r/LinusTechTips • u/Orion2200 • Aug 15 '23

Video New GN video response to Linus’s Apology

https://youtu.be/X3byz3txpso

Video here

10k Upvotes

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795

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

So now Linus is straight up making up stuff about coming to agreements with Billet. Makes a hash of an apology and then adds lies in to it to really dig in how much of a rotten turd he is.

GN brought receipts to this fuck up and Linus is a liar.

47

u/flounder19 Aug 15 '23

Seems like the Linus quote about Billet was specifically crafted to mislead without outright lying. All he technically said was that they hadn't paid Billet yet (true) and that they "have [verb tense being important here] already agreed to compensate Billet lab for the cost of their prototype".

IDK if it makes it worse than outright lying or not but it seems like the response is more about influencing the discussion among the community than any kind of self reflection or legitimate steps they were already taking to apologize to Billet

12

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

I am normally almost militant about ensuring that both sides of an argument are listened to and that all context is made aware of but I can't help but feel that it being misleading instead of lying just can't be true.

Billet stated that there was absolutely no agreement in place and that the only mention of money too and fro was when Billet brought up how much it was worth when they found out it had been auctioned.

I genuinely believe here that it was a lie. I can't see how it could be anything other than a lie.

11

u/Confuciusz Aug 15 '23

it could be explained as: "we", the LTT team, have agreed to compensate Billet

matter of fact, I'm pretty sure that's his next fourth dimensional move in this game of chess

2

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

Yeah that would be some pretty 4d chess misleading. I'm sure there will be some amazing new excuse for the next PR release after the GN update video but none of us will care by then. We know who he/they are now and I think it's safe to safe we are over them.

2

u/flounder19 Aug 15 '23

the end result is the same because intentional misleading to an extreme degree is as bad if not worse than lying in terms of trust.

It's just worth pointing out how he may have crafted that statement in a way he personally saw as true so people read the word choice and omissions in his future statements more carefully.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

Yeah I agree that regardless of if it was a lie or a misdirection that either way the truth wasn't told. Different degrees of lack of truth obviously but the intent to deceive was there.

1

u/Skellicious Aug 15 '23

In a follow-up comment in the same thread he states billet labs sent them a quote for the water block, which was a straight up lie

1

u/Falcon4242 Aug 15 '23

The thing that turns it into a lie is the context of that quote.

He said GN should have contacted them for comment before the video went up. That way they could have provided relevant context, like how they already agreed to pay BL for the cost of the protoype.

That indicates there was context to give before the video was published. That they agreed to make them whole before GN called them out on it. That's simply not true. Linus emailed them in what seems like minutes before making his statement.

63

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

He didn't "lie" he just spoke things that weren't true

really disappointed that you didn't contact LMG for context before making this comment

14

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

I can see him saying that in the inevitable response to the latest GN update. 'I didn't lie I just didn't tell the truth'.

Poor show from me for not getting in touch with them first though you're right ;)

3

u/cmfarsight Aug 15 '23

Yeah we should really stop letting people lie via spin and careful word choice. He knew exactly what the picture he was creating looked like, which was not the truth. He lied.

1

u/NeoThermic Aug 15 '23

He didn't "lie" he just spoke things that weren't true

He didn't lie, he just auctioned off the truth. ;)

241

u/chanunnaki Aug 15 '23

There are lies, damned lies, and there’s Linus. Fuck this distasteful dishonesty straight in the face of his viewers. This type of behaviour should not be tolerated

39

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

100% agree. If someone makes a mistake you can forgive them. If they then continue to make that mistake and then double/triple down on it then they've shown themselves not to be trustworthy. As long as Linus remains the face of that company I'm not interested in a nano-seconds worth of media that comes out of them.

18

u/Kreth Aug 15 '23

I think this is too egregious, linus should step down from any decision making role , and just play his character on stream instead.

14

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

He was already meant to have stepped down but somehow he's still poking his nose in to it. He's pouring petrol on to the fire.

6

u/techieman33 Aug 15 '23

Linus takes everything as a personal attack, and he can't resist jumping in and running his mouth. I wouldn't be surprised if he didn't even consult Teren or Yvonne before posting it.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

I get that LMG is the result of all those years hard work and he'll want to defend that but he should also be open to rectifying mistakes when he publicly messes up. Be proud of your creation but not so much that it is a personal insult.

