Our Response to Linus Sebastian | GamersNexus
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GN Extras Our Response to Linus Sebastian January 21, 2025 Last Updated: 2025-01-21 GamersNexus responds to Linus Sebastian's WAN Show segment Evidence Included PLAGIARISM: Receipt #1 - History of Failure to Resolve IssuesDATA ERRORS: Receipt #2 - History of Failure to Resolve IssuesEDITORIAL DISPUTE: Receipt #3 - Unprofessionalism in Prior Communications Table of Contents AutoTOC Intro On January 17, 2025, Linus Sebastian, Founder/CVO of Linus Media Groups and property Linus Tech Tips, explicitly requested that we produce “receipts” relating to comments we have previously made. The quote is below: “I would also be very curious to see receipts for the claims that we have a ‘history of failure to resolve issues or unprofessionalism in prior communications.” - Linus Sebastian Sebastian on multiple occasions insinuated that we were defaming him and his company and suggested that we are dishonest. In our publication on this page, upon explicit request by Linus Sebastian, we will be providing the requested evidence. We will also provide corrections to his additional errors.  This evidence provided highlights the following, all of which occurred prior to GamersNexus’ 2023 video:  Plagiarism by Linus Tech Tips of GamersNexus content wherein we previously privately reached out without resolutionUnprofessional and aggressive communications in privateHistory of failure to resolve data accuracy issues that were privately raised We have spent several years keeping all of this information private as a courtesy. However, with recent demands from Linus Sebastian to produce “receipts,” and with his segment containing numerous factual errors, we are now providing the details below. Additional history of Linus Sebastian’s failure to resolve issues or unprofessionalism in prior communications are available; however, as a continued ongoing and professional courtesy, only the minimum amount of interactions are presented below that are needed to prove the claims that were made and provide the requested evidence. Credits Writing Steve Burke Context In this publication by Linus Media Group on the WAN Show and LMG Clips, the latter of which was originally entitled “Is GamersNexus Ethical Journalism?” later renamed to “Linus emailed Gamers Nexus,” and most recently renamed to “Can Linus & Gamers Nexus Ever be Friends Again?,” Sebastian stated the following: “Since we’re at this: I would also be very curious to see receipts for the claims that we have a ‘history of failure to resolve issues or unprofessionalism in prior communications.’ OK. GN further writes, ‘we previously had non-public contact with this organization’ (LMG here) ‘about similar matters that were not resolved satisfactorily or wherein we sometimes were the recipients of aggressive messaging pertaining to review topics.’ That is an extraordinary claim that I believe requires extraordinary evidence.” For the full context of this clip, you may watch from approximately 10:22 until approximately 12:38. This is what we believe contextualizes the request for “receipts.” Of course, you may watch the entire video if you like and decide what you believe the context is. It is linked above. On the screen during the above quote, Linus Sebastian reads from a Gamers.Nexus mini-site post (click the “Problem with Linus Tech Tips” accordion), wherein we shared our reasoning for not contacting Linus Sebastian or Linus Media Group in advance of publication of our video entitled “The Problem with Linus Tech Tips: Accuracy, Ethics, & Responsibility,” published on August 14, 2023. The criteria being discussed is included in full below. 6 different criteria were met, of which this is one of them: “Criteria Met [for no contact]: History of Failure to Resolve Issues or Unprofessionalism in prior Communications (we previously had non-public contact with the organization about similar matters that were not resolved satisfactorily or wherein we sometimes were the recipients of aggressive messaging pertaining to review topics).” - Gamers.Nexus All criteria that were met can be found here. PLAGIARISM: Receipt #1 - History of Failure to Resolve Issues Context: In a September 16, 2022 publication of the WAN Show with over 2,000,000 views (“The Biggest Tech Divorce”), Linus Sebastian read from a script about the EVGA / NVIDIA split. The script nearly identically matched the order, topics, and words of a GamersNexus report with 1,800,000 views, and yet at no time in the segment did Linus Sebastian cite GamersNexus or its author.  As additional context, this incident closely followed a GamersNexus video published on August 12, 2022, one month prior to this EVGA WAN show segment, where GamersNexus publicly criticized Linus Media Group relating to LMG’s warranty policies.  