- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
- cross-posted to:
- technology@beehaw.org
Linus Tech Tips pauses production as controversy swirls | What started as criticism over errors in recent YouTube videos has escalated into allegations of sexual harassment, prompting the company t…::The YouTube channel Linus Tech Tips has halted production after controversies over ethics and accuracy in reporting, spurred further this morning by accusations of sexual harassment experienced at the company.
So despite the recent “reactions” from LTT, and just to bring this all back to the beginning… Thank you to Gamers Nexus for doing some damn necessary journalism, which couldn’t have been done without a high level of ethical, and technical competency.
And courage, because this could have really been twisted and clouded, Gamers Nexus really went out on a limb (albeit justified).
Steve and crew do amazing work. They seem so genuine compared to 99% of the content on YouTube. Its like the Red Letter Media guys compared to all the other movie review channels.
What they did should be the standard. Serious reviewers should check on each others work and point out errors on regular basis. It’s the only way to stop corrupt/incompetent reviewers from misleading people.
They really should, especially since LTT was trying to be GN by adding the Labs. Claiming to be better than GN while making basic mistakes was just super unprofessional, which is why Steve’s response was so awesome. Anyone who has watched his channel knows he has a standard, and it’s massively important to him. I don’t think he would mind more competition in the space necessarily, even coming from LTT Labs, but the bedrock of GN is data, even if it’s a little bit dry as content sometimes. If you’re going to try to compete with or dunk on Steve, best meet the bar he’s set.
As much as this is Linus fault as the leaders, if LTT goes down for this. More than 100 of the employees will be out of job at the end of this.
Either way the outcome won’t be pretty for LTT staffs.
Most of those staff are going to have no trouble finding new jobs. It’s a highly technical and specialised crew, many would already be in demand elsewhere, and a void left by LTT would be quickly filled by other groups producing similar content, who suddenly find themselves in need of more staff. Hell, a lot of former LTT staff would be gobbled up by LTT’s own sponsors.
This is a terrible argument whenever there’s any public controversies within the private sector. It’s not worth thinking about ‘the jobs’ because that’s not how the economy works. If there’s fire behind this smoke, and LTT did fold, those left long-term unemployed are probably fewer in number than those who are currently being exploited and mistreated. It’s almost always a zero-sum game.
While I agree with everything you’ve said, it’s also fair to acknowledge that losing one’s job unexpectedly is a disruptive life change that not everyone is adequately prepared for financially or emotionally and we can empathize with them.
Edit, seriously what have I said here that’s downvote worthy?
You’re asking people to spare pity for a corporation abusing people.
Sure, it’s not necessarily the fault of employees.
But many of us have only limited pity to spare, and we’re saving it for the more direct victims. Not the employees.
Besides; many of them would probably do well to get away from there.
The mob is angry and you mentioned empathy.
People just aren’t ready to have empathy, yet.
I get the concern. And I’ve been part of enough layoffs to know how much it sucks. But a company being held to its responsibility and a standard and held to the light like this to show it’s failings, would be an acceptable condition. That said though, I really don’t see anyone losing their jobs over this. This is a failing on the higher end of LMG, not the rank and file.
Linus is not the only one to blame. The people who work there could have done something to stop the unethical behavior or quit. But some of them stayed there for years and enabled Linus. I can’t look at those people and not think that they aren’t incompetent or corrupt.
I see it as mostly them being sloppy and moving too fast to go through the proper checks and balances.
I’ve seen far too many companies go from “a couple of enthusiastic guys” to a large organization without taking the time and effort to put in place the structures and systems so everyone knows what they’re supposed to be doing, and as important, knows what other people are doing as it relates to their work.
And inevitably there comes a point where the organization is too big for that method to keep working, and the wheels fall off.
The only real difference I see here is that this time it’s happening in complete view of the public.
They were fine with Linus investing in companies and then reviewing their products or competing products and I don’t see that as a result of sloppiness. They haven’t even addressed it in their apology video.
Also moving too fast is not a valid excuse for misleading millions of people for years.
Given they couldn’t even reign Linus in on the appology video and he is still playing the real victim they simply don’t have the power to. The new CEO can’t possibly be happy with what Linus said there but Linus is the boss and he certainly doesn’t listen to anyone else trying to make him see sense. If Luke can’t reach him, and he hasn’t managed to at any point over the years, then the rest don’t have a chance.
This is and has always been a culture that Linus has created and is continuing to reinforce.
They’re not going anywhere. He’ll take a hit from it. Now that the heat is actually on and he can’t just say whatever he’ll apologize he’ll outline what they’re going to do to make it better and then it’ll all be back to where it was in another couple months, maybe with a little extra effort on the data.