Comment by the_biot
3 days ago
As a matter of fact he's a never-ending source of drama and outrage, all of which are his own opinions. His repair channel isn't even about repair anymore, it's all drama, all the time. I can hardly believe people fall for his shtick anymore.
90% of his content is about advocating for consumer rights like ownership and repair, most of which is documented and sourced on his wiki [1]. If the only thing you see here is "drama and outrage" then you're not the target audience and you should return to mindless consumption until such a time that you find yourself affected.
[1] https://consumerrights.wiki/w/Main_Page
> you should return to mindless consumption
I’ve never seen this Louis guy but those sure sound like the words of a drama and outrage enthusiast.
When you care so little about consumer rights that you see advocacy as just "drama" then what are you if not a mindless consumer, in the most literal sense?
This story is at the heart of everything that's wrong with consumer rights these days - digital locks, coercive upgrades, removing features after the sale, AGPL violations, and legal bullying of independent developers, enthusiasts, and hackers.
The original title was needlessly inflammatory, Louis put up $10,000 to cover this person's legal fees should they fight Bambu's bullshit threats. It's in all of our interests to fight this, as consumers and as members of HACKER news.
4 replies →
It may be advocacy for a noble cause, but it is still drama and outrage. It is an effective technique used by politicians worldwide. If it works, I guess that's a positive, but that's not for me.
Lois Rossmann has always been ranting in his video, but originally he did so while repairing Macbooks. I actually learned a few tricks watching his videos. Now, he is just sitting down talking, adding drama and outrage to news stories relevant to what he advocates for.
I mean, we need people like him, like we need people like Richard Stallman, but I personally prefer more nuanced approaches.
I accept that some people find him too abrasive and not everyone is going to like his style, but that doesn't make his content "drama and outrage".
It's legitimate annoyance and anger at the state of affairs and calling it "drama" implies that it's performative and/or unwarranted.
I have trouble understanding how the opinions of the historical right to repair guy are surprising or even considered drama, it’s not drama because it’s not interpersonal gossip, it’s right to repair activism.
Yup agree, it's not drama it's literally us vs "them", with "them" being greedy ass corps making our lifes worse on the daily.
The channel has been about a lot more than right to repair. He jumps on every tech controversy that will generate traffic, including wading into drama between other YouTube channels.
> it’s not drama because it’s not interpersonal gossip, it’s right to repair activism.
He has definitely engaged in dramas that have nothing to do with right to repair activism, including weighing in on dramas between other tech YouTubers.
He hit a niche with right to repair and has produced a lot of content about it, but he has also ranted about a lot of completely unrelated topics. Does nobody remember his old videos rambling about women and gender topics, for example? This is going way back, so possibly before many new converts were introduced to his channel.
His channel has definitely not only been right to repair.
> Does nobody remember his old videos rambling about women and gender topics, for example?
No one remembers these because they don't exist.
1 reply →
With Louis, it's been a journey of "how I learn to stop worrying and enjoy the angry repain guy"
He gets a bunch of things wrong since it's mostly reactionary content but he is willing to correct himself when he gets things wrong.
He does a lot to prevent companies from screwing over customers and that in of itself is good enough that in willing to overlook his flaws
Right up there with the Not Just Bikes guy on YouTube who used to talk about how transit-oriented cities are great or would show some positive stuff from somewhere. Now it's just endless videos about how cars suck, cities suck, even a lot of transit sucks. The constant negativity is such a put-off.
The difference is that the Not Just Bikes guy is actually doing what the parent commenter is claiming Louis (only) does and Louis in reality does a lot more than that like what's in TFA.
Not Just Bikes makes reddit posts for redditors in YouTube form, basically. Louis actually supports people and projects. There's no 'schtick', consumer repair is core to his business and his channel.
It’s like the best you can hope for your small hobby YouTube channel is to graduate to general outrage.
All hail the mighty algorithm.