In regards to the plagiarism, Linus Media Group never satisfactorily resolved this issue or publicly acknowledged this theft of content or lack of citation. GamersNexus did not previously bring this issue publicly. EVGA Coverage Context: GamersNexus was one of three members of the media with access to the story that EVGA would quit manufacturing video cards; further, GamersNexus was the only party of the three which was familiar with several matters of the EVGA / NVIDIA split. GamersNexus was the only party privy to this additional information as the conversation was held in Mandarin Chinese between this author, Steve Burke, and EVGA CEO Andrew Han. No other parties to the conversation spoke Mandarin, and as a result, GamersNexus had exclusive access to several pieces of information. Evidence: View full-size image here. This email was sent to the following individuals: Linus Sebastian, then CEOLuke Lafreniere, CTONick Light, COO Result As of January 20, 2025, nearly 3 years later, there has been no public acknowledgement of the plagiarism, nor retraction of the content in the WAN Show upload with 2,000,000 views. The WAN Show upload and LMG Clips videos do not reference or cite GamersNexus either verbally or on screen at any point for the EVGA story.  In the LMG Clips subsequent upload with an additional 107,000 views, as of this publication, there has still been no attribution to GamersNexus in any form, including pinned comments.On the WAN Show 2,000,000 view upload, as of this publication, there has still been no attribution to GamersNexus in any form, including pinned comments. The only change made, after responding to our email, was a pinned comment stating “shoutout to Jayztwocents and Steve,” which is not the same as a citation, without ever acknowledging GamersNexus or the plagiarism or naming the author in full. This does not adequately cite the author and does not resolve the issue. Jayztwocents had already been cited verbally in the piece. GamersNexus reached out privately and in good faith to inform Linus Tech Tips of this serious issue. The expectation was that LTT/LMG would resolve it satisfactorily and inform the public of any wrongdoing. The public was never informed, and GamersNexus was never attributed. DATA ERRORS: Receipt #2 - History of Failure to Resolve Issues Context In this thread, which was cordial by all parties, we privately addressed a number of errors made in the video “Delidding a $1000 CPU - Worth the RISK??” These errors contributed to the presented platform instability and poor thermal results shown at various points in the video. These were not publicly corrected by LTT/LMG, and this predates our 2023 publication (“The Problem with Linus Tech Tips”). Evidence Ordered left-to-right. We reached out privately and alerted Linus Sebastian to the issues. Sebastian copied a staff writer. We felt the communication was cordial; however, Linus Tech Tips never posted a pinned comment, never updated its description, and never otherwise publicly noted the numerous test setup errors on the video in question, as of the date of this publication, which is around 7 years later. The video has 2,292,280 views as of January 20, 2025. This was not included in our August 2023 coverage, as it was from several years prior and we only focused on the most recent year of errors, as disclosed in that video. EDITORIAL DISPUTE: Receipt #3 - Unprofessionalism in Prior Communications Context On June 2, 2021, GamersNexus both replied to and tweeted about a reddit thread relating to the pricing of the RTX 3080 Ti cards, preceding the launch of the 3070 Ti. The full conversation is included below and occurred on June 11th, 2021, following the launch of the 3070 Ti. As it is from an ongoing text thread which may contain discussions from earlier or following events, and does not have clear start and stop points, if Linus Sebastian publicly requests for any prior or following text messages to be published, then we will amend this article with additional evidence. We later privately followed-up via email providing the reddit thread and timeline to further assure Sebastian that the matter was not related to him. We are also prepared to release these emails if publicly requested by Sebastian. 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. Ultimately, these examples, among others still being kept private as a courtesy, made me personally uncomfortable engaging in private communications with Linus Sebastian when relating to editorial differences, perceived or actual. Additional Evidence GamersNexus believes that these “receipts” answer the demand to provide them to support our statements that Sebastian has a history of unprofessionalism in prior communications while still maintaining the maximum possible integrity of the privacy of the conversations. If publicly requested by Linus Sebastian to produce further evidence, GamersNexus is prepared to publicly do so. Additional Errors and Misrepresentations The WAN show publication (January 17, 2025) and LMG Clips segment (January 18, 2025) further included several wholly and provably inaccurate statements and misrepresentations. In interest of brevity, we are listing only a few of them below. ERRORS AND MISREPRESENTATION: Example #1 - “Special Treatment” Linus Sebastian, in his WAN Show segment (03:18), used a previously published video clip from Ian Cutress containing errors. This advanced inaccurate statements and was used as evidence for Sebastian’s own erroneous claims. In the time since his video went up, we publicly addressed these timelines, which we will detail again below.  