Wow.
Linus is just insufferable. Life has been great with his channels blocked for years and not paying a cent of attention to him. Everyone should try it.
Yeah; I only ever see his content when the drama spills into other channels now.
I miss the days of small-time LTT doing silly projects like whole-room water cooling. :/
GamerNexus seeks out this kind of drama and it’s non-stop. Really an insufferable channel
Well, so much for ditching the R-slur from his vocabulary. It’s like everything Linus says is in bad faith. What a douchebag. And also texting while driving, class A shit-4-brains specimen.
Man we need new tech reviewers that don’t make drama by talking past each other in pedantic ways to no ones benefit and go back to talking to the audience and in simple terms so that new people can find an in to join the community.
This is pathetic. I’m so tired of both massive corporate Linus and Gamer’s Nexus.
How is gamers Nexus corporate? Genuinely asking because I find their coverage refreshingly pro-consumer
Corporate was meant to be solely attached to Linus not Gamer’s Nexus. I just find their coverage to be not approachable and not consumer friendly. They often over pedantic into the weeds and don’t even properly talk about the massive tables they casually throw up on the screen.
I’m sorry if my adjective was misattributed to GN
Why do people like gamersnexus? All I ever see is them stirring up shit for views.
Do they even make real content that isn’t just “I called out entity x for reason y and now everyone should be angry”?
Literally none of their “stirring up shit” videos (like the ones for msi, gigabyte, newegg, etc) have been neither unwarranted nor discredited. They’ve also all led to positive outcomes for consumers.
If you don’t find it entertaining, don’t watch it. I personally think that it’s great to have people like them looking out for consumers.
Dude makes money calling people out. He’s not here looking out for consumers, he’s here for the paycheck. Don’t be deceived. Ragebait makes money and they know it.
They make money because people watch their videos and/or contribute directly to them by buying their products. I honestly see absolutely nothing wrong people supporting a channel that they like. Especially when they’re not only producing content but also potentially burning down bridges with brands/sponsors when they need to call them out. If you look at Linus, on the other hand, he deliberately chose not to call out the issues with Honey over fear or repercussions. To this day I still don’t understand why he would think that informing their viewers that they were being scammed would have any negative impact at all. Except, maybe, he wasn’t thinking about his viewers…
It’s really weird that you’d accuse GN of going after profits when Linus has repeatedly said, and shown, that that’s precisely all he cares about.
Wasn’t the issue with honey that the creators were being scammed? They were replacing the codes being used with their own, so that honey was getting the affiliate money and not the creators themselves?
To the end user, the issue would be moot. The users themselves weren’t even being impacted, unless they were trying to specifically use the affiliate code to support their favorite creator.
If they realized it was an issue and cut off their sponsorship because it was negatively impacting their own business and not the viewers, they have no reason to tell the viewers about it. On the same note, had they stated their reason publically for discontinuing the partnership and made an erroneous claim which, if you believe GN, they are very likely to do, it could open them up to a lawsuit with honey, and ultimately PayPal, who has a lot more money than a relatively large YouTube entertainment company.
As you said, Linus had claimed that their primary goal is making money. They’re a business with over 100 employees, you have a responsibility as a business owner to ensure you can keep paying those people. He also has said that their primary channel creates edutainment and pure entertainment content because it’s the only thing that can maintain their viewership at a level high enough to support LMG.
I can’t see GN as anything but the annoying, self righteous redditor type who stands on his soapbox claiming everyone else is doing wrong and getting a sense of superiority out of it. Their content isn’t anything particularly special, so they have to drum up the view count by creating drama. It’s okay to like it, but at least hold them to the same scrutiny you would the channels they call out.
Wasn’t the issue with honey that the creators were being scammed?
I think you haven’t watched MegaLag’s video (at least not all of it) or other channels that covered this properly. As you can see in this section of MegaLag’s video, Honey also hurt consumers because it claimed that there either weren’t any coupons available when there were or it gave you a coupon that wasn’t the one with the highest discount.
unless they were trying to specifically use the affiliate code to support their favorite creator.
Exactly. This also “hurts” consumers because, if I use an affiliate link, I want the channel I got it from to get that kickback so they can keep making content.