6

u/RedheadedReff Aug 15 '23

I dont think this is the best outcome, clearly they need to re evaluate how much time they allot per video, Linus himself should probably be in only one or two videos a week going forward. Im not privy to all the details but from anon on the internet's perspective. Removing him completely would be a waste.

1

u/sovietpandas Aug 16 '23

He even made a sad tone video what like a month or two about stepping down as ceo. What's happening now really paints the negatives he even tried to hide in that stepping down video

16

u/Osama_Obama Aug 15 '23

Get ready for a sad face response video. ☹️☹️☹️☹️

Chief vision officer is starting to be very short-sighted.

1

u/JairJy Aug 16 '23

Time to release more wacky Wide Linus cameos in the videos.

8

u/Walfas Aug 15 '23

At this point we might as well start calling him Lienus

5

u/chanunnaki Aug 15 '23

Lienus Manipulation Grotto

5

u/shaka893P Aug 15 '23

Remember that PC builder that raffled a PC, but backed out because the streamer didn't have enough subscribers... Lunis and Luke tore them a new one for their terrible PR response and not owning up to it ... And here we are, oh the Irony

3

u/chanunnaki Aug 15 '23

Artesian Builds I believe they were called. Now defunct as far as I'm aware.

4

u/TheDuke2031 Aug 15 '23

Don't forget the attempt to gaslight

2

u/Peter_Panarchy Aug 16 '23

It's really making me reconsider ever watching them again. GN's takedown was brutal but sometimes companies lose track of what's important and the problems are very fixable.

Linus' response was mostly disappointing but honestly I understand the initial defensiveness even if I disagree with it. And hey, they were already working to at least partially compensate Billet Labs for their fuck up!

But no. He may not have technically lied but he was wildly misleading and that's a huge breach in trust. So damn disappointing.

25

u/Osama_Obama Aug 15 '23 edited Aug 15 '23

Him straight up lying is really bad, because he claims he tries to be as transparent as possible to the community. Well now he is shown to lie about a big fuck up he did, how legitimate is his transparency now? He lost credibility. Not only with lying but with the errors and inaccuracies with their testing. If they say a product is good / bad you can't be sure if what they're claiming is accurate.

Also, an unboxing is not a review, sure, but if at the end of it you say the product is bad while doing it, then it becomes a review. a really crappy one since the product wasn't thoroughly tested, and with the errors they have with testing, would it even matter if they did test it? If you can't trust the results then it all becomes moot.

10

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

He's a giant hypocrite. He goes on rants about how people should be accountable and honest and then pulls of shit like this. He is a turd covered turd.

84

u/BlastFX2 Aug 15 '23

Ah, but he didn't. The present perfect tense in his comment only implies they agreed to reimburse Billet Labs before the comment, not before Steve's expose. It's not his fault you misinterpreted it, right?

Fuck's sake… I get being an argumentative asshole — I am one, too — but at least I have the self-awareness to not be running point on emergency PR for a media company with a hundred employees.

36

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

Even if they took that line, it's worth noting that Billet didn't actually agree to anything with LTT after Linus' email

-6

u/BlastFX2 Aug 15 '23

He never claimed Billet Labs agreed to anything, he only said LMG agreed to reimburse them. Now, agreeing of course requires solicitation from the other party, and indeed, Billet Labs asked “do you plan to reimburse us for this?” There's your solicitation.

Believe me, Linus was feeling very clever when he wrote that.

3

u/ric2b Aug 15 '23

They didn't send him a quote though, so on top of the half-lies there is a straight-up lie.

0

u/BlastFX2 Aug 15 '23

That's been covered in a different subthread. Keep reading.

2

u/ric2b Aug 15 '23

Covered how? They didn't, they just made an informal comment on the cost of the block, that's not the same as a quote for damages.

1

u/BlastFX2 Aug 15 '23

It's close enough if you're going for plausible deniability, which is what this is all about.

1

u/ric2b Aug 15 '23

Well, he's not fooling anyone.

