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Linus Tech Tips apology video - BEST PARTS
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this post was submitted on 17 Aug 2023
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Linus Tech Tips
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To be fair to Luke, in regards to the "six nines" comment in the video that a lot of people think is part of a sex joke (and how the video is framing it), in the proper context he was talking about IT infrastructure and this comment actually refers to a target for high availability: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_availability
99.9999% availability (ie. uptime) = "six nines"
He was basically saying that they're setting a target for higher availability of their infrastructure, because it's been unstable at times, causing staff frustration and delaying certain workflows.
I can't blame a lot of average people who don't work in any sort of IT field for confusing it with the "69" sex position (wondering what the heck "six nines" means), but that's not at all what he was making reference to.
I'm not at all defending anything else in relation to this debacle besides this unfair portrayal of this particular snippet.
EDIT: Just wanted to add, I think it's pretty sad that pistol fingers and a wink these days apparently must mean you're making a sex joke (or are trying to offend people in some other way). As a kid I remember this gesture being used to "act cool". We did it all the time back then, and it was all in fun. Luke's from my generation, so maybe he thought the same, or maybe we didn't get the memo that this gesture is off-limits now.
Really? You don't see the innuendo? They intentionally chose the six nines figure. He even made the "nice" face, raised his brows and gave the camera two finger pistols. Are you like, new to human interaction?
"Six nines" is practically a meme in the IT infrastructure and DevOps world, and has nothing at all to do with any kind of sex joke. For years "six nines" has been touted as the pinnacle SLA target for high availability and uptime of services. You'll find references all over the Internet to this SLA from all kind of companies, both big and small, in their marketing.
Examples from a quick and random Google search:
Companies such as Microsoft, Amazon (AWS specifically) and Google tout the "six nines" as their HA SLA in loads of their marketing, and it's easy to find.
I could go on forever but that should give you an idea. You can read more about "The Rule Of Nines" here if you're interested: https://vastdata.com/blog/the-rule-of-nines
My point is, this isn't a figure they made up for a sex joke. It's a very real SLA that is explicitly touted in IT marketing all over the Internet and has been for some time.
So where does the "innuendo" come from then? The uninformed viewer's own imagination, I think. Because from my perspective, I just see an IT guy trying to brag about how he's going to ensure his infrastructure reaches a slick "six nines" target for high availability, snapping his fingers and showboating the camera in pride about it.
It's up to the viewer to interpret what they see, of course, but it's also wrong once you know what the true intention more likely was to continue to insist that it was something else entirely. If anything, what he really meant is inconclusive, I personally think it's a real stretch to assume it was a sex joke.
All the LMG channels regularly make “69” sex jokes, if you think they weren’t using the opportunity of the coincidence of “six-nines” coming up to make a double entendre (especially with the body language) then I have to assume you haven’t been paying attention, are extremely poor at human interaction, or are willingly trying to cover for them.
It is SO completely obvious. Like, beyond any doubt.
And we all know what six-nines uptime means, as it relates to servers.
I guess you can chalk it up to I "haven't been paying attention" then. I'm not a religious viewer of all of their channels, I just watch the odd video here and there (like, maybe one or two videos every few months), and since this whole fiasco blew up I got curious enough about it to catch up on what happened, and watched the apology video. With that being my context as a viewer and technology enthusiast, that's the lens I viewed this segment through. I just didn't see anything wrong with Luke's part.
Maybe if I was a more of a regular viewer I might have seen it a bit differently, But even if it was a double entendre, for the sake of argument, it seems to me as though it were pretty tame at worst in his case?
Oh man, check it out. We have the body language expert here. Everyone else is just stupid in comparison.
LMG should hire you. Linus need clean boots and you seem willing to lick them.
Jeez man who hurt you. Both the content and delivery of it from the guy above seemed very genuine. Don't be a dick.
I defended one specific segment which seemed unfairly taken out of context, with support for why I thought so, and remained as objective as I could about it. I never commented on anything else besides that one specific segment, and I never expressed any support for LMG as a whole (full disclosure, I think they've done some awful things they need to be held accountable for). But that makes me some kind of LMG apologist?
Okay. I don't see what else I can say about that accusation.
If it sounds like a duck. Ok, sorry. What you said is certainly a meme that's part of tech. However, I would bet significant amount of money that their bro culture looked at six-nine and they turned it into an innuendo. As most immature asshats, as they seem to be, would do. If you can't see that, I'm sorry, but your social awareness is off.
I appreciate the toned-down response, so thanks for that. As to whether or not it really was a sex joke, I can't say for sure one way or the other. It's anybody's guess. People should interpret it how they see fit. But I saw it differently and offered up my interpretation, backed with information that supported what led me to it, so that I wouldn't be thought of as a blind supporter.
I'm actually not even a supporter or regular viewer of them at all (I've watched the odd video here and there, just on occasion). Just someone who heard about all of this and got curious. I watched the apology video and that segment struck me as innocent for the reasons I stated. And it's totally fair if someone wants to interpret it differently. I just think it's unfair to conclude with 100% certainty that it must have been a sex joke and therefore everyone who watched it should be offended by it.
