Last Updated on August 17, 2023 1:11 pm by Jeffrey Powers

This week we look at LMG – or Linus Media Group and Linus Tech Tips. What Gamers Nexus posted to cause LMG to stop production, what they’re doing about it, and will it even fix the problems?

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Apparently, there have been questions coming from YouTube channel Gamers Nexus, accusing the LMG of reviewing a prototype graphics card water cooler from Billet Labs. The review was tainted because LMG used the wrong video card for this video.

The alligation further stated LMG auctioned off said prototype card without permission. This added on to a question of ethics and misleading consumers in videos for a while. Along with favoritism towards certain companies.

There is also an allegation of verbal abuse and bullying, which although is disgusting if true, it is an allegation, and not in the range of focus on what we’re going to talk about today. I do understand a 3rd party hired a private investigator for this.

But now LMG is taking action. I think

Even if you are not a techie, you might have come across a Linus Tech Tips or related video from LMG.

They produce 25 video a week.

When I started Geekazine video on YouTube, I produced 10 videos a week by myself. That was tough.

But LMG is bigger: over 100 employees – around half of those people are helping in the creation of these 25 pieces of content.

And the 25 pieces includes long form and short form content. So this is not a stretch, but many inside have stated how difficult it is to make some of these videos.

And they’ve made mistakes. Heck, in my reviews, I make mistakes. Especially when you are out at events like CES, and mishear information that is coming at you like a freight train in the dark of night.

The best thing to do is acknowledge, edit, and move on.

If you posted to YouTube, you can actually do a trim to the video as long as the video has under 100,000 views, and is not 4 hours long. It’s limited editing, but you can still make fixes, like trim or blur faces (can’t do both) and keep the URL.

Otherwise, you take down and upload the new version. A video hosted on their own media host does not have those limitations.

Even something like a paid Vimeo account lets you re-upload. YouTube does this for integrity purposes, and their policy will most likely never change.

Terren Tong, CEO of LMG, along with other members of the team addressed issues in a video posted yesterday. They stated a pause in content creation to go back and find problems to fix, along with policies going forward.

Only problem is the video was fairly disingenuous. Jokes were made across the video of “Visiting our sponsor” and product placements. The video was also monetized. With affiliate ads attached, they could have made a lot just for an apology video.

As for the prototype, a leaked email came out stating there was a miscommunication, and the prototype was auctioned off for charity.

Usually, when I get a product like this, it’s an “infinate loan” and not for resale – let alone being able to auction it off.

Addressing the favoritism side: IN most cases, that is simply a part of business. To keep lights on, you have to pay bills.

I have products in the wings waiting to get reviewed because I have to pay my bills first.

Any job is like that. If you have a fun project that you get to work on, most likely, you have to do it during down time unless it’s critical for the job.

And this is a issue a lot of vendors don’t understand.

It frustrates me when a vendor calls it “Free product”. I call it “a necessary item to do my job”. I cannot talk about it on my Amazon channel, for example, if I have not touched the product.

And some creators do have a different stance on their channels. Their budget allows to purchase items to review, and they don’t accept “Media samples”, which is what it’s really called.

But I don’t know everything that was happening at LMG, nor do I want to speculate. That would not be right. In all reality, if a sample was supplied, there should be disclaimers somewhere in the content.

It’s not a good idea to decieve an audience. There was another YouTuber out there years ago that made parody videos alongside their real ones. People had a hard time telling what was real, and what was parody.

The creator ultimately took down all the parodies when the comments got bad, and they are still making videos to this day.

On the channel that gained thousands of subscribers because of questionable practices.

This is not new: I can think of many companies that had to make major changes after being caught in deception. From Theranos, to Wells Fargo, to Uber, to Boeing.

And news sources, too. I won’t say who, but you might be able to guess.

Human error is always going to come into play. You can quadruple secret check things, but if you have 2 POV, it’s going to happen.

Best thing to do is re-evaluate, and move forward.

I am not sure what’s going to happen with LMG. Linus Gabriel Sebastian, the person who founded LTT and LMG, stepped down a month ago, which I am guessing is part of that allegation issue.

I feel that Tong – who was in senior roles at Corsair before coming to LMG as CEO – handled the apology way wrong, and should have kept it short, to the point, solo, and without promotion injections.

I give props to Gamers Nexus for sticking to their guns. I give props to Madison Suop for addressing the issues and not keeping silent.

I don’t know where this will leave LMG. Sometimes, it just becomes a footnote. Other times, it becomes an acquisition of another media group.

If you didn’t know – LMG had a major YouTube hack in March of this year due to the opening of a PDF email that took over systems.

With all this, I am surprised that YouTube hasn’t stepped in. I’m surprised that Creative BC – a major partner of LMG – hasn’t stepped in.

What are your thoughts on this? Are you backing LMG, or moving to alternate media sources? Let me know in the comments below.

The post What’s Going on With Linus Tech Tips? appeared first on Geekazine.