TLDR:

Over work

Mentally draining/abusive workplace

harassment

(maybe intentionally) bad management practices

lack of any signs of improvement

    • Mac@mander.xyz
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      1 year ago

      Odd that it leaves out the big hitters such as sexual harassment, hate, and use of slurs.

    • CatZoomies@lemmy.worldM
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      1 year ago

      Agreed. I’m so sick of this shit. It breaks my heart reading her story and the fact that so many women all across the world don’t get any justice for the sexual harassment they face every day from creeps.

      If this all is true, and it really sounds like it is, it’s just so depressing.

      I remember watching that video of Madison & Linus back in 2019 or something like that where they did the ROG build for her. They etched birds, her favorite, into the glass case panels. I enjoyed her chemistry on set and she seemed like a happy excited young adult. Now I just get this image in my head of her being a shell of that person, miserable and lied to in a toxic environment, and having to report people touching her inappropriately. Must really suck when your “dream job” you were so excited for turns out to be a hell hole. Glad she got out.

  • MangoPenguin@lemmy.blahaj.zone
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    1 year ago

    Linus has always come across in his videos as the guy that seems fun from the outside, until something goes wrong. That said, I wonder how much is from the pure stress that comes from pushing everything way too hard to try and produce content at a ridiculous pace.

    For awhile their videos have felt very rushed, incomplete, and just like they could have done so much more in some of them.

    It sounds like this whole thing was a wakeup call for LTT though, hopefully they can figure things out.

    • average650@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Pushing too hard does not explain name calling, sexual harassment, and other ways of taking advantage of power imbalances.

      To me, the heavy workload is the least damning thing about it.

      • Pxtl@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, I agree. When it was just “LTT pushes out content at a breakneck pace and screws up a lot” like happened with Billet, I was willing to give them a pass with the understanding that this scandal would lead them to make improvements in quality-control.

        But these new allegations show a level of unprofessionalism that’s staggering. Either the company leadership is not competent to deal with sexual harassment in their business, or they’re complicit with it. A certain amount of unprofessionalism is the life-blood of the small grindset start-up where work-life balance goes out the window and everybody lives and breathes the mission, but LTT has been big-enough to grow the hell up for quite a long time, and I can’t help but think Linus’ own personality is a big reason that it developed this toxic culture.

    • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Their videos often have this sense of “we have a general idea of what’s going on but are making up the rest as we go”.

  • greavous@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    They sell a backpack for 250bucks. Then the zips break on super easy and when there were lack of warranty concerns the response was ‘trust me bro’. Sure they have done better since with that issue but the arrogance factor was on display for all to see back then.

  • Buddahriffic@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Up to this point, I’ve been thinking Linus and his company were just a bit sloppy and pushing hard enough that things were slipping through and while he was currently looking awful, I had hoped he would correct course.

    But after this, fuck that, it’s a company run by assholes and whether or not Linus had a direct hand in any of this, he’s the one leading the company and either creating the culture or enabling it. I don’t want to see him succeed anymore. I don’t want to see any of his sponsors succeed either. I hope his revenue falls but his commitments had assumed it would increase and more people speak out about the shitshow it was while he watches it all fall apart and that he spends the rest of his life wishing he had just taken the $100 million.

      • Pxtl@lemmy.ca
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        1 year ago

        Linus stepping back from the CEO role happened way too late, and he’s obviously still the leader too. I can’t help but think his own defensiveness and ego are a big factor that prevented the company from maturing. His response to every negative thing besides low productivity is “this is fine, I’ll take care of it”, which let the culture get so much worse than is reasonably excusable as simple unprofessionalism. Flubbing workplace sexual harassment is a serious leadership fuckup.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        100%. I’ve seen this a lot and it is textbook “company of friends learning how to be an actual company.”

        Hope they go down the right path and don’t double-down on a terrible culture, which happens wayyyyy too often.

    • Hazdaz@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      You don’t get into social media related field whether that is making, producing, editing videos or on various social platforms without being all about the drama.

      • PeachMan@lemmy.one
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        1 year ago

        Lol that is not correct, plenty of people are very professional about social media. But the shitty ones make the news so they’re the ones we hear about.

