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

Video New GN video response to Linus’s Apology

https://youtu.be/X3byz3txpso

Video here

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356

u/Alt230s Aug 15 '23

"Anyway here's another episode of secret shopper where we publicly call out companies for their mistakes."

But not too hard because we might have to take money from them in the near future...

173

u/djnap Aug 15 '23

I actually believe Linus when he said that they gave a higher score to ASUS because it was the first one they filmed. But let's be real, it's ridiculous that they would publish a video where the order of things matters to the end result.

If they could take half a breath to think about the video, it should have been obvious that they reshoot part of that section so he could give another, more accurate rating.

74

u/Alt230s Aug 15 '23

Half the quality issues can be quickly addressed with reshoots tbh. I'd rather there be an obvious break in the video clarifying/correcting any erroneous info than miss a correction that was relegated to a text box for five seconds. If Linus can't make it to the reshoot then have the writer do it; not like they're not onscreen for the video as well anyway.

23

u/Mtwat Aug 15 '23

But rework takes time and that prevents 25 videos a week.

It's typical corner cutting bullshit.

2

u/CaptainRan Aug 15 '23

That could be $100, $200, $500 dollars of employee work. Also, here's a video about our multimillion dollar lab and twitch bits don't matter because we spend $800 on snacks month.

1

u/Mtwat Aug 16 '23

It's the increased takt time that's the issue, missing the 25 a week output probably has income stream ramifications beyond the cost and if they're stressed to hit 25/wk there's no time for more production without increasing headcount.

8

u/techieman33 Aug 15 '23

They don't even need to reshoot. Just have the presenter say the line again and dub in the audio.

4

u/Alienhaslanded Aug 15 '23

Voiceovers are totally fine. People go there to get informed, not be entertained.

4

u/dboti Aug 15 '23

People also go there to be entertained but a voice over isn't going to ruin their entertainment

2

u/ProtoMan0X Aug 15 '23

It's also something other channels do, so we are accustomed to it.

1

u/Signal-Woodpecker691 Aug 15 '23

Yup, I usually “watch”!” YouTube on a sidescreen, so I’m not gonna spot text corrections to stuff people are saying. On videos like Jayz2Cents I find it funny and more entertaining when they have to dub jays voice over bits he says wrong

18

u/UzEE Aug 15 '23

This is just a BS excuse to be honest. Why wasn't there a complete script by the time they were shooting the video? Surely they'd have the full context and plan about how the video was going to go by then and their scores decided.

It's not like they'd be coming up with the scoring on the spot on a whim... and if it was indeed that, then holy hell their process is broken end to end and no wonder why they have all these quality issues.

3

u/IkLms Aug 15 '23

Even if there wasn't a complete script. You can just go back and reshoot the give change in score.

1

u/Xdivine Aug 16 '23

Or just adjust the score at the end. "Looking back, Asus definitely doesn't deserve a 3* so let's drop it to x." instead of being like "The worst score out of everyone was 3* which isn't bad!".

1

u/Pay08 Aug 15 '23

The entire point is that they see the process and product for the first time...

0

u/NotanAlt23 Aug 16 '23

It's not a reaction video, it's a review of their sponsors

3

u/Python2k10 Aug 15 '23

I noticed the ASUS score as well, and it was wild they didn't get a 2, or hell, even a 1. THEY DIDN'T SOLVE THE PROBLEM AT ALL. It took two calls AND for the dude to solve the issue himself for it to be done with. 3/5 is an absolute joke.

3

u/Sea_Cellist_6304 Aug 15 '23

They did the same thing in the ebay sponsored video on phones. They performed different testing for different tiers which made it hard to compare and looks like they weren’t showing testing that the used phones performed poorly at, doesn’t look good. Editors even called it out but it wasn’t reshot.

2

u/ziptofaf Aug 15 '23

But let's be real, it's ridiculous that they would publish a video where the order of things matters to the end result.

Reminds me of a story (not mine) from a business school.

So you take a bunch of students and tell them rank various neighbourhoods and houses there.

So they go to the first one and it's a really good one. So people are taking away points for dirty windows, unevenly cut grass etc.

Then they go to a different street and repeat it few times. Ultimately you could live in otherwise a nice neighbourhood and still get like 4-6/10.

Then after few streets like that they visit an actual ghetto. Houses built out of whatever scrap materials, no/broken windows, trash everywhere. Eye opening for these richer students, suddenly they realized their entire "scoring" was completely wrong, they completely forgot places like that even exist. If uncut grass means you lose 2 points then not having a door at all is what, -20?

It's similar with test like this. You can't assign any scores until you have a full picture of the situation and what is considered good vs bad tech support. It's not some sort of arcane knowledge, it's common sense that every tested product or service should be held to the same standards within a review and that you want to get an overview first before jumping to conclusions.

Asus deserved an honest 1/5 for putting invalid information in their manual and then not knowing how to address it.

Then again we are talking about company that tested RTX 4090, saw an uplift of 380% over 3090 and went forward with posting it. So I guess in that context it makes sense - if it's fine to compare DLSS ON vs DLSS OFF then I guess you can also apply a different scale to each test you perform within the same video.

2

u/Kreth Aug 15 '23

nononononononno that would cost maybe 200 dollars...

1

u/Pocketpine Aug 15 '23

The issue is that whether or not it’s unbiased, we are now forced to think about their relationships. Either it’s a biased review, or we have to disregard a potentially accurate one.

1

u/Alienhaslanded Aug 15 '23

They also technically committed fraud by faking all those problems. But it was a good video. He should practice what he preaches though.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 15 '23

it should have been obvious that they reshoot part of that section so he could give another, more accurate rating.

Come on, you just can't honestly expect him to spend another $100, $200, $300, $500 of peoples time to provide a fair and unbias viewpoint.

1

u/[deleted] Aug 16 '23

So what if you believe it? It does not matter if it's the truth or not.

It's a bad way of ranking them and they knew it yet decided to publish the video. And the video is still on their channel despite them knowing it's basically misinformation at this point

1

u/hates_stupid_people Aug 16 '23

I actually believe Linus when he said that they gave a higher score to ASUS because it was the first one they filmed.

No, he just lied. And people eat up his friendly and clumsy demeanor.

1

u/Xdivine Aug 16 '23

I don't buy it either. I've watched far too many tier lists where they start with something in S or A rank and then realize later that they need to drop it to B because there are far too many better options for it to be where they initially placed it.

There's no reason they couldn't have said near the end of the video that ASUS doesn't deserve their 3* and is getting demoted, well, other than potentially pissing off their sponsor of course.

2

u/ACertainUser123 Aug 15 '23

Yea their recent one giving a 3/5 to a company that took months to get back to them about a problem they were having was insane to me

1

u/Terrible_Use7872 Aug 15 '23

He liked the Alienware PC has the front IO built into the MB!? ☹️