Yeah enough of their company culture had leaked into their videos and through some of the things Linus had said that I wasn’t really that surprised to see that thread. The power imbalance was thrown around for jokes and Linus comes off as a stingy bastard who will spend a ton of money in some places and then complain about a relatively trivial expense elsewhere. And the way he talks about it implies that he thinks everyone sees it that way.

A PR stunt until they feel things have blown over and they’ll ramp right back up.

It’s less of a stunt and more of human nature. They messed up, they realize it, they put controls in place to prevent similar errors, they get into a groove, they loosen the rules to streamline the process, they mess up, they realize it, …

This is how every single entity in every single production industry works. Financial markets? Obviously. Food Safety? Of course. Buildings and bridges? Uh, yeah. Security? In the news all the time. Submersible adventures to the Titanic? LOL. It is an exceptionally rare condition where an error and a reaction leads to a permanent chance in procedure (though they do exist).

I’m just a passive observer who’s watched maybe a few dozen LTT videos ever, but this here was also my take away and always has been with this organization. I don’t know how big this company is but they’re clearly at a level where they, as a company, are mostly in it for the money. For me as an outsider, LTT is becoming more well known for the problems it has more so than the service it provides.

This blatant plug to ask people for money in what should be a somber apology video is arrogant and obscene. They’re acting as if they’re all-powerful and infallible in a video explaining their failures.

It strikes me that they’re putting themselves in a position to rectify foundational disorganization because they’re more concerned about revenue than they are fulfilling their promise to to their audience - robust testing and reviews / critique that can consumers can trust without hesitance.

Asking people to buy things should not at all cross your mind in the production of this video.

With that said, if they are the mega-org that I presume they are, it’s their prerogative to be concerned about revenue more than anything else. As a consumer, I don’t find revenue-centric organizations among the top of entities I would deem trust-worthy.

I don’t see anything wrong with that, and chances are they all are. It takes a good speaker to do it without making it feel artificial, but if you’re a big enough company you have marketing, legal and corporate vet all external announcements first, even for videos such as this. That’s just an entirely normal part of the process.