If they realized it was an issue and cut off their sponsorship because it was negatively impacting their own business and not the viewers, they have no reason to tell the viewers about it.
They do because the issue impacted both parties. Also, this is very cliché but also true, “if you see something, say something”.
If you watch MegaLag’s video, you’ll also see that LTT then partnered with “Karma” (kinda ironic) which also does at least some of the same shady stuff Honey does. Here’s the timestamped video.. They also ignored/refused to answer many of the questions MegaLag had.
it could open them up to a lawsuit with honey, and ultimately PayPal, who has a lot more money than a relatively large YouTube entertainment company.
GN, a smaller channel, is taking Honey to court so I don’t see why a lawsuit would’ve scared them. They’re also not alone, other creators and lawyers are doing the same thing. Honey will lose because there’s undeniable proof that they’ve been stealing sales and offering coupon’s that weren’t actually the best to their consumers (if they offered any at all).
you have a responsibility as a business owner to ensure you can keep paying those people
While that’s true, it’s also true that the end doesn’t always justify the means. Ethics are very important. Not only for yourself as the owner of the company but also to your employees and the audience.
I can’t see GN as anything but the annoying, self righteous redditor type who stands on his soapbox claiming everyone else is doing wrong and getting a sense of superiority out of it.
Again, you say this upsets you but can you point at a single case where they called out a company/product and were wrong? I really don’t understand why you’d be upset about someone literally fighting and looking out for you.
Their content isn’t anything particularly special, so they have to drum up the view count by creating drama.
Please name other channels that review hw as well as they do. GN and Hardware Unboxed are the only ones that I know of that are actually decent. I don’t see how you could consider them “not special”. Considering not only their reviews but also all of their methodology videos, technical deep dives with industry workers and/or experts and factory tours.
at least hold them to the same scrutiny you would the channels they call out
I do, not sure why you’d say I don’t. Is there anything specific you’re referring to? Afaik, they have literally no problems with other youtubers and no one (that I know of) has generated any content denouncing them. The only thing I could criticize is that Steve seems to be a bit of a workaholic but, at least according to him, that’s not something he demands of his coworkers.
Truthfully, I’m not that invested in the stoty and I was under the impression that the honey issue was solely on the creator side, so knowing otherwise does change my perspective some.
That said, I don’t think we know if LTT knew the entire story at the time. If they did, I also believe they should have said something. AFAIK they haven’t come out to say they knew of the whole story at the time of dropping the sponsorship, just that they knew of some of the issues. Without doing a deep dive like other creators have, I still think they would rather avoid the publicity for fear of retaliation, like they stated.
Ultimately, to each their own on whether you like GN or LTT. I still think GN goes out of their way to stir drama, whether it’s called for or not, and it sure seems like he just has an issue with Linus overall.
That said, I don’t think we know if LTT knew the entire story at the time.
This is also discussed in MegaLag’s video. They did know at least about this issue affecting them, financially, so they brought it up with Honey, who refused to make any changes. After that, they ended their sponsorship. If they didn’t figure out the full extent of the issue, it’s because they didn’t want to. I doubt you seriously think they didn’t have the resources to investigate further.
they would rather avoid the publicity for fear of retaliation, like they stated.
From who? Honey? If so, that’s a very mistaken mentality. They basically decided to stay quiet about something that was demonstrably hurting creators and consumers out of sheer selfishness. Coming from linus, who seems to be rather narcissistic, that doesn’t surprise me. It does suprise me that this excuse would be accepted by their viewers, who were negatively impacted by this decision. Again, if you see something, say something.
I still think GN goes out of their way to stir drama, whether it’s called for or not
Once again. Has there been an instance where it wasn’t called for? I think they just have a very strict moral compass and they respect that regardless of any financial hit or extra work it might cause them. That’s something I respect, a lot.
it sure seems like he just has an issue with Linus overall.
Did you read their post? Wouldn’t you have a personal issue with someone who says you’re autistic, quotes your work without actually quoting you, reaches out to your personal phone over random tweets because they think they’re about them and also misrepresent you publicly?
For example, after the GN video, Linus said he reached out to Steve and was ignored. What actually happened was that linus sent a message to Steve’s old phone, which they hadn’t used for over 2 years. If you want more examples and details, you can read GN’s post.