    • Pxtl@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      There are a lot of people who are in the running for “worst people on the internet”. Neo-nazis, scammers, etc. But I think gamers take the cake for the ratio of how much awful damage they do vs how trivial their justifications.

      There are a lot of people spewing toxic molten flames onto the internet, but for making molehills into murderous volcanic mountains, nobody does it like gamers.

      • JGrffn@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        It’s bad because of how mindless it is. 0 forethought into one’s actions, it’s so easy to send a toxic message and never think about it again, then multiply that by the reach of the influencer, and you got a swarm of pure hostility holding no substance whatsoever. It’s so powerful because it’s so careless. This applies to most - if not all - fanbases, but I imagine the immaturity of the younger audiences in gaming spaces leads to this way more easily.

        • Pxtl@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          Let’s not forget the anger management problems. There’s a reason “heated gamer moment” is a stereotype. Also the habitual verbal abuse that was cultured during the early days of unmoderated online gaming – fortunately that’s a bit passe now.

          I remember during Gamergate there were guys boasting about how gamers were the most obsessive, driven, overly-online people who would stick to whwtever task they set their minds to monomaniacally until it was done.

          And if course, in Gamergate, that task was harrassment. Again.

      • sudman@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        I think the correct term here would be “people who create parasocial relationships with random people on the internet” (I know, too big to call it a term). I have seen the same trait in many communities, where people go to insane lengths for their favourite person on the internet. Whether it be Anime community, K-pop community, hell, even some Taylor Swift fans will shock you with their fanaticism.

        I do agree that such people exist in Gaming community as well, but comparing games to groups like Neo-Nazis, Scammers who are in their entirety represents the worst (like you cannot differentiate a good Neo-Nazi vs a bad Neo-Nazi or Scammer, all of them as bad), seems to me like making molehill into murderous volcanic mountains.

    • AdmiralShat@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      I kinda understand arguing with other people in a comment section, but I think it’s legitimately mentally ill behavior to harass and brigade the way Linus Stans do. Just what the fuck

    • StarPupil@ttrpg.network
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      1 year ago

      That’s absolutely psychotic, I remember that kid, and that video, I think I remember them shouting that kid’s channel out after he didn’t want to sell the play button to him. I don’t think Linus did anything actually wrong there aside from fucking up and missing the auction lot he wanted that contained the play button, but if his stans did that then fuck those people.

  • Fogle@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    Jesus fucking Christ it just kept going. How do these fucking insane people (the coworkers) get jobs and just like full out sexually assault people

  • webuge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    1 year ago

    I stopped watching LTT content when he started the Trust Me Bro bs. And just now I started watching again. I will stop watching again I guess.

      • Dekkia@lemmy.dekkia.zip
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        1 year ago

        There wasn’t any written warranty on the products they sell at their store. When asked about it, Linus said that they don’t need any warranty because their support will handle it.

        Saying that pissed off a lot of people and he caved in and now their stuff has a warranty. That doesn’t stop him from acting like people overreacted.

        • rbesfe@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          His point was that ultimately the presence of a written warranty has no bearing on whether or not a company will replace defective products. I still think it should be there for people who might not be aware of their customer support reputation, but the reaction by fans was full of people who think warranties are airtight contracts (they really aren’t if you read them).

        • TheGrandNagus@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Wait isn’t not offering a warranty for a newly purchased product illegal? Or is that not the case in North America?

        • webuge@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          1 year ago

          And to make things worse the name that LMG gave to this warranty was “Trust Me Bro Warranty”

  • Mac@mander.xyz
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    1 year ago

    That’s absolutely disgusting.
    Fuck LTT. I will never watch another video.

  • Maya_Weiss@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “I purposefully cut my leg open so badly I would have to go to the ER to get it stapled back together.”

    Until this moment, I felt like she was pushed around by bunch of sarcastic assholes. But this? While they are still assholes, I do not believe a mentally healthy person will do that, in such situation. Like, if you are in some horrible prison, in say, russia, yeah, people do cut themselves there to protest against literally torture, but… its freaking Linus team not an army of maniacs in 3rd world country, just leave them, why do you cut yourself?

