[smoldesu]

I think "the problem with LTT" is that, as time goes on, they've slid off the purely informational stuff and into the whatever-gets-the-most-clicks stuff. I don't mind a little bit of humor or personality (Digital Foundry is great in that regard), but when Linus started uploading videos that defended his use of click-baity thumbnails and the bribes he received from Nvidia/Intel, his credibility fell off a cliff for me. If you're not going to stand for the objective truth, why even bother reviewing hardware? I'd imagine that pressure is what pushed them to invest in this lab, but even then I have a hard time trusting them.

Linus is welcome to chase whatever niche market he wants, but as a "purely informational source" he's got a pretty marred track record these days.

[czx4f4bd]

Why do clickbaity thumbnails matter more than the content of the video? Linus has made it clear that he hates using them, but videos with them consistently get way better viewership, which is kinda essential to keep the channel running.

I'm also very curious to see a source on the "bribes he received from Nvidia/Intel", because I'm not finding anything that looks relevant on Google.

[michaelt]

> Why do clickbaity thumbnails matter more than the content of the video?

Take for example this recent video: "We ACTUALLY downloaded more RAM" [1] complete with grinning youtube face holding a stick of RAM marked '10TB' - and it's complete bullshit.

How can I trust the opinion of someone who publishes such embarrassing nonsense?

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=minxwFqinpw

[czx4f4bd]

I like how you quoted my question and then completely ignored it. The fact that you disliked the title of a video is not in any way a meaningful criticism of its content.

But okay, let's take a closer look at that video. When I saw it in my YouTube recs, I rolled my eyes at the clickbait and skipped over it, but I didn't see how it makes LTT look bad. In fact, I just gave it a fair shot and skimmed through it for myself, and it actually looks like a pretty solid explanation of memory hierarchy and swap space for beginners, packaged in a format that will increase its reach. I don't see what's bullshit about that.

Look, say what you will about clickbait, the unfortunate truth is that it gets views, which channels like LTT need to survive and grow. Linus is on the record saying he hates it, but they've done the tests to confirm that the stupid thumbnails and titles just perform better.

And come on, let's be honest here: How many people are going to click on a video titled "What is swap space?" or "You can use Google Drive for swap space on Linux" or something similarly boring? Even the best explanation in the world isn't going to get traction with a title like that. I looked for comparable videos and it looks like "What is Linux swap?" by Average Linux User (https://youtu.be/0mgefj9ibRE) is the next most-viewed video on the same topic. That video has gotten about 90,000 views since it was posted in 2019. By comparison, the LTT video has averaged about 100,000 views per day in the 16 days since it was posted.

So it looks to me like LTT took a technical topic that most people would never think about, found an angle to make it interesting to random people browsing YouTube, and tricked potentially thousands of people into learning something. What exactly is embarrassing about that?

[2fast4you]

I agree. To some extent you have to play the game to win.

If LTT can succeed and provide good information, then what is wrong with their click bait thumbnails (or similar techniques)?

[chrisan]

He talks about the youtube algorithm being the primary driver for the shitty thumbnails https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DzRGBAUz5mA vs his traditional one that got buried.

Not sure about his other stuff you claim, I'm not a super big video guy for tech things (just let me skip and search ahead easily) but this came up with my friends a few years ago after people started noticing many videos from various creators going to this format of thumbnail.