Honeys issues are two fold:
Honey steals/replaces affiliate links/cookies meaning 100% of the commission earned by creators goes to Honey instead.
Several small creators have come out to say this has essentially bankrupt their channels as the entirety of their affiliate revenue just disappears overnight, then their sponsors pullout because it appears they are generating no traffic.
Honey also collude directly with retailers to control exactly what coupons are made available to you, explicitly preventing you from getting a better deal; while telling you they’ve gotten the best deal possible and convincing you to not even bother with other coupons or other sources. They even have a mechanism to ‘submit’ coupons they hadn’t applied to be distributed to other customers, to convince you you’re helping others get a good deal; but those submissions NEVER go to customers.
This happens on every transaction within a browser that has Honey installed; even in cases where Honey knows before trying, that they don’t have coupons to offer. It will still popup, tell you they don’t have anything to offer, then replace the affiliate connection with their own.
Through this they are stealing both from the customer and from any creators/affiliates that sent that customer to the store.
I briefly fact checked myself before my comment but the first few articles I saw didn’t mention the issues beyond creators. Good information and definitely changes my perspective of the overall problem. Thank you!
Yes they do, and its good content too.
Youll be happy to know theyve split up the 2 content too.
Gamers nexus will be tech reviews and news while their investigations moves to another channel because they noticed people like yourself dont like the content while others (like me) do. This way we both get what we want.
why is there 0 response on the honey and billet labs thing, which is part of that same wan show? what’s with this half done response, why not show all the receipts? and also, why does he bring up a threat of legal action when there was no actual threat of legal action if you see that wan show?
this is such a disappointment, I’m apparently meant to watch as these two adults constantly miscommunicate, misunderstand and ignore half of what the other has said online, and stretch the back and forth even longer than it needs to. This will take like 5 wan shows and gn articles to conclude properly
The legal action is, i think, because linus is basically dragging them through some deep mud by saying he is wrong and what he does are lies. Now i know gn kinda started it by mentioning them in the honey lawsuit video, and they shouldnt have, not like how they did ( but they were right that linus should have spoken up in 2017 because they knew what was going on ).
I also suspect there is no reaction on the honey and biletlabs thing because there is nothing new to add. We know linus knew but kept his mouth shut about it and why, and we know ltt’s internal workings fucked up everything about the biletlabs prototype (the video, the mislabeling of item, the auction, … ).
This whole thing is a shitfest and both parties need to calm the fuck down, which a threat at legal action might force them to do so.
My opinion is that linus (again) shouldve kept his mouth shut about how “his head wouldve rolled if he spoke about honey” because that was wrong of him. Gn shouldnt have made the low punch towards ltt after that which caused linus to (again) not shut up and make things worse.
Yeah I’ve come to the conclusion that anyone whose main job is creating “content” is a piece of shit.
But some have Jesusier hair than others, and as such my own allegiance has been destined without say.
Edit: FR the deciding factor was the 70 dollar screwdriver along with the “trust me bro” warranty. He’s a scumbag. His “media group” primarily produces entertainment clips with no value. I get some informative content from GN in comparison.
I’m not sure these are the receipts GamersNexus believes them to be. They’re all kinda stretching things into a gray area.
The plagiarism part is straight up incorrect. LMG did not say that their discussion was original reporting. The WAN show is explicitly a podcast reacting to news articles and events (WAN = Weekly Analysis and News). Plagerism needs a “passing off as your own” piece, while IANAL given react content typically ends up in the fair use category because of additional commentary and thoughts being added, the WAN show doesn’t have to disclose sources. Usually on WAN show they mention where they heard of the story, and not mentioning GN is a dick move, but it’s not plagiarism.
The history of not following up on issues was definitely better addressed in the original GN video. But at the same time, this just makes it seems like GN is trying to use the argument “Hey we warned you once that some of your methodologies aren’t great and led to skewed results and you didn’t really react, so now we’re gonna release an hour long video on all of your previous fuck ups and not tell you, k thx bi*”
To Linus’s original point on not getting a heads up, that’s not industry standard behavior and also kind of a dick move.
The unprofessional communication part I can go either way with. Would I talk to my boss like that? No. Technical mentors and peers that I had a good relationship with? Absolutely and I have done it. By the book it’s unprofessional it’s hardly the damning statements Gamers Nexus is trying to sell them as.
