The "haha, we've made an oopsie" tone of the video (sponsorship jokes, plugging their store link, possible sex joke, deflecting to "I'm just a human" instead of fully taking the blame) don't sit right with me. I was also hoping they would address Madison's comments on why she quit.
This situation sucks and was something I would have been willing to see through. But after reading the thread from Madison this morning I've decided to cancel my Floatplane subscription. While the accusations she makes are currently accusations, they're pretty damning and worth taking seriously in case they are more than allegations. I await LMG's response to her thread, as I feel that will be the deciding factor in whether or not I continue to consume and support anything LMG does going forward.
Changes nothing after what Madison has said about her experience working for them. LTT has had ethics and journalistic issues for most of its life, but it's come clear that it's deeper and more sinister than even I had imagined.
Well they made the smartest possible decision in letting us hear from the other humans at LMG. The last thing they needed was another smug non apology rant from Linus himself. These folks seem like actual humans, and they made some very frank admissions of error.
Of course, Linus has to come in at the end and minimize, deflect, and ultimately fail to show an ounce of real contrition, learning, and growth. I feel the most pity for him in this because he’s clearly trapped in his deficient little mind, unable to grow through a major challenge like this. He’s passed beyond his ability to just rant back, but he doesn’t have any other pages in his playbook. The best he can do is rely on the adults around him. I hope he does more of that.
Wait, so people used to take this guy seriously? I watched a review he did on some sim racing gear a few years back and it was obvious the guy didn’t google even the most basic advice on how to set up a sim rig properly.
Linus always came off to me as one of those people who shouldn't be mangement. Idk, just watching him in videos feels frustrating, and he seemed to belittle his employees in a joking/non-joking manner.
Some of the other "techs" do seem to be very knowledgeable, and i feel bad for them to have to work under a man child.
LMG and Linus in particular have not been reliable to me for a while. It all started with the screwdriver. First it was the full of year of videos teasing the product, it was just absurd how long it took to come out. Then when I watched Linus react to the project farm review is where things really turned for me. Project farm fairly rated the screwdriver and as he always does called out pros and cons of each product. Linus seemed to not be able to take the criticisms and seemed to almost get mad at project farm about it. The main criticism I remember is that in the ratcheting screwdriver market there are several companies that offer lifetime warranty and same day delivery/replacement. Project farm noted that LMG does not offer this level of customer service and they are being new to marketplace may not be equipped to handle common problems other supplies easily fix. Instead of admitting that LMG isn't trying to compete with companies like Mac tools or Snapon Linus immediately gets defensive and tries to discredit the need for 24/7 support.
I have also noticed the high amount of corrections in recent videos. I could see not wanting to reshoot a portion of video where Linus is speaking on camera. But why not show some B role and have Linus record a corrected voice over? Edited well viewers wouldn't even notice.
Did any one see the pinned comment where they say turned off monetization after community feedback? as if this video should be monitized in the first place lol man this does not feel right
Things are not looking good for linus, especially now that an ex-employee is making accusations about terrible working conditions, sexisim, and harassment of all types..
This video is odd to me. The thumbnail of the video is of Linus but you don't see him in the video until almost the end. Even though technically Linus is no longer the CEO of the company the responsibility still falls on him because bulk of the controversy was created by his terrible response post on their forum. Also the tone of this video is very off putting. The awkward half joking "we're human so feel bad for us" tone by whole bunch people other than Linus feels evasive. I think LMG is treating this as a PR problem but clearly it's a serious systemic internal problem and I don't see how the company culture can be changed when Linus is still very hands on. Maybe I'm being cynical here but it feels like they'll just go back to business as usual after this blows over in a week.
Call me a fanboy but this is not the worst response.
A few things that still annoy me ofc:
Madison's concerns were not addressed (she JUST wrote it, so fair enough, but that shit needs to be addressed)
everything sounds a bit scripted. Shit, just let them say what concerns them and the specifics of what they actually wanna address. Like give examples, so we know that you guys get it.
Linus blaming others sticks out. I wanna give him the benefit of the doubt and say he's doing it unconsciously but it really bothers me and I hope it's just truckloads of stress that he'll be able to work through. This is not meant as an insult, but it sounds to me he should get a therapist to talk himself through the feelings. It helped me, and I can smell the pent up emotions through the screen.
It's not perfect, but it's a start. Let's see what comes in response in the next while.
Also whoever hurt, degraded and ruined Madison's mental health fuck you. I know it won't happen, but if you read this Madison, what you went through was wrong and unfair and fuck everyone who hurt you, you did the right thing and now that you're gone, life will improve. If you got through your worst nightmare, you will easily get through the next weeks.
You know there is something wrong in an individual when said individual resorts to emotion/"imjusthumantism" and other type of fallacies to answer facts and logic.
They are least released a video outlining their plan going forward, that's immensely better than other times where they've stuck their head in the sand. Be keen to see how this one pans out