gas that the company is actively lighting under them. Makes me wonder what kind of NDA and contract all of them have, to keep it hush-hush. I’m worried for the people there
what she’s described in that thread is absolutely egregious
*If true and complete.
None of us were there, none of us know what happened, none of us knows the context of anything discussed. There’s a universe where everything she described is misinterpreted banter and she’s just an overly sensitive whiny zoomer. There’s also a universe where everything she described is an understatement to the unfathomable conditions she may have been subjected to, and Linus is a prototypical millennial edgelord piece of shit who can’t read a room, and gets off on belittling those under his domain.
It’s important, I think, to not be impulsively reactionary towards individual accusations. Doing so disincentives discourse and transparency. I’m going to let this play out for a bit before I make any decisions with my wallet. If Madison deserves the benefit of the doubt, so does LMG.
DankPods is the only reason why I’d consider using Floatplane, but I’ve already been a Patron of his for a long time and could just up my tier sub if I wanted to support him more, which I may do if this effects his streams.
Thank you for this, I don’t normally use twitter but I read some people saying the Threadreader app wasn’t up to date with all the comments.
Maybe Dankpods can get into the Nebula sphere instead.
Ha, Nebula is not the answer, either. It’s a gated community that doesn’t even have a way to sign up as an uploader. They expect you to make it on YouTube first before they consider moving to their network, and then you’re doomed to constantly advertise for Nebula for the rest of your career.
Ah shit, I forgot how much dank went in on floatplane
A former employee shitting on their employer during a scandal to draw media attention has been the oldest trick in the book. If more stories come forward or others corroborate the individual claims, it’s worth notice. Until then, all I see is someone who took a high pressure job, couldn’t hack it, and now they’re trying to cash in on the negative experience for media attention.
Exactly this ^
Until there’s actual evidence put forward (and not just her word), I’ll happily defer pulling out the guillotine and grabbing my pitch fork.
I get the community as a whole is rightfully shitty with how LMG has handled themselves over the last week, but I’m certainly not taking her accusations alone at face value, regardless of how abhorrent they are
Absolutely, the criticism from gamers Nexus was fair and earned by LMG, but these allegations are not only completely separate from the issue with quality, they’re completely unsubstantiated. Should she start corroborating her story with things like the ER report from her reported incident of self-harm, or other employees confirm her story and are willing to state that they actually witness these accusations, that would be another story.
One party versions are always … tricky. If this was the case then people that support her need to step up and talk. It is hard to belive a company with such ethics also had good enough enviroment for a colleague to transition and publicly anounce it to the world. Something is off…
Exactly. Something doesn’t smell right. If she wants to corroborate her story, she can start by showing her ER report for the supposed incident where she self-harmed to get out of work. That would be an easy paper trail to share and since she’s already disclosed that information, she wouldn’t be giving anything else up.
Words themselves have no value in these instances.
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So you would create in 3-4 days, the co tent she has to create each days…
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Too late. Don’t care.
I’ve already unsubscribed.You should care, it reaffirms all reasons to unsub.
same here. Unsubbed from all of their channels. Now I just watch the spectacle from a distance. LMG is dead to me.
Changes nothing after what Madison has said about her experience working for them. LTT has had ethics and journalistic issues for most of its life, but it’s come clear that it’s deeper and more sinister than even I had imagined.
After reading that, I fully expect their plans “to improve” will involve abusing and blaming staff unfairly. Seems like they’re already doing that when they blame “human error” for the videos being bad rather than taking personal responsibility, as management should.
Yup. Most of their journalistic problems are self-imposed by Linus and his demand for super expensive equipment for no purpose but cloutchasing/content farming.
The obsession with an 8K editing workflow and hosting their own poorly-managed content server has already led to staff losing hours of work multiple times (though it indeed made them some ✨content✨).
I can only imagine how stressful it is working as an editor for a man who completely replaces your hardware and workflow on the whims of whatever tech trend is popular on twitter.
Hear Hear.
People who follow a tech reviewer whos now a Multi million dollar company and who’s always come out as fake are mentally ill. Simple as. Can’t grasp my mind about people worshipping this dude/company
That would imply Gamer’s Nexus is equally ridiculous for thinking its important to call out this behavior.
Any brave soul willing to recap the whole story in few line?? How exactly did they screw up so much they neet to post this apology/non-apology video??
Seems like kind of a straw that broke the camel’s back situation.
A company sent them a one-of-a-kind prototype cooling device and the video card it was designed for to have it reviewed or whatever. The reviewer misplaced the GPU but was under deadline to produce their video, so they used a different video card, and the cooler (as should be expected) didn’t function well, but they posted the negative review anyway. After the fuckup was pointed out, they put a very easy to miss “correction” on the video. People caught on that this happens alot, and started to question the value of the content, given so many mistakes and easily missed corrections. This also extended to people questioning the bias of their reviews on products related to companies they have partnerships with or competing brands.