Also for those of you who have not watched any LMG content since that original GN video, LMG has cleaned up their act quite a bit, so credit where credit is due. Linus also only asked for receipts since he was getting increasingly frustrated with several negative comments coming from GN whereas on the LMG side they’ve continued to praise and recommend GN content
Your understanding of what qualifies as plagiarism feels wrong. Just because an organization advertises itself as a “weekly analysis and news” doesn’t disqualify them from citing sources. They still are required to give credit where credit is due… Even mainstream news channels will let their audience know where they are acquiring their information whenever it isn’t coming from their own investigations.
At the end of the day, if a primary source privately requests a citation, then a citation is definitely required, so this is where lmg really messed up. GN (as the primary source) felt wronged when lmg used information from their own investigative journalism and did not give them credit (when they apparently gave Jayz2cents credit). At that point in time, lmg was obligated to give GN credit and lmg admitted to this mistake; but then did little to nothing to rectify it.
Agreed. I think GN missed the point by not publishing the smoking gun receipts, but an avalanche of receipts for things LMG was guilty of and have admitted to. It kinda makes it look like GN wants it to look like they’re “burying LMG with evidence”, but in reality the smoking gun would only need to be a paragraph & some screenshots.
While I mostly agree with you, I do think there are problematic things in this article that make Linus come off as disingenuous at best, especially seeing that he played the “I have 0 idea what I did wrong, I want to sue you but i wont” card.
As for the reciepts for lack of citations, while I think it’s obvious that Steve is asking for citations and he shouldn’t have to ask, it’s always best to make your request explicit. It breeds animosity to have expectations and not state or ask them clearly. I could absolutely see someone being naive in these exchanges and thinking that Steve was reaching out not to get a citation but to fix future mistakes.
The worst thing about this bullshit though is the lmg clips video title. It’s a serious allegation that Linus allegedly wants to resolve, but they cover it in cringe memery. And I say this as someone who watches LTT and not GN.
I think if Linus had just called out Steve’s beef and publicly requested some forum to speak privately or publicly and sort out differences, that’d be one thing. But with the lmg clip title and the “want to sue, but I won’t” bs, it all just seems kinda gross. I know that Linus may not be personally responsible for that, but the company uses his name, and he started it.
I took Linus’s statement to mean that he doesn’t understand why he is continuing to get heat from GN since they have addressed the issues GN pointed out.
The could sue but won’t part I think it’s coming more from a context with the ongoing Honey lawsuit, since at least on WAN show its been brought up several times that people recommend LMG join the lawsuit and Linus repeatedly refusing because as he puts it, he’s not a litigious person. Given the rest of the his plea in that segment for the viewers to not go after GN, I’m willing to give him the benefit of the doubt on it. I also personally give a lot of leeway to people and organizations who have admitted mistakes in the past and corrected them so that definitely feeds into me choosing not to interpret things the way you are, even though I can see why you view it that way.
And yeah the dedicated clips channel video was moronically named imho. Linus or someone else at LMG should have vetoed it, it’s a serious topic and deserves to be taken as such. If they felt the need to make a joke, do it like the “channel this angry energy into powering RTX 5090s”. A small quip at the end, not leading into things
I’m my experience “I could sue, but won’t” is only ever used as a threat by narcissist assholes who got called out and don’t have enough evidence to sue, because if they truly did, they would. His ego was hurt by his own shitty attitude, so he’s using threats he can’t back up to be a bully. He’s basically saying “I have more money than you and can drain your resources with a frivolous lawsuit if I wanted to”
You can’t publish an entire NYT news article verbatim and then claim, “I’m just reacting.” The GN article is copyrighted.
Are we talking copyright or plagiarism here? GN is claiming plagiarism, not copyright infringement
Edit: spelling
Plagiarism is when you don’t make legal claims on someone copying your work or where the work wasn’t copyrighted.
GN was being nice about it by calling it plagiarism instead of invoking lawyers.
Edit: don’t just downvote. Explain why plagiarism of copyrighted work isn’t a copyright violation.