    I was asked about my sexual history, my boyfriends sexual history, “how I liked to fuck”.

    I’d leave instantly. Holy hell. (assuming it was asked like that, nonchalantly and not as a some joke between good friends).

    I feel really bad for her and hope she will find better place (at least that), and not really happy with Linus to put it lightly. Damn, this sucks.

    • zero_spelled_with_an_ecks@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      “I’d leave instantly.” Did you read the part about her moving for this job? Or any of the other points that would make it difficult for her to do so?

      “…some joke between good friends”: either you need better friends or you need to be a better friend. Making somebody uncomfortable by bringing up sex is not healthy friendship.

      “… mentally healthy person…” Yeah, that’s the point, being in an environment like that isn’t conducive to mental health.

      I’m not interested in any back and forth with you on these points, just maybe reflect on some things you’re saying and see if you can drum up a little more empathy.

      • Maya_Weiss@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, that’s the point, being in an environment like that isn’t conducive to mental health.

        Cutting yourself because of an asshole, its not normal, that is what I wanted to say. It shows to me, that she was more vulnerable in face of abusers, from the beginning. (it does not remove abuse, it does not make Linus any less responsible, quite opposite, in fact). And if my original message does not show “drumming empathy” in high enough quantities for you, then, I am afraid it is not really my problem.

    • fibojoly@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      Yes well done, you correctly grasped that she was not mentally well at that point, then somehow failed to understand how that could have happened given everything she just explained to you.

    • archomrade [he/him]@midwest.social
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      1 year ago

      Like, if you are in some horrible prison, in say, russia, yeah, people do cut themselves there to protest against literally torture, but… its freaking Linus team not an army of maniacs in 3rd world country, just leave them, why do you cut yourself?

      Weird, until exactly this moment it sounded to me like she was in a horrible prison, but then you mentioned Russia and I was like “wait, isn’t LTT supposed to be operated out of Canada? It couldn’t possibly be this bad there.”

  • SCB@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    “Over work” is a really strong term. I’ve never met a SMM that does less work than that.

    The company culture is a fucking disaster tho.

    • just_change_it@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I was expected to post 3 tweets, 2 Instagram posts, and 2 TikToks minimum per day.

      I was also expected to plan, film, edit, and post 2 Floatplane exclusives per week.

      Instagram/Twitter: image/text posts are not hard since the quality expectation is very low. Looking at their instagram their newest post is just a photo of Linus’ head in an oven and the comment “just tryna bake some of dat cake.” The exact same image and text is posted on twitter. It’s just garbage bullshit.

      The two TikToks are per week based on their tiktok page not per day. I clicked few a few, one was a 12 second video of someone taking a battery bank and an xbox outside and playing it briefly with the text headline mentioning touching grass sometimes.

      2 Floatplane seems weird to me because 100% of what is on floatlabs is 1:1 with youtube (same thumbnails even) with different titles, at least from what I can see without signing up or paying anything.

      I get that making bullshit content all week can be stressful and I don’t doubt it would be impossible in a hostile work environment. It’s a damn shame that the sexual assault allegation doesn’t seem to have any details or any naming and shaming involved because that would seem like a metoo opportunity to get rid of a literal sexual assaulter.

      Hopefully they get a good job without any of the problems they faced at LTT.

  • Kenraali@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    Curious why these things come forward after the company faces some backlash. Fueling the fire, as it were
    Big, if true

    • drcobaltjedi@programming.dev
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      1 year ago

      LTT has or had a rabid fan base. I expect that if she talked out before the backlash, then the backlash would be against her. So yeah, it makes sense to strike while the iron is hot.

    • Rentlar@lemmy.ca
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      1 year ago

      To me it seems like people wouldn’t have believed Madison as strongly if she had talked about it earlier.

    • fibojoly@sh.itjust.works
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      1 year ago

      You heard of that thing that happened called Me Too? So weird, right, how the victims feel stronger even they are not alone anymore?

      She literally tells you she feels she can tell her story now that shit is hitting the fan, whereas she knew she’d have been shot down if it had come out in isolation.

      Of course she wants to had fuel to the fucking fire. And may it burn bright!