NVIDIA Influencing YouTube Tech Journalists' Product-Placements, Alleges Whistleblower

[Vya Domus]

I've seen dubious stuff that can be easily categorized as shilling literately everywhere, including on TPU. Whether or not that really is the case I can't say because it's impossible as a simple viewer to know what goes on. Everyone points out that there is no proof, well what exactly one is supposed to do ? Tap their phones ? Stalk them ? The only thing you can hope for are just anonymous claims and see how well they match reality.

In regards to the video obviously everything was blown way out of proportion and he was fixated on this dumb stuff about boxes just to make it seem ridiculous when in fact there was much more to this that just boxes on shelves. Nice way to dodge everything and turn this into a shitshow.

 

[GlacierNine]

From what I have seen in this thread, I have no idea how it blew up this much. Is it a full moons? Or does BPA really cause an increase of estrogen?

It blew up this much because Steve *really* cares about his 'tegridy and is prepared to put the hammer down on anyone that claims something like this about him.

Remember last year when that idiot accused various techtubers of taking payment from tech companies to cover their computex booths? GN was the first outlet mentioned in that story to threaten legal action. Hell, Luke from LTT mentioned on WAN show that he found it hilarious GN was ever accused, simply because GN are totally willing to trash bad product and don't give anything a soft-touch review.

 

[moproblems99]

I've seen dubious stuff that can be easily categorized as shilling literately everywhere, including on TPU. Whether or not that really is the case I can't say because it's impossible as a simple viewer to know what goes on. Everyone points out that there is no proof, well what exactly one is supposed to do ? Tap their phones ? Stalk them ? The only thing you can hope for are just anonymous claims and see how well they match reality.

In regards to the video obviously everything was blown way out of proportion and he was fixated on this dumb stuff about boxes just to make it seem ridiculous when in fact there was much more to this that just boxes on shelves. Nice way to dodge everything and turn it into a shitshow.

And the whole actual 'issue' is forgotten about. WAIT A MINUTE!

What if this unnamed youtuber was actually contracted by Nvidia to cause this fuss with TPU to actually conceal the real issue going on. Seeing how much all the nerds are upset about this 'slander', no one is actually talking about the real shilling going on.... OMG

Remember last year when that idiot accused various techtubers of taking payment from tech companies to cover their computex booths?

Actually, no. Because youtube is trash and No better than Facebook.

 

[Raven Rampkin]

Only took me a few days off TPU to miss so much fun.. "You're like little kids" (c)
People! If anything, just think for a sec...
1) Can you name a single prominent techtuber chap who hasn't ever made a single oopsie (or something you offendedly considered an oopsie)? And I don't exclusively mean oopsies towards AMD. Intel & Nvidia classify too
2) Of all the "clues" and "signals", THAT vid????77 Come on. Not gonna call names but will call a letter: J. Can't watch them anymore, sorry. More about taste and personal preferences and being put off by some of the rants than "shilling" etc. But don't flee this post just yet! Proceed to the next point(s, if you ever so wish) first.
3) Maybe it's not *always* (yeah right) about getting paid? I recall a recent GN rant bout AMD very well. Not everyone agreed, I didn't either. (If you dig up on me real hard you'll see 1 "suspicious" Reddit comment.) Now was it sponsored??? Riiiiiight... You know what, feels a bit refreshing to write this after some of ma other, quite a bit more triggered and bvtthurt induced comments. Everyone may into opinions. (Can they into opinions, though, is a different topic.) Everyone has the right to be a bit of a moron at times. Everyone has the right NOT to be a moron but predict something you won't be happy to learn all by yourself later. And an utmostly important one. As someone who is turned on (yeah ) by all things AMD but few things Nvidia and almost zero things Intel, save for some gems. Everyone has the right to prefer X over Y on a personal level. Not shoving it upon you but keeping it to themselves. The only thing you enlighten when you try to "enlighten" and make ascended a person who ISN'T sh!tting everywhere on the Web bout how they hate brand Z is your ego. Aside from circlej3rk subreddits of course don't touch those, they're meme-ful by nature and not out of bad spirit
4) (optional) Maybe we really shouldn't be judging who's sponsored and who's not... sometimes... pretty please?