We believe Linus Sebastian’s reliance upon these incorrect statements is used as evidence that GamersNexus treats Linus Sebastian and Linus Media Group unfairly and that GamersNexus reaches out to other companies in advance, but not Sebastian or LMG. The relevant quote from that clip, which Sebastian included in his recent WAN show addressing GamersNexus, is as follows: “One part of ethical investigative journalism is, unless it’s covering an explicit crime or breaking the law, reaching out to get a formal response in advance. GamersNexus did it with Principled Technologies and that blew up. GamersNexus did it with Newegg and that blew up. Somehow, those companies got special treatment, but Linus Media Group did not.” This quote occurs around 3:29 in the LMG Clips upload and can be watched in full for further background information. These statements relating to Principled Technologies and Newegg are factually incorrect. The facts of these two examples, as published on our site, are as follows: Principled Technologies: “Our first story (in the ‘Mix’ column) involved outreach from Intel and no contact to Principled Technologies. In that story, we stated that we’d be driving over to their offices as that video went live. While possible they had about 10 minutes heads-up if they saw that video, we did not contact before the content, because they were the content.” Newegg: “We did not contact Newegg in a non-public fashion in this piece. In the first piece, we publicly blasted Newegg on Twitter as the first entry (after anonymously contacting customer support — which was part of the review as a consumer) and then published our video. Newegg actually replied to our tweet and asked us to talk. We told them: ‘We can talk after our video goes up. I'm not a big fan of disingenuous attempts to fix an issue after it's revealed that the mistreated customer has a following.’ We ran the video without their comment because it had become a true customer service investigation — normal customers don’t get PR channels, so we refused those channels and also we publicly exposed them before they even attempted them. It wasn’t until we visited them that Newegg had a real chance to comment (see: ‘Contact’ to the right).” These errors could have been avoided by Linus Sebastian had proper research been conducted before making irresponsible and false statements. Further errors have also been documented but have been held for brevity.  MISREPRESENTATION: Example #2 - “I never got a response” - Linus Sebastian Linus Sebastian in his WAN show segment on January 17, 2025, timestamped at 14:35, stated that he sent a text message to Steve Burke of GamersNexus following the August, 2023 “The Problem with Linus Tech Tips” video.  Sebastian states: “My last message to him was on the day he published the exposé and I never got a response.” However, Sebastian did not text Steve Burke’s current phone number, yet he has previously been in frequent contact via the current, correct number.  Here is a timeline: In approx. August, 2021, Steve changed phone numbers due to his prior number leaking publiclySteve contacted Nick Light, COO of Linus Media Group, and Linus Sebastian, then-CEO, to inform them of the changeSeveral conversations ensued over the following 2 years between Linus Sebastian and Steve Burke on this phone number, an already-public example that proves this as follows:At approximately 05:00 AM on March 23, 2023 and from his current and correct phone number, Steve repeatedly called and texted Linus Sebastian’s personal number to awaken and alert Sebastian to a channel hack wherein Linus Tech Tips had been compromised and taken over by hackers. Sebastian has publicly acknowledged and shown these texts in this video (“My Channel Was Deleted Last Night”). Sebastian and Steve continued to text via this correct and current phone number numerous times in relation to the hacking event.On the date of publishing our August, 2023 “The Problem with Linus Tech Tips” video, Sebastian claims to have texted Steve a lengthy message. Sebastian did not, in fact, text this to Steve’s correct phone number. After investigation, we found that he sent it to Steve’s prior phone number -- one which Sebastian had not sent any texts to since approx. July 9, 2021, years prior.On January 17, 2025, Linus Sebastian claims he “never got a response” from a 2023 message sent to a number no longer actively monitored by Steve (but still held in storage for security reasons) Substantial evidence exists, and we are prepared to provide more upon Sebastian’s public request, to demonstrate that Linus Sebastian has been aware of and has actively engaged with Steve’s correct phone number for at least two years preceding the message shared on January 17, 2025. This is a mischaracterization of the actual events and publicly unfairly depicts GamersNexus, and in particular Steve Burke, in a negative light.  