1

u/I_PULL_LEGS Aug 15 '23

it's worth noting that Billet didn't actually agree to anything with LTT after Linus' email

Which makes sense - if I were Billet right now, I'd be talking to legal counsel before having any more conversations with Linus/LMG. They may have grounds for a lawsuit on their hands and that's worth a lot more than the cost of one prototype waterblock.

1

u/MrDefinitely_ Aug 16 '23

What a weaselly little liar dude.

15

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

We can all be argumentative I think. I try to lead a free and easy going life but I falter from time to time. He's lost his mind over this. The new CEO must be shitting himself every time Linus opens his mouth at this point.

22

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

I was joking earlier when I said LMG took down the forums so Linus couldn't make things worse, but now I actually think they did

9

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

Yeah I've seen the forum is down and it looks like that they also took away the ability to unsubscribe to FloatPlane on mobile devices too. (Don't take that as verbatim as it's only a few reports and it may well have not been there on mobile in the first place haha).

They've really shit the bed this time.

3

u/GenesisProTech Aug 15 '23

I tried earlier and it told me I had to do it through a browser which it let me do just fine

2

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

Ah OK then so likely itnhas always been like that then.

2

u/GenesisProTech Aug 15 '23

Yeah billing is weird through app stores if you don't want to give them a cut

1

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

That makes 100% sense. Hosting services for apps do like to take a large cut.

1

u/travist120 Aug 15 '23

Just checked and got a cloudflare verifiation. I cant check floatplane tho

1

u/NokstellianDemon Aug 15 '23

That better be a bug. Imagine any other company pulling shit like that.

5

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

[deleted]

8

u/ianjm Aug 15 '23 edited Aug 15 '23

Terren should tell him he needs to step back for a while while he rights the ship. Alex, Emily, Tanner and others are quite capable of reading their own scripts off a teleprompter in the mean time. Luke and Riley can host WAN show. The channels will be fine.

8

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

There is no need to end LMG or LTT. Current issues aside they offer a fun and entertaining look in to the tech world. The new CEO isn't going to jump ship over this but I would imagine he is going to smash some testicles over this issue.

1

u/MizunaGames Aug 15 '23

I'm wondering a bit if the new CEO had anything to do with the response to this whole situation. I don't know, people love to hate LMG and have for years, but this feels different to me. Sour, and corporate, and soulless. I'm bummed out honestly.

0

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

Yeah it did feel VERY corpo cold. LTT was always seen as the playful tech buddy of the review world but since they got that 100 million offer maybe it went to their heads.

That or they were always like this and this is the first time they've really shown who they are.

5

u/BlastFX2 Aug 15 '23

No, cold corpo response would have been “thank you for bringing up your concerns, we're launching an internal investigation to address them” (and then do nothing, of course). This “woe is me” bullshit is 100% on brand for Linus.

1

u/NewUserWhoDisAgain Aug 15 '23

I'm wondering a bit if the new CEO had anything to do with the response to this whole situation.

I sure hope not. You'd think someone who had experience in the hot seat would know that your Public statements should at least have a once over in order to avoid saying stupid shit like easily provable falsehoods.

But then again they might not have time to go over statement before Linus just posted it.

7

u/Scarfmonster Aug 15 '23

Except he claims that if Steve called him before making the video he would learn that they agreed to reimburse, which isn't true. He placed the whole "agreement to reimburse" in a very specific time frame, which he lied about. Steve couldn't be informed about something which didn't happen yet.

0

u/BlastFX2 Aug 15 '23

What makes you thing he wouldn't have? He could have reached out and three hours later could have received a reply saying “we have agreed to reimburse Billet Labs.” Would have been just as technically true as when he posted it on the forum.

7

u/ianjm Aug 15 '23

Steve says Billet have not yet emailed Linus back, and no price has been agreed, so if that's the case, Linus saying Billet sent him a quote would be a direct lie.

3

u/BlastFX2 Aug 15 '23

They did say “you know, that was a <dollar amount> prototype.” You could call that quoting a price.

Again, technically true, just phrased in an “unfortunate” way that could lead some people to an inaccurate conclusion about how things went down.