That is not what plagiarism means
The action or practice of taking someone else’s work, idea, etc., and passing it off as one’s own
to steal and pass off (the ideas or words of another) as one’s own : use (another’s production) without crediting the source
an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author’s work as one’s own, as by not crediting the original author
All three definitions clearly state that Plagiarism is taking some production of someone else’s and claiming it as your own. That there is some kind of deception going on as to who created the original thought/work. Merriam-Webster’s definition has that second component talking about the act of using without crediting the source, which LMG didn’t do at first but later added a pinned comment. While not immediate and the barest amount of effort on LMGs part, but it still is credit.
Plagiarism has no legal component to its definition.
Copyright does have legal implications as it is someone’s right to duplicate a work. In general a creator of a work has exclusive rights to reproduce it, but there are exceptions (everyone’s favorite Fair Use laws). With LMG being Canadian the legal side is more complicated but in US courts it’s been tested that one such exception is around additional commentary and that the usage of the work was limited as to what was relevant to being actively discussed (big case here being H3H3 a few years back). Even by GN’s own admission the WAN show was taking phrases and repeating them verbatim, but just that, only phrases. Ones pertaining directly to the on hand topic of EVGAs ending partnership with Nvidia. They were not showing GNs video, reading his script word for word start to finish. Again, IANAL but I find it highly unlikely that a US or Canadian court would say that what LMG did on WAN Show meets the definition of a copyright violation
Edit:
And to answer your last point directly, Plagiarism and Copyright are orthogonal to each other. You could plagiarize by not giving public credit but still get copy permission from the copyright holder. Semantically kinda weird to think about
That’s the point I was attempting to make. Linus used Gamers Nexus copyrighted work without permission or even attribution. It was both plagiarism and a copyright violation. Steve was being polite by only calling Linus out on the plagiarism.
Did you not understand anything I typed out?
LMG used GN material, yes.
LMG did not commit plagiarism
LMG did not violate copyright law
Words have meanings, and by the definitions of the words plagiarism and copyright LMG does not meet the criteria. You and I do not get to change the definitions to fit whatever narrative we have in our heads on who we want to be the good guys and who we want to be the bad guys
From the Gamers Nexus website:
“The script nearly identically matched the order, topics, and words.”
deleted by creator
You’d think Linus would know better than to ask GN for receipts.
He genuinely believes that he’s above all of that now, or almost too successful to fail. If the last huge controversy hasn’t put a dent into his cult of personality, not too many other things will
I dunno. I haven’t watched another episode since I heard that girl’s story about sexual harassment and toxic culture while working there.
I’m team Suop. Linus is a cunt.
Yeah he seems like a real dick.
Never heard this do you have a link or something?
I had read Madison Reeve’s post somewhere but it was in Twitter I think. I can’t access it anymore without an account it seems. So here’s a couple it articles.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/linus-tech-tips-youtube-controversy-1.6940087
Thanks I actually started searching myself too and found this https://threadreaderapp.com/thread/1691693740254228741.html
Edit I also found this
Thanks for providing these links.
Same! I stopped watching any of his company’s content
I’ve unsubbed from all but the main channel a while before that, but this was the last drop in the ocean too. Even if half of the accusations were false, they way how their response was completely soulless, and full of dumb jokes, was unheard of
I blocked all their channels on YouTube after that too.
I just checked out r/pcmasterrace and Linus might be right then. Most people over there seem to be parroting Linus excuses and down voting anyone who says otherwise.
How many times do we need to teach you this lesson, old man?!?
We also allege that there were derogatory comments made by Linus Sebastian in a conversation with Steve Burke on a private phone call on August 31, 2021 at 7:31 PM Eastern lasting 9m 43s, where Sebastian referred to Burke as being “less autistic than you used to be;” however, with no recording of said call, this can only be alleged and there is no additional evidence to provide.
Well that’s pretty fucked up
I have a person online I used to consider a friend that made similar commentary once.
Hilarious too cause he has a physical disability. So you’d think he’d have compassion but nope!
Holy shit it has a table of contents
It’s wild how Linus hasn’t pivoted into acknowledging his videos are like junk food. They’re fun but you shouldn’t take them too seriously.