Additionally, despite being asked to return the device and agreeing to do so, they later sold it at a charity auction. This measurably harmed the creator and it is unknown who purchased it (people speculate it was a competitor), apparently some compensation was worked out however.
Last I’ve seen, the former social media manager posted a pretty scathing recounting of time at the company. It included alot of events that indicate this was a predatory and hostile work environment, including sexual harassment.
This measurably harmed the creator and it is unknown who purchased it (people speculate it was a competitor), apparently some compensation was worked out however.
Last I heard from Billet via GN was that they didn’t get the offer regarding compensation until the same time Linus posted his first written response, so way late. At that point they hadn’t agreed to anything. So a play of semantics for Linus?
Some small corrections here (as I understand them):
In the video, they actually mentioned that Billet’s device was intended for a 3090, but “they (Billet Labs) think it should work with a 4090 too.” Unsure if anyone from Billet ever commented on that, but that seemed to be LMG’s understanding.
Additionally, the device was sent to LMG without an expectation of return. They asked for it back after the poor review, but when it was originally sent over, there were no strings attached.
They did find who the device was sold to, and it was just a random person at LTX (LMG’s tech expo), not a competitor. Sounds like they auctioned off a lot of random stuff from videos there, and it was likely mismanagement rather than malice that caused them to sell it.
The Madison situation is obviously shitty, but I think there’s a big distinction between her experiences involving sexual harassment and the “grind mindset” culture that LMG seems to have. Both are problems, but one is obviously larger than the other. I believe the new CEO stated they’re going to bring in external investigators regarding the sexual harassment claims.
When it comes to them rushing things to keep up an unreasonable video schedule, I think that’s a valid criticism, but in no way do I feel like it’s some kind of line in the sand that can’t ever be forgiven. I also think that GN probably should have asked for comment before releasing this kind of criticism against arguably their largest competitor.
This doesn’t completely match what GN reported or what GN said Billet told them.
In the video, they actually mentioned that Billet’s device was intended for a 3090, but “they (Billet Labs) think it should work with a 4090 too.”
According GN Billet said that they told ltt that it might work for the other card but that it wasn’t tested.
Additionally, the device was sent to LMG without an expectation of return. They asked for it back after the poor review, but when it was originally sent over, there were no strings attached.
This I haven’t heard before but I do find that highly unlikely. Most companies aren’t willing to permanently part with a prototype considering how expensive they tend to be, trade secrets and the low number they have. Billet labs are apparently a two person start up making it even more unlikely.
and it was likely mismanagement rather than malice that caused them to sell it.
I don’t think personally that it was a question of malice as such but most of the criticism from GN was based on LTT being mismanaged where speed was more important than being correct. So still not a good look for them.
I also think that GN probably should have asked for comment before releasing this kind of criticism against arguably their largest competitor.
GN responded to this in a follow-up. I think they said something along the lines that they don’t do it for other companies either. I’m personally a bit divided. Most of the information presented was factual and not of the nature “he said she said” with the exception of the Billet question. The size difference (especially when in similar scenes) could also be seen as a reason not to reach out so that the story isn’t buried by the larger companies reach and resources.
Important considerations, especially considering Linus first response where I felt he played around with semantics a lot. What I like about GN is that they always seem to back things up with references.
I also think that GN probably should have asked for comment before releasing this kind of criticism against arguably their largest competitor.
Not defending LMG’s mistakes, but GN’s opinion that you should not ask for comment doesn’t hold water.
GN definitely has an agenda here. He made several comments that made it quite clear he’s resentful of LTT’s success.
While I don’t think anything he reported is false, it’s all wrapped in a narrative that relies on implications. He certainly makes a whole lot of hay about a few small mistakes and heavily implies LTT is in the pockets of their sponsors and a conspiracy theory that LTT is only successful because of some connections and preferred treatment by YouTube.
He’s very much trying to establish a narrative that LMG is wildly corrupt and undeserving of their success. However, a lot of it comes across as sour grapes.
Billet Labs sent them a 3090ti to test with and LMG lost it before they filmed the review. They comment on the GPU being wrong in the video. .
BL also commented on the video explaining why it would perform poorly with the 4090.
Someone at LMG agreed to send it back before they sold it at auction. Then that didn’t happen and there was no apology or attempt to make it right until the GN video came out.
They always knew it was being tested wrong.
Thank you and… WoW!
You know there is something wrong in an individual when said individual resorts to emotion/“imjusthumantism” and other type of fallacies to answer facts and logic.
I think there are a few instances where mentioning your own inability or failures are ok. One would be where it’s qualified with like, appropriate measures to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Like if I say I’m flawed and not perfect, it makes sense to think something like this might happen again and hey here are the mechanisms or things in place to ensure my non-perfectness can be addressed and mitigated so as to cause the least amount of harm for others (at my own expense).