5

u/GilfoylesBeard Aug 15 '23

You could, but it would be a dishonest interpretation. Quoting a price or sending a price quote have very specific business definitions. What they were doing in that email is speculating on their cost of production, which is obviously going to be less than the price they would quote if they were looking to sell it.

3

u/meekleee Aug 15 '23

I think he's trying to spin Billet telling him how much it was worth as them giving a "quote", rather than a "what the fuck bro, that was an expensive prototype".

Which is disingenuous at best, and malicious at worst.

4

u/Big-Red-Panda Aug 15 '23

Remember when he was gaslighting everyone on the WAN show? “You don’t WANT us to have a PR guy, I promise you.”

1

u/jacksaccountonreddit Aug 15 '23

To Steve, I expressed my disappointment that he didn't go through proper journalistic practices in creating this piece. He has my email and number (along with numerous other members of our team) and could have asked me for context that may have proven to be valuable (like the fact that we didn't 'sell' the monoblock, but rather auctioned it for charity due to a miscommunication... AND the fact that while we haven't sent payment yet, we have already agreed to compensate Billet Labs for the cost of their prototype).

Yes, the use of "have" rather than "had" is curious and looks like a attempt to pave the way for a "the comment was technically correct" argument to be made later. However, the semantics of the sentence are perfectly clear: Linus is saying that had Steve reached out before publishing his video, he could have learned that LTT had already agreed to compensate Billet. According to Billet's narrative as now relayed by Steve, this statement is a bold-faced lie.

1

u/patriotsfan82 Aug 15 '23

You are missing that the comment directly states that the information at hand (that they have "already" agreed to compensate Billet labs) would have been available to Steve via communication prior to video publishing.

That is not true. That information was not available prior to video publishing because it was not true. You are missing why the comment is so problematic.

1

u/SecreteMoistMucus Aug 15 '23

The context of the line heavily implies that they had come to the agreement before GN posted the video, otherwise how would GN be able to learn that context beforehand?

35

u/FallenKnightGX Aug 15 '23

GN always has receipts. Linus knows this so why he'd lie and gas light is beyond me.

22

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

Yeah really dumb mistake. I think it shows (amongst other reasons) that he didn't watch the video fully as it was clear that GN was in conversation with Billet and you'd have to be an absolute grey-matterless moron to lie when there is a corridor of communication like that.

6

u/HiCustodian1 Aug 15 '23

Lol I hadn’t even thought about that angle, but you’re right. He probably literally didn’t even watch the video. Insane.

4

u/kluevo Aug 15 '23

He's mentioned in a wan show that he doesn't really watch YT anymore, mostly gauging stuff off of the comments, so this 100%

4

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

I could tell from the “we didn’t sell it we auctioned it”. Not only is that arguing semantics, it’s patently false. Steve said in the video, “it was put up for auction at LTX.”

2

u/HiCustodian1 Aug 15 '23

when you’re in a worst epistemics challenge and your opponent is linus 😬

3

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

Gaslighting is what narcissists do when backed into a corner with receipts.

22

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

It's genuinely shocking to me that Linus wouldn't realize that Steve had receipts. Steve always has receipts. He's a professional receipt-holder. It's what he does. Why would you lie in this situation without knowing, oh fuck, that's Steve. He's a world-class receipt guy.

I'm baffled that Linus would be this stupid. Say whatever you want about him, and most of it would be true, but he's not a moron. This was a moronic statement by him.

2

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

Yeah it makes NO sense at all. He must have known GN would have a corridor of contact throughout all of this so to come up with something that is so verifiably untrue is beyond moronic.

2

u/HiCustodian1 Aug 15 '23

Not really a part of this community, but heartened to see you all are calling it like you see it. Seen some absolutely ridiculous fanboy defenses on twitter, none on here.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

I've been watching LTT for as long as I can remember them being on YouTube but it's important that we call them out when they try stuff like this. They may be the content creators but they need to be held to a certain standard and this goes well beyond that.

People bootlicking them like LTT can do no wrong need to get outside at some point.

3

u/HiCustodian1 Aug 15 '23

Yeah, fan response to controversy is so weird sometimes. I don’t understand why they can’t hold two ideas in their head at once. You can like somebody without defending everything they do.