This comment doesn't help anybody now, does it?
I think I took the time to fairly and productively as possible express my viewpoint, backed with some reasoning and additional information, without trying to insist that I am without a doubt correct and everyone else is wrong. I acknowledge that others may not feel the same way. So in what way is flaming without adding anything productive to the conversation more helpful than what I shared?
A more important take is that it actually doesn't even matter if it was an innuendo, everyone needs to get over themselves and their pearl clutching over nothing
I haven't watched the video, so am asking legitimately. Assuming it was a sex joke was it out of order, or fine? In my mind, as an adult, the odd innuendo at an appropriate moment can be hilarious. If he's not objectifying etc etc, then surely that's OK? But, I've not watched it, so seeing what your onion is.
Edit. Down voted for asking. Is this reddit? What happened to lemmy?
In the video they are allegedly apologizing for being unprofessional and unethical and promising to halt all production to take time to be better at their job. You tell me if you would make a sex joke while being scolded for misbehaving in a professional setting? Then, it turns out they are being accused of fostering sexual harassment.
Removed from the context of the other allegations around LTT/LMG, it's absolutely in poor taste; solely in the context of the video by itself, it's still not great.
That's the vibe I was getting here too, there's been a lot of downvoting of totally innocent questions and non-aggressive commentary. I don't get where all of the anger's coming from over some of the productive conversations and sharing of ideas going on here.
But to share my opinion about your question, even if Luke were making a sex joke during his segment, having watched the entire video, I personally feel it was pretty tame. The only thing he did during his entire time on-screen that anyone is upset about is exactly the clip you saw in the linked video. Just those couple of seconds as they are. Everything before that was plain and simple talk about plans for improving the state of their infrastructure, and the tone of that was quite professional. So at worst, his attempt at a sex joke here was pretty lame and fell flat, because there was no build-up to it at all.
In an apology video regarding accusations of sexual harassment and assault at the company? Yikes. Not really the time or place to make sex jokes.
~~While I agree that it wasn't the time nor the place, that video had nothing to do with the sexual harrassment/assault allegations.~~
~~This was in response to GN video and subsequent Linus response on their forum.~~
~~The other stuff came after.~~
~~Still weird, but not on the same scale in my opinion~~.
Edit: I just saw timestamps lower in another comment chain showing that the apology video actually came after the twitter post.
While it was most likely filmed and edited before said post, launching as is is pretty bad indeed.
The apology video came out before the sexual harassment accusations.
There's been a whole lot of complaining recently when it comes to LMG so it's no wonder people have latched on to anything they can perceivably attribute as negative, even something as mild as a potential 69 joke (nice!)
Oh the term was alright, it's his 100% intentional innuendo that was the problem.
He didn't hide it nor he even slightly direct viewers to actual term.
He only meant 69 and he showed it that way
Yeah the wink and the finger guns and the coy voice really scream “server uptime” to me
Go touch grass. It was an double entendre and LMG is fucking gross.
6 nines is a fucking meme. It's literally impossible, but everyone claims it. That's the joke.
It's pretty fucking funny too.
I don't know man, I just saw it as some IT guy on screen setting an SLA goal I see all the time and trying to do an "act cool" gesture. People can interpret it how they want, but that's how I saw it.
Do you mean "IT Guys" as in all guys who work in IT, including those not a part of LMG? Because that seems pretty unfair and a sweeping generalization.
Reading through some of these pearl clutching comments and reactions here relating to Luke's statement specifically is pretty jarring, you'd think he'd been best mates with Bill Cosby or on the management team at Blizzard for how people are reacting.
Yeah, I just don't get where all the high tension emotional comments about his segment are coming from. It's honestly weird.
Unrelated, but also interesting imo and mildly hilarious. Also a little sad.
The Wiggles do the finger guns constantly because as men around kids and taking photos etc etc, they may be accused of things. If the hands are always visible, nobody can cast aspersions about what the hands may have been up to.
https://www.kidspot.com.au/lifestyle/entertainment/celebrity-news/the-sad-reason-the-wiggles-created-their-famous-dance-move/news-story/ec1133c0de831576f7e38c2b1f9ad59c?nk=4cdd707eb78f480bc00fd90eba6eb361-1692438972
I don't think Luke was referencing this, but if anything... Pistol fingers means this ISN'T a sex joke. At least imo
Doubt he was referencing that, but I think it's clear that pistol fingers isn't inherently something to be offended by on its own.
I agree, I don't think he was referencing that. Just wanted to share my 2 cents
Its an innuendo. 5 nines is basically impossible, not even FAANG can really hit it 100%.
It doesn't matter if the SLA is realistically reachable or not, it's basically a marketing meme and one of the most common target SLAs in IT ("target" doesn't mean you can actually reach it, you're aiming for it though).
See here: https://lemmy.pub/comment/1046563
I understand its a marketing term. But context matters and when its done with the tech bro chuckle/stammer and wink....its an innuendo...