Of course this is not at all what was done or what tends to be done :/
They are least released a video outlining their plan going forward, that’s immensely better than other times where they’ve stuck their head in the sand. Be keen to see how this one pans out
But this video was after a long nasty, emotional rant on the LTT forums. Also after trying to claim compensation had been agreed between Billet labs, all while doubling down in reasons why it’d not changed the outcome of the result of the video.
Yeah, and the video made it clear that Linus needs to get out of the way of the business growing, which is what everyone was trying to address. How well that actually worked is up to you. Personally I’m one for actions backing up words. Admitting there needs to be a change is a good start.
I think the Madison thing that has come up since the video has seen enough speculation. At this point it is up to LMG to do what is right provided any further action is required.
Things are not looking good for linus, especially now that an ex-employee is making accusations about terrible working conditions, sexisim, and harassment of all types…
LMG and Linus in particular have not been reliable to me for a while. It all started with the screwdriver. First it was the full of year of videos teasing the product, it was just absurd how long it took to come out. Then when I watched Linus react to the project farm review is where things really turned for me. Project farm fairly rated the screwdriver and as he always does called out pros and cons of each product. Linus seemed to not be able to take the criticisms and seemed to almost get mad at project farm about it. The main criticism I remember is that in the ratcheting screwdriver market there are several companies that offer lifetime warranty and same day delivery/replacement. Project farm noted that LMG does not offer this level of customer service and they are being new to marketplace may not be equipped to handle common problems other supplies easily fix. Instead of admitting that LMG isn’t trying to compete with companies like Mac tools or Snapon Linus immediately gets defensive and tries to discredit the need for 24/7 support.
I have also noticed the high amount of corrections in recent videos. I could see not wanting to reshoot a portion of video where Linus is speaking on camera. But why not show some B role and have Linus record a corrected voice over? Edited well viewers wouldn’t even notice.
Linus adamantly refuses to offer any kind of long-term guarantee. He got flak for the warranty on the backpack for that reason; there are plenty of competitors selling bags at the $250 price point that back up their offerings with long or even lifetime warranties. When pressed, Linus put out a mealy-mouthed “oh I don’t want to open up my family to liability” statement which both managed to say absolutely nothing (why would his family be personally liable? LMG is a separate entity) and shame critics. It seems to me Linus personally can’t handle criticism, like at all.
Wait, backpacks cost that much? I got one for 25 bucks 8 years ago and it only needed some sewing to be perfectly usable. The brand is Polo Power.
My Peak Design bag cost more than my camping bag and it’s worth every penny.
Brand name bags like Samsonite can cost quite a lot. Why anyone would buy a bag from LTT for $250 in lieu of buying one from a reputable company with a warranty is beyond me.
Did any one see the pinned comment where they say turned off monetization after community feedback? as if this video should be monitized in the first place lol man this does not feel right
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Fair point, I thought about that too but if it were me and my reputation on the line, I’d make a main point of the video. Just as gamer nexus did.
Making a vid about being less careless and then being careless.
All that said, when I was posting vids, there was a full screen YouTube made me go through to set monitization and ad placement before proceeding to a separate screen for posting
no way, you’re telling me that lmg spreads misinformation? who could’ve guessed /s
amazing that something as bone dry as tech is now about nothing but drama and personalities and cliques
now
Uh… I think you need to check out the history of computing.
no i know, it’s all a big drama… sells a lot of subs…
It’s always been that way lol
Call me a fanboy but this is not the worst response.
A few things that still annoy me ofc:
- Madison’s concerns were not addressed (she JUST wrote it, so fair enough, but that shit needs to be addressed)
- everything sounds a bit scripted. Shit, just let them say what concerns them and the specifics of what they actually wanna address. Like give examples, so we know that you guys get it.
- Linus blaming others sticks out. I wanna give him the benefit of the doubt and say he’s doing it unconsciously but it really bothers me and I hope it’s just truckloads of stress that he’ll be able to work through. This is not meant as an insult, but it sounds to me he should get a therapist to talk himself through the feelings. It helped me, and I can smell the pent up emotions through the screen.
It’s not perfect, but it’s a start. Let’s see what comes in response in the next while.
Also whoever hurt, degraded and ruined Madison’s mental health fuck you. I know it won’t happen, but if you read this Madison, what you went through was wrong and unfair and fuck everyone who hurt you, you did the right thing and now that you’re gone, life will improve. If you got through your worst nightmare, you will easily get through the next weeks.
For the scripting, that honestly makes sense for it to be scripted. You can proof and clear what is said beforehand instead of in post w/ retakes. Im not really invested in all this but it does make sense to me.
… a bit scripted? They were clearly, mechanically, reading from a teleprompter. Your high school “newscasters” are less obvious
Remember: No one ever lies about anything, ever.
PR damage control