Instead he’s doubling down in all the worst ways while continuing to come off as another whiny tech ceo
I find it really ironic, given that he’s spent the last 5-ish years trying to double-down on technical accuracy, while being entertaining. Now there’s no accuracy, and the entertainment has turned into repulsive cringe
He fell off after he moved out of the house.
When Nick van Berkel left it turned to shit. He probably left at the best time.
I get the different likes and dislikes, but seriously, at this point why would anyone watch Linus videos?
It’s fun to watch them do dumb projects and drill too many holes in a wall
I stopped watching when he cultivated a toxic work environment full of harassment.
I don’t support that.Because they’re entertaining?
They’re fucking annoying. There is absolutely nothing entertaining about these folks. They put out so many videos a day/week it’s borderline insanity.
It’s a 150+ employee company, putting out all these videos is very reasonable imo
It’s less than before the first GN rant. IMO It’s much more relaxed and thoroughly written now. IMO The ECC Squad effort is actually working. IMO It’s still mostly dumb, bleeding edge, junk food content; but it’s easier to watch now than before.
It’s not your cup of tea, fine. Then don’t watch.
Emily was cool. But she hasn’t shown up forever.
Emily is no longer with LMG as of sometime… Last year?
Shame, those videos were the best. As it felt like she actually knew what she was talking about
Everyone I really like at LMG ends up leaving sooner or later…
TIL
I would subscribe to Emily if she did Linux for noobs sort of tutorial
Sorry but, where does it say that in the link you added? Because “@linustech.bsky.social” is still listed at the top of her profile?
Thank you for the clarification.
If only it also had words “former host/writer” before
“@linustech.bsky.social”
deleted by creator
Some people like to watch a trainwreck.
I was one of them, for a while.
but he got to stupid and insufferable to even hate watch.
Hey, he had lots of fans until it was revealed that he was a jerk and his videos weren’t really about giving good tech advice.
At least you had the self-respect to leave.
I mean, he was pretty obviously a cunt for a long time before the whole fiasco with stealing the prototype, then lying about having made it up to the company.
Lol. Made me chuckle
For people who love ads and being shilled to and watch infomercials in their free time.
Go to r/linustechtips…
Why do you hate me?
Dont feel special, I hate everyone equally
I checked out from all LMG videos after I found out about the treatment of Madison during the huge controversy. WTF is going on over there? I thought Linus and Steve were friends at one point, did Linus forget that Steve remembers everything?
From the article:
Sebastian’s recent calls for friendship were accompanied by serious legal allegations and claims regarding the ethics and motives behind our entire business. We believe this is a play on parasocial relationships, reinforced by Linus Media Group’s decision to re-title the LMG Clip “Can Linus & Gamers Nexus Ever be Friends Again?”, where it paints GamersNexus as a friend who just needs to make up with LTT so things can “get back to normal.” This suppresses dissenting views by pretending to be everyone’s friend, so a legitimate critique seems like a personal attack to onlooking viewers.
If they were, they emphatically AREN’T anymore.
The only friends Steve needs are at Level1Techs and GN.
And derbau8er, and hardware unboxed, and jay and, …
Ltt is a league on its own and lives on its own little island at this point (if that is a good or bad thing, i leave to you to decide)
I picked up on that one, I remember that they’d get pretty buddy-buddy for a while before it just stopped sometime around 2019. Apparently things have escalated a little.
I don’t think Linus has the ability to pilot a company, even as a C-Suite with no actual responsibilities. I went from respecting them to seeing them as just another shitty corporation.
I checked out from LMG when they did the video on the Velkase Velka 3, an uber-niche case in a niche segment, used bad parts, didn’t use exhaust fans, used a poor cooler choice, and got a pc running near thermal throttle when my near-identical spec pc was running 15°C cooler and benchmarking better. It made me realize that they have poor methodology and poorer research standards, so I just stopped watching entirely
Yo, why does the website play boss music in the background?
Like a boss
Before reading: knowing Linus and GamersNexus, I think Mr. Nexus is in the wrong here, but won’t admit it
…just a bunch more insinuations, some avoidance and irrelevant stuff. I’m not going to bother further
I know gamersnexus isn’t the more thorough guy, and it appears like that hasn’t changed much
Lol. Is this a /s post. I think it’s very clear to any human being with eyes that can read. GN is much more thorough in literally all ways.