Additional Errors / Conclusion If Linus Sebastian would like to make a public video requesting our further elaboration, he can do so and then provide us with a full transcript of his WAN show segment. We will proceed to go line-by-line and dispute all false timelines, inaccuracies, and omissions from his WAN show segment, of which there are many more. Short of that, we have provided the above examples of some of the critical errors from his video, and provided the requested and sufficient receipts to evidence our claims. Email to Linus Media Group Upon publication of this article, we sent an email to Linus Media Group’s executive team. The email is enclosed below. -- Terren, Linus, Luke, Nick: In LMG’s WAN Show segment, Linus Sebastian stated the following: “I think it is undeniable that these omissions and errors are significant and that they've done significant, possibly irreparable damage to my reputation, to my company, and to my finances. To be clear, I'm only pointing out the finances because it's such an important factor in cases of libel and defamation.” This statement escalates tensions to the highest severity and necessitates our response. Sebastian also stated: “I would also be very curious to see receipts for the claims that we have a ‘history of failure to resolve issues or unprofessionalism in prior communications.’” Given the severity of these accusations and what we perceive to be veiled threats, and given the direct request of “receipts” by Linus Sebastian on the show, please find the following information: We have published our official response to the WAN Show segment on our website. In our publication, upon explicit request by Linus Sebastian, we provided “receipts” / evidence in regards to Linus Sebastian’s, and as a result, Linus Media Group’s and Linus Tech Tips’ “history of failure to resolve issues or unprofessionalism in prior communications,” as well as corrections to several of Sebastian’s inaccuracies, false statements, and misleading representations.  We unequivocally deny and reject your statements and false claims of defamation. In contrast, we assert that the provably false and misleading statements that have been distributed by Linus Media Group as a company, and Linus Sebastian in his own personal capacity, have caused extensive and significant harm to GamersNexus, LLC and the owner, Steve Burke, in both a direct financial manner, as well as a significant reputational manner, that continues to be unmitigated and accrue additional damages with each passing day that the content is allowed to propagate knowingly false information, including, but not limited to, Linus Media Group’s continued profiting off of content plagiarized from GamersNexus, LLC. We view your coverage as irresponsible, negligent, and damaging.  Frankly speaking: I feel Linus Sebastian has provided a manipulative and deceptive offer to try to “bury the hatchet,” create a “team media,” and encourage a “brotherhood” as if it is a personal spat between friends. I believe Sebastian’s statements are intended to diminish the seriousness and impact of any criticism by any creator toward Linus Sebastian or Linus Media Group, and suppress current and future coverage. 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. At this stage, Linus Media Group and GamersNexus have both made statements which are extremely serious. This is far beyond presenting a front of friendliness, and I am respectfully requesting that Linus Sebastian drops that facade publicly, as well as ceases the repeated personal emails requesting as much, as it is personally making me extremely uncomfortable. That said, I think Linus Media Group has some well-intentioned and extremely intelligent people, including Luke Lafreniere, and I feel there could still be benefit to open discussions relating to his efforts in LMG’s Labs, the industry, or coverage types. At Computex, if Luke wishes to, or if Luke and Linus Sebastian (collectively only), wish to speak privately, please feel free to let me know and we can talk. Given the legal nature of Linus Sebastian’s allegations though and on advice of our attorneys, we are neither willing nor able to discuss this specific topic further, and any further contact related to this matter will instead be forwarded to GamersNexus, LLC’s attorneys if a response is necessary.  We will be at Computex and available on Friday, May 23 and can book a meeting room for a private discussion such as testing, hardware, the industry, or other topics unrelated to this matter, if Luke wishes to do so.  Regards, -- Steve Burke Editor-in-Chief GamersNexus