EDIT: typos, clarificayshun

EDIT 2: aaand I didn't find many things wrong with the original article... 'twas a reading exercise goldfish would go hate (on either of the "conflicting sides"), people who are never in a rush to live/die would read carefully.

 

[GoldenX]

C'mon TPU, you are better than this. Less trash, more reviews please.

 

[Xuper]

At TechPowerUp have never experienced this ourselves, not for RX 5700 Series coverage, not for any other content. While NVIDIA does provide information and materials, we've never been told what we must or can not do.

You're Journalist while they're Youtube Tech Channels ! It's quite different.

 

[GorbazTheDragon]

All I'm going to say is publishing half baked articles which both take as truth a really dubious reddit post and then proceed to *directly* accuse others of malpractice is going to hurt your reputation a lot.

It doesn't matter that the article has been edited, it doesn't matter that there exists a "right to be forgotten"... To me this comes across as letting the public edit articles for you: Lazy, unprofessional, and quite frankly it doesn't belong on this site.

 

[FreedomEclipse]

next: Bta will be telling us that Intel are turning the frogs g*y.

 

[Crackong]

I saw nothing but someone is being paid by Nvidia and trying to do damage control.

 

[freeagent]

I think Steve is alright. The only people who influence me are my kids, my wife, my mom, my boss.. and myself. Just because someone says something doesn’t make it a fact, unless it is Influencers are for people who can’t think for themselves. There are masses of people that fit that bill. I like TPU and I like Steve. Some one said this may have damaged GN, but it might be the other way around.. I guess we will see how this all pans out.

 

[TOUisd00d00]

Such high quality journalism to drive outraged clicks, good thing I have adblocker on.

 

[moproblems99]

next: Bta will be telling us that Intel are turning the frogs g*y.

@R-T-B will take offense to that.

 

[trparky]

Oh my God, Steve's intro to his video was hilarious!!!

 

[jtrdfw87]

This is so hilariously implausible even from the point of view of someone so paranoid they can no longer think logically. There are so many more, far more legitimate ways (implausible included!) to accomplish the ... same thing, to keep it simple... that would occur before this. The PR risk a company would have to take to pay people on Youtube to display competitor boxes is so extreme for the ridiculously tiny return on investment. For one to think this is possible is to think that the way smarter people in the position to do such a thing are as dumb as you are. They aren't.

"Shady" stuff happens to advertise products. We all know this. This, however, is actually stupid.

But hey TPU got its clicks, check out them replies! $$$$$$$$$ Mission accomplished guys.

It is literally more plausible for someone at TPU making that Reddit post to generate revenue for this website. I'm not even remotely suggesting that's what happened, but its many orders of magnitudes more likely. Honestly one of the most alarming things about all this was the original editor replies to all of this.

 

[bobhumplick]

do youtubers have nvidia boxes in the background at all times? a lot do. but you have to ask the question the other way around. do they have amd or intel boxes in the background of nvidia reviews? almost always. not saying this hasnt happened to one guy one time but at the same time if a leaked email or some form of communication ever got out from a real nvidia employees email or whatever that would be be a huge scandal. they arent going to let that happen. a box in the background just isnt worth this. as for phone calls, just dont have anything to do with any company unless its in writing and the problem is solved. seems like a problem only a noob youtuber, who is just starting out, would have

 

[R-T-B]

@R-T-B will take offense to that.

He's got no idea what goes on in my bedroom and I'm keeping it that way.

 

[Flying Fish]

Hmmm, this article reminded me of the one about MSI screwing people over with AM4 motherboards by not supporting Zen 2. If I recall, no one ever reached out to MSI for comment and just took Reddit as fact.

Let's kick it up a notch and reach out to people actually involved before publishing.

Yeah I wasn't going to post on this thread until I saw that comment.

It's the same writer, too. In fact the only times I get annoyed reading news posts on TPU is with this particular writer.

A lot of the stuff is at best tabloid newspaper level and that MSI/AM4 post and this shouldn't have been made at the very least until the manufacturers had been contacted and the information corroborated.