I mean..tone matters here. Look at how its stated.
I felt while watching the full video (before I saw this one, so I knew the entire tone and context from where this clip came from), that this particular segment had an appropriate tone, felt professional, and I just didn't feel like anything said by Luke leading up to the last two words was out of line. And when he dropped the "six nines" SLA and seemed to be "playing it cool" while doing so, my only thought was "Oh, I know what he's referring to, they're setting a high goal for HA just like other major companies out there. Nice." That was just the way it hit me personally. If others want to read into it further, well, they will I guess.
If it was just that then maybe I could read that. But given most other managers prior tried to shove in some random, totally awkward and out of place plug or joke to lighten the tone, that is not how it was read by me (and that’s not my YouTube video to be clear.).
It’s all contextual.
I can understand that based on the prior segments in the video, it sets the tone and the mood for the segments that come later from the viewer's perspective as a whole. But at the same time, we should try to treat them individually, as hard as that can be to remember, when judging the people speaking during their turn. Because at the time of filming, each of these separate people were working alone, and giving their own takes in a silo. So though the video as a whole was pretty badly handled in my opinion, that's a separate judgement aside from how each individual handled their own part. It's just my opinion that Luke on his own didn't really do much to be offended by.
Thats a fair point. Whoever directed these should has asked or cut out the jokes. Really shows they continually failed to read the room.
I would agree that the responsibility for the tone of the video and whether or not certain "jokes" should have been kept in or not lies with the editors and/or whoever approved the final product.
nice... Now it's obvious you're trolling.
Trolling? I'm just saying how I personally felt while watching the segment, with reasoning included, and I even said others can read into it how they will, without any judgement one way or another towards those people no matter how they decide to interpret it. I'm not even trying to defend the segment itself, I'm just sharing what I think about it and how it didn't hit me the same way as others who took offense. That's trolling? If having an opinion or a viewpoint that differs from yours is trolling, and remaining open to the idea that others may not share my way of seeing it and being totally accepting of that without any kind of stake in the greater matter, then count me in as a troll. Absolutely I'd be proud to be one in that case.
LOL That number of nines is specifically referenced by an industry dominated by tech bros though. It could just as easily be 5 9s or 7 9s but for some reason it has to be 6 9s? And I know it's a recurring joke for LTT but that doesn't mean you should put it, or ANY joke into an apology video of all things?! What were they THINKING?! Besides it's a tired and souless attempt at humour that should've been retired years ago
Actually, the "nines" go all the way from "one nine" through "nine nines", exactly the way you wondered about when you said "It could just as easily be [...]". It's actually exactly that way, and the chart that shows this is found in my first post on the linked Wikipedia article. Refer to the "Percentage calculation" chart about "High availability": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_availability
"Six nines" is just another SLA calculation on the chart, but is one of the most commonly referenced in marketing material in the industy. That's why you see a lot more about it online than the other percentages, but you see reference to the others out there (ie. Amazon references "nine nines" in their S3 object storage marketing in terms of data durability). "Six nines" roughly corresponds to 30 seconds of downtime per year. Maybe it's used more often because that's an easy SLA to remember.
Anyway, the point is that it's not some tech bro-dominated industry inside sex joke. It's a real, valid SLA, and it's not the only one. Just the most commonly referenced.
Yeah, I'm fullly aware of all the other 9s used which is why I suggested they could just as easily say they're aiming for 7 9s or as Amazon does, 9 9s or any other basically impossible to hit asperational goal that's nice to try for but for SOME REASON the most often quoted / used one is 6 9s? Coincidence you say? Is it super important to aim for 30 seconds per year versus about 5 min per year? Why not aim for 3 seconds / year rather than 30 seconds? Because then you can't say 6 9 Nice! That's literally the only reason right?
I don't know man. It's a valid SLA target which is often and widely used in the industry at large, it's almost like muscle memory to some people to just cite it when talking about HA. And even if they regularly make "69" jokes or whatever on their channels, I personally didn't read far enough into it in this segment of the video to get the impression that they might be making a sex joke. There was no lead-up to one or anything in the original context. All he said at the end of his segment was that their goal was "six nines" plus the "act cool" pose (how I personally interpreted it). And I just felt like "Okay, so they're aiming for the usual SLA you see most big companies aiming for". Like, that's all that went through my mind personally.
If anything, maybe it's inconclusive if it was meant as an actual sex joke. I said in my original post I could see how uninformed viewers might see it differently, so I'm trying to leave some leeway for understanding of how it might have made others feel.
I'm not saying 100% it couldn't be one, but I personally didn't feel like it was. Everyone is free to interpret it how they want, I just wanted to point out that he used a real term that isn't inherently sexual (and lots of people don't know about it), so it's a possibility he actually just meant to cite a real SLA to those in-the-know.
I cannot believe how many brainwashed PCMR zealots are in here downvoting legitimate points.
How the hell does this guy have such a hold on you all? Wake up!
Man, if you're gonna be so deep up in their ass, at least do them a favor and watch for Polyps.