Wow.

  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.worldEnglish
    1·
    13 days ago

    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

  • GoodEye8@lemm.eeEnglish
    1·
    12 days ago

    After skimming the comments I can confidently say there are 4 types of people here: people who hate LTT, people who hate GN, people who don’t know what plagiarism is and me. Best course of action is to just move on to the post. The second best is getting the popcorn ready before diving in, you’ll feel like you’re back on reddit.

  • deroyonz@lemmy.zipEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

    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

    • borari@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
      0·
      13 days ago

      Yeah I’ve come to the conclusion that anyone whose main job is creating “content” is a piece of shit.

      • nxn@biglemmowski.winEnglish
        1·
        13 days ago

        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.

        • rbesfe@lemmy.caEnglish
          0·
          12 days ago

          Every warranty is a “trust me bro” warranty, that was his point from the start. Have you ever actually read warranty terms?

          • kadup@lemmy.worldEnglish
            0·
            12 days ago

            Every warranty is a “trust me bro” warranty

            Try that shit here in Brazil and your company is paying some fines you could not have dreamed of. And guess what, the customer would get their warranty regardless of your desire.

              • kadup@lemmy.worldEnglish
                0·
                11 days ago

                Notice how I said brazilian law, yet you’re pretending the logic in your country would apply.

                A company could write any warranty terms they wanted - hell, they could write a clause claiming “I hate laws and I’m willingly subjecting myself to the terms of this manufacturer, no takesies-backsies” and guess what, I’d still be protected by the lawful warranty process.

                A company can set their own terms for additional warranties they might want to offer as part of their marketing, with some restrictions still. But for the legal minimum? No warranty terms in the world could violate them.

                • rbesfe@lemmy.caEnglish
                  0·
                  9 days ago

                  If Brazilian law offers such good consumer protections by default, then that just further proves the point that a written policy isn’t necessary

  • FeelzGoodMan420@eviltoast.orgEnglish
    0·
    11 days ago

    If anyone wants to neatly summarize this drama in a few sentences, that would be much appreciated. I don’t have time to read this essay or watch multiple 45 minute videos on GN.

    • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
      01·
      11 days ago

      LTT is a shitheel, repeatedly.

      LTT gets called out for being a shitheel by different people.

      LTT Cries about being a victim of the big mean critics, specifically targeting GN (despite other critics)

      LTT fans get big mad at GN for criticizing dear leader, while completely ignoring every other critic (Just like LTT wanted)

      LTT successfully, amongst his cultists, frame it as “GN Big Mean at LTT, y u no be fren?” in desperate attempt to make someone other than LTT look like the bad guy… and fails.

      • Jyek@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        01·
        11 days ago

        Living up to your name… Could only be more accurate if you were TechJesusCultist. Everyone involved here are socially inept, self absorbed, wannabe journalists and not a single party here have a good track record for ethical journalism historically. Anyone here for journalistic integrity is barking up the wrong tree. They should both shut the fuck up and go back to making their money and getting free tech products for the reviews they put out and stop with this YouTube drama bullshit.

  • MajorasMaskForever@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

    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

    • reliv3@lemmy.worldEnglish
      1·
      13 days ago

      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.

  • penquin@lemm.eeEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

    I get the different likes and dislikes, but seriously, at this point why would anyone watch Linus videos?

    • Mac@mander.xyzEnglish
      01·
      13 days ago

      I stopped watching when he cultivated a toxic work environment full of harassment.
      I don’t support that.

  • rockSlayer@lemmy.worldEnglish
    0·
    13 days ago

    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?

    • DaGeek247@fedia.io
      0·
      13 days ago

      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.

        • DacoTaco@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          13 days ago

          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)

    • wetsoggybread@lemmy.worldEnglish
      0·
      13 days ago

      Its a ride. Bit of backstory if you arent familiar. Linus media group (lmg) and gamers nexus(GN) are 2 content creators on youtube focusing on tech. Lmg focuses on ‘the best’ or ‘the most’ putting out videos like ‘the craziest pc ever built’ as a generic example. Theres a great team behind the videos and there are some pretty interesting one and the videos cover a wide variety of tech topics. GN on the other hand does mostly tech reviews and tech news and prides themselves on being accurate reporters.