In this instance, it's a big post based on an anonymous reddit post that may very well be (and in all likelihood is) a troll since there's no evidence (the reddit poster could have shown redacted information to prove his point)...and nobody else has backed this up? Was there any attempt to contact nvidia or any youtubers etc to get there thoughts? There's many that get nvidia cards so there's many places to ask, including nvidia themselves.

And with the MSI/AM4 article...

The very first line...

Greedy motherboard vendors such as MSI want you to buy a new motherboard every two generations of processor for no sound reason at all.

And later in the post

Unfortunately, motherboard companies such as MSI care more about their bottom-lines than the consumer.

Really is tabloid level that. Again, did the writer contact MSI for comment before posting?

And the update just says "MSI posted a clarification on this issue."

No retraction of the writers comments, which were definitely misplaced, no apologies for what shouldn't have actually been said in the firstplace if the article was written with any sense of decency.

I like TPU, I look at the site every single day (even if a lot of the posts are simply press releases, it's still a good source of info to see what's coming). Even check on weekends for the rare times something gets posted, W1zzard's reviews are great etc. But...one writer kind of ruins it for me.

*EDIT* FInal thought...we live in a world that's "innocent until proven guilty"...I guess that doesn't apply to tech journalism?

 

[FreedomEclipse]

@R-T-B will take offense to that.

r/whoosh

it was an alex jones reference

 

[rtwjunkie]

lol,now I see it's you who sent him the thread.
good news I can at least put you on ignore

Why would you put Ford on ignore? He gave factual information to bta that should be known. He didnt cause this nor did he cause the resulting mess. Ford is one of the few members on this site that does ACTUAL deep research on a multitude of topics and then provides it in posts. And he isn’t even paid for it.

He is a strong and great contributor who has also provided the community free and valuable software more than several times. To put someone like him on ignore is equal to turning your back on all the good there is in this community.

 

[R-T-B]

You're Journalist while they're Youtube Tech Channels ! It's quite different.

Maybe a bit irrelevant in the modern era, but no, we're not. You need a degree to officially bear that title. Even me? Lol, I go on and on about ethics because I had experience in Journalism courses... but I dropped out. I am not a proper Journalist. I'm a friggin college dropout.

We are, at most, Web Journalists, which seems to be a seperate bar.

 

[xkm1948]

It is on LTT Wanshow now. Oh man the humiliation.

 

[R-T-B]

Why would you put Ford on ignore? He gave factual information to bta that should be known. He didnt cause this nor did he cause the resulting mess. Ford is one of the few members on this site that does ACTUAL deep research on a multitude of topics and then provides it in posts. And he isn’t even paid for it.

He is a strong and great contributor who has also provided the community free and valuable software more than several times. To put someone like him on ignore is equal to turning your back on all the good there is in this community.

You know, as much as I WANTED to hate ford for hating Abraham Lincoln, I couldn't. Dude does his homework. He can be irritating yes... usually because he's right.

 

[rtwjunkie]

So someone in my position has two options that will satisfy everyone, and one option that won't satisfy everyone: 1. I can quit TPU and have no livelihood left. 2. I can kill myself (nobody has lulz over a dead person), or 3. Try to put my 12 years of experience and some 10,000 newsposts on the line, apologize to everyone (including you), and hope that life gives me a second chance to be better.

Honestly option 3 is the only thing you should be considering here. Quitting is giving up, and number 2 is giving up.

A big mistake was made, but you have already begun to make it right. All you can do is apologize, work hard to not make grave errors like this again, and eventually good journalism will put all this behind you, with the members and with the wider public and other sites. It will just take time. Stay positive!

You know, as much as I WANTED to hate ford for hating Abraham Lincoln, I couldn't. Dude does his homework. He can be irritating yes... usually because he's right.

All those reasons are why I love you too, Froggy! We don’t always agree but you research, think before you speak, and are very generous with your projects, knowledge and software

 

[R-T-B]

r/whoosh

it was an alex jones reference

Nope. Not allowed. I control all frog references.

Fight me bro.

 

[JamGorby]

This lazy "writer" needs released of his service and this article, even in it's "corrected" form needs to be deleted.
You should be fucking ashamed.