They might, you know, stick around to acknowledge that the basis for the discussion has changed, making their previous stance untenable? There are options beyond clamming up or doubling down, you know. That was the entire point of my comment, that people questioning the credibility of this all of a sudden seemed to go *poof* when it was corroborated, rather than saying something to the point of "Okay, that's settled then" and continuing the debate from there. It's hard not to read this as somehow trying to save face or avoid embarassment - as if changing your opinion when presented with evidence is somehow embarassing...
Sorry, what? You saw a thread about a subject you knew nothing about, and decided to jump in to say "MSI MAKES GOOD PRODUCTS TOO"? Sorry, that doesn't add up. My guess: you saw a very negative thread about a company you have bought things from and been happy with. Rather than seeing these two things as entirely unrelated (which they are), you linked the two in your mind and immediately went on the defensive, as you then felt a strong need to justify your purchase of an MSI product to avoid some sort of perceived embarrassment from having somehow made a wrong decision. While fully understandable, this is a steaming heap of poorly managed irrational defensive psychological patterns: you are not your purchase decisions; you can't reasonably be held accountable for making a decision in the past that when presented with this new evidence might be reconsidered if it were to happen today; this debate isn't about customers or purchase decisions at all, but about MSI's ethical standards; this debate isn't about MSI's products either, but about MSI's ethical standards. Etc., etc.
The next time you see something like this and feel the urge to jump in, I would recommend you take a minute to think about why you are feeling the way you do. Chances are it has nothing to do with you whatsoever.
That is a woefully naive stance in light of GN's video. "As long as they don't do it again" - they have consistently been doing this for the better part of a decade. There is
zero chance of them not repeating this pattern of behavior. Not to mention that this stance is effectively saying "whatever, now we know, but it shouldn't have any consequences". After all, you can't prove a negative, so there is no way to actually know that MSI hasn't done it again. They are well deserving of a period in the proverbial doghouse. IMO, MSI needs to address this publicly and directly, and promise to change their company culture. If not, I see no reason to expect it not to continue as it has up until now.
Okay, this thing needs a part-by-part breakdown:
What you are demonstrating here is a fundamental misunderstanding of the topic. This came to light precisely because MSI has made and continues to make flawed products. There is nothing special about that -
every company on earth that makes a product has made a flawed product. Perfection is impossible. But as I said, that isn't what this topic is about - it's about
how MSI responds to criticism of their products. And their default response from this seems to be bribery, strong-arm tactics and other underhanded tactics to avoid bad PR, rather than
actually fixing their flaws.
To be abundantly clear:
whether or not MSI has made products with no major flaws is entirely irrelevant to this discussion.
Nobody here is saying this is new and unheard of. But there have been thorough and well-formulated arguments posted previously in this thread addressing why accepting this as "just the way things work" is a deeply problematic stance. Go back and read those, please. If you want the PC component industry to be a healthy industry where product quality improves over time and components succeed on their merits rather than their marketing, evidence of actions like these should matter to you. If not, then you are effectively saying that you don't care if this industry goes to shit and component quality drops. But if that's the case, what are you doing on forums like these?
... and how is this at all relevant to the discussion? Seriously, I'm asking. Please try to put into words how this is relevant to this thread. You have been challenged.
While not the worst example in the world, you're trying to take a cheap shot here rather than actually arguing for anything. Linus has over the years made quite a few videos addressing this subject and related ones. As have many other tech 'tubers. Surrounding yourself with branded merch is pretty much par for the course for these people, as it's ultimately a "mandatory" part of the "tech youtuber" aesthetic that is necessary to attain any sort of success in this field today. I'd also ask you this: when was the last time you saw that dragon in one of their videos? I sure haven't seen that for quite a while. The point being: unless it's prominently placed and frequently seen, it's ultimately irrelevant. Sure, it amounts to an ad, but of the "subliminal messaging" kind that attempts to subtly influence which brands people think of rather than directly selling a product. In the sea of branded merchandise seen in LTT's studios, this barely stands out. For this to be any type of egregious, it would need to be part of a pattern of prominent placement of MSI logos and products in many if not all LTT videos. That isn't happening. So while it's a bit weird to have a huge 2-meter-tall ad in your studio, ultimately it's not that problematic. (On the other hand, if said ad was a roll-up advertising a specific MSI product, that
would be problematic due to its specificity - unless they disclosed that the video was sponsored by MSI, of course.