      The controversy revolves around a third party. Being content creators they have sponsors who help fund the show. One of those sponsors that LMG used is an app called Honey which is a browser add-on that claims to help find the best coupons when shopping online. They came under fire recently when it turned out they were colluding with certain websites/companies and somehow stealing money. Instead of saying anything about this when they discovered it, lmg just quietly dropped them from sponsorship a change from their usual trend of calling out the company (theyve done it before with other sponsors). In a recent video, GN announced they were filing a class-action lawsuit against Honey and at one point they made a remark about Linus not doing anything at the time and then the shitshow just went downhill from there

      • chronicledmonocle@lemmy.worldEnglish
        0·
        13 days ago

        It also started before that when GN/Steve got tired of LMG’s inaccurate reporting, so he posted a deep dive into LMG issues with inaccuracy. That really started the public demolition of their working relationship.

  • poke@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    01·
    11 days ago

    Just finished reading. In summary: everyone loses here.

    Linus made some silly but understandable mistakes, had some very poor word choices in private communications, and got Steve on the defensive by publicly mentioning he didn’t want to sue but implied he could. LMG is also (in the youtube world) a large company and is likely always working on process improvements, and the improvement Steve seems to want to happen that they are definitely lacking in, is to update old content with corrections or omissions.

    Steve poorly or never communicated what he thought were satisfactory resolutions to past comments or incidents and is upset that those resolutions didn’t happen, and is only escalating the situation further by softly threatening legal action, while also hinting that they have way more evidence they are just conveniently leaving out despite their current evidence being mostly empty (specifically receipts 1 and 2).

    They both run very different channels with different focuses and staff sizes and production values, and each has made mistakes. None of this spat should have been public, but it seems both parties are just bad at communicating with one another and it has only escalated due to LMG actually publicly responding to public allegations by GN.

    If I had to declare a winner so far, Steve is looking worse for wear to me given the poor examples provided as receipts and the continued threat of legal escalation, but again - everyone loses here. Everyone looks worse and this should have been handled privately. Maybe LMG should appoint someone other than Linus to handle fellow media contacts, because it doesn’t seem like he’s the best for that job.

    • zalgotext@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
      0·
      11 days ago

      Steve poorly or never communicated what he thought were satisfactory resolutions to past comments or incidents and is upset that those resolutions didn’t happen.

      Steve very clearly says he would be happy with being attributed in a pinned comment on the video in question. Linus agreed to do that, then… didn’t do that. Steve is justified in being upset with the lack of action here, he isn’t Linus’s dad, he shouldn’t have to ask more than once for such a simple request.

      and is only escalating the situation further by softly threatening legal action

      If someone with as much money as LMG threatens legal action against you, it’s prudent to lawyer up and prepare a case/countersuit.

      while also hinting that they have way more evidence they are just conveniently leaving out

      Because when you’re preparing a legal case, it’s generally a good idea to not give your opponents all the materials you’re building your case with.

      despite their current evidence being mostly empty (specifically receipts 1 and 2)

      How are those examples empty? They may not be very extreme examples, but they clearly illustrate the type of behavior GN is claiming LMG engages in.

      None of this spat should have been public

      I can agree with you there.

      If I had to declare a winner so far, Steve is looking worse for wear

      Lol you lost me again

      Everyone looks worse and this should have been handled privately. Maybe LMG should appoint someone other than Linus to handle fellow media contacts, because it doesn’t seem like he’s the best for that job.

      Motherfucker pulled me right back in lmao

      • poke@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
        1·
        11 days ago

        At least to respond to the first segment here, the pinned comment on the VOD does attribute their GN’s reporting for the segment. It does exactly what Linus said he would do in communication with Steve.

        Does the pinned comment do a great job? Absolutely not, but it does what Steve agreed to, and he should have spoken up sooner if he didn’t like it.

        They didn’t attribute on the clips channel cut, and I wouldn’t be surprised if this is the result of poor internal communication at LMG (likely by Linus since he likely handled the request on the VOD) to remember to include that attribution in that upload. Again, it would have been good if Steve let them know about it and asked for them to be more careful in the future. Its hard for a large group of people to be organized in that way and reminders are helpful. To bring it up years later in a legal threat is poor form, even if he is technically in the right.

        To add onto my last comment though, I like watching the content from both of these creators and will continue to do so. My interpretation is neither is evil nor bad, but that there has been a series of poor communication and differing standards and expectations between them.

      • A_Random_Idiot@lemmy.worldEnglish
        01·
        10 days ago

        LTT needs to treat Linus like SpaceX treats Musk.

        built a wall of yesmen around him to agree to everything he says, and executes none of it.