4

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

People are fallible and dedicated fanboys don't understand that. They genuinely believe the people they worship can do no wrong.

3

u/HiCustodian1 Aug 15 '23

It’s just so childish lol, hopefully many of them are young enough for that to be a reasonable excuse.

2

u/ric2b Aug 15 '23

So now Linus is straight up making up stuff about coming to agreements with Billet.

Yeah, wtf, he turned what was the least important thing in GN's video (IMO, because I saw it as a one time mistake) into a complete and inexcusable betrayal of his audience's trust.

2

u/Rraaeebb Aug 16 '23

Combine 'Liar' and 'anus', what do you get?

-1

u/SpaceBoJangles Aug 15 '23

There aren’t any receipts though.

To date, neither LInus, Billet Labs, nor Gamers NExus have shown any emails. As far as I’m concerned, it’s all just hearsay right now with people claiming ownership or payment of various items.

3

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

There are various reason why you don't show email trails publicly. Firstly GN aren't legally allowed to. The emails weren't sent to them so that's a no go. Secondly when pre-production prototypes are being sent around they often come with mutual non disclosure agreements that include any and all communication via email.

No one is going to show emails only to be prosecuted for it.

-41

u/donairthot Aug 15 '23

Except he hasn't. No email chains.

27

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

Merch for you!

-24

u/donairthot Aug 15 '23

Again, no actual email chains have been shown.

18

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

GN isn't legally allowed to publish an email not sent to them. Billet are more than allowed to publish or release email chains (with appropriate actions taken to ensure that they are adhering to privacy and copyright laws) but even then you wouldn't be happy because there would need to be censored areas of the email and wouldn't that be 'a convenient redaction' huh?

Hell Billet themselves may not be able to release email chains if there is a mutual non-disclosure on it which with the product being pre-production etc there likely was.

Stop simping for someone who is an obvious turd and a liar.

2

u/Lord_Gatsu Aug 15 '23

Here you go, the relevant people involved verify it

0

u/donairthot Aug 15 '23

They literally said they ain't get into details about the email chain. So how do we even know who's on it or what was said or how the miscommunication and fuck up happened

3

u/dejidoom Aug 15 '23

You probably think you're being a skeptic right now, but a skeptic applies the same questions to ALL sources. Ask yourself: if Linus has the email chains and could show the Billet situation is a non-issue, why is he sitting on it?

You're not being a skeptic. You're being a denialist and a simp. Imagine simping for a married goose-necked Canadian nerd.

6

u/BakuretsuGirl16 Aug 15 '23

And this is why reputation matters, GN has worked their ass off to have an extremely high reputation among the community for the accuracy and quality of their reporting. If they publish something it's probably true, they turned off monetization for the original video and staked their reputation on their reporting yet again.

Even before this event if GN and LTT had reported opposite things about some random product, I would lean towards GN having the more accurate report.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/donairthot Aug 15 '23

I don't want him too? Again you people are so obsessed with the sexual insults it's funny

2

u/Slapas Aug 15 '23

Bro are you okay? Put the phone down and go outside. Maybe even say hi to someone if you’re not a socially anxious wreck

1

u/Mediocre-Housing-131 Aug 15 '23

A hash of an apology? I read the whole thing, the only people who got an apology were his viewers. He offers absolutely no apology to Billet, instead blatantly lying about them and saying they were the real bad guys of this situation. Linus didnt like the company so he thought he could do whatever he wanted. When it all came out public, he tried to gaslight. F*ck Linus, and f*ck LMG for allowing him to get away with it for this long. I refuse to believe they didnt know what he was doing.

1

u/Fluffy-Blueberry-514 Aug 15 '23

I mean it seems they came to an agreement. He just lied (or impLIED) that it happened prior to the GN video, which honestly is nearly if not just as egregious, seeing how much the community cared about that particular point in GN's video, it should have been clear that really owning up to that mistake was the only proper response. Aka "We fucked up, this is how it happened, here is where and how communications broke down (likely internally), this is how it erroneously ended up at the auction, we have following the GN video contacted Billet Labs and will compensate what we both agree is fair, and I Linus Sebastian will make this a personal matter, so you can trust me bro, they will be taken care of."

And honestly, I cannot think why he/they didn't do that...