1 reply →
Reversion to the mean strikes again! Dangit!
With drive-bys like this is it any suprise he has a negative opinion on cars?
Yeah I agree, it’s almost a political drama channel at this point and his opinions lack nuance.
I don’t understand why an article from Tom’s Hardware about an opinion of Louis Rossman who tells a 3D printer maker to go fuck themselves is currently the most upvoted article on HN.
And yet he’s having an effect. Are either of you pledging $10k to defend hackers in court?
I can hardly believe headlines like these are met with anything but cheers. It’s literally the hacker spirit in the classical sense: a big company is trying to legally threaten a project offline, and people like Louis are helping prevent that.
You could at least throw in a “it’s cool that he’s pledging money” before insulting his channel. And if his channel wasn’t as political as it is, it’s doubtful he could rally the kind of support we’re seeing here.
> I can hardly believe headlines like these are met with anything but cheers.
My point is that I have an issue with his tone and rhetoric, not with the thing he’s advocating.
He appeals to a certain audience that likes rage over proper discourse. I am fairly certain the HN etiquette prefers proper discourse over rage.
8 replies →
I don’t need to hire hackers to use my 3d printer. It just works.
1 reply →
> Are either of you pledging $10k to defend hackers in court?
Sure, I’ll pledge $10K to the developer who already declared that he’s not interested in fighting a legal battle for this project. That’s easy.
2 replies →
I am completely against the outrage and drama cycle of all media. But as a matter of fact, this is clearly what drives views in today’s world so it’s nice when someone consistently getting millions of views at least chooses to support something good once in a while.
I much prefer channels that don’t use this way of gaining views, but they, because of that, don’t gain nearly as many views.
I have no skin in this game, but it’s pretty clear what the majority of viewers want.
His passion does manifest as drama 90% of the time, but it’s somewhat necessary to build momentum and attention to the causes that he promotes. Also, he has to toe the line of opinion to avoid being slapped with spurious legal challenges.
Drama is a catch-all word now for people that lack the courage to engage with the wrongs in humanity.
Don't worry, we'll drag your lazy ass long while we clean up problems that you don't care to help fix.
> Also, he has to toe the line of opinion to avoid being slapped with spurious legal challenges.
Does he? Intentional misrepresentation is one thing and inadvertent inaccuracies quite another.
I often find him a bit much myself, but don't doubt his passion, and even if I did, I would only express that opinion publicly accompanied by supporting evidence, because using phrases like "people fall for his shtick" is essentially implying deliberate fraud, and that doesn't seem to be something you should throw around lightly.
I don't think an opinion becomes more based in reality by sticking the words "As a matter of fact" in front of them.
I don't see it as a problem.
Although I have to say, I think Louis was making better videos when he was in New York. I understand the financial situation where New York really abuses people, but I am just looking at the videos. I can't say whether that decision was what changed, but I noticed that the content changed a lot once he relocated outside of New York.
However had, I disagree with the "drama" comment. I would call it more that the movement became more important, which is fine, in my opinion. Right to repair isn't that different from many other movements where we people try to get more rights back again. See the right to videotape public officials in performing their public jobs and so on. It is all connected.
you’re making me wonder if i should start using the term financial abuse to describe the excessive rent seeking behaviour of landlords that bleed us dry
Imagine an attorney who represents clients for free, but does that semi-publicly on YouTube. This would also be a never-ending drama, wouldn't it?
What you described is an observational bias. His job is to bring this kind of anti-consumer shit to light. Hence, the drama.
The drama is about right to repair and he isnt really the source, he is the conduit.
What makes you believe it is a shtick?
When there is drama as far as I can tell he always had pretty solid reasons to be dramatic. It isn't drama when you have real reasons. Drama implies making shit up. Point to the shit he made up. Go ahead. Be specific.
Your accusation there makes it sound like he makes up some minor personal issues and blows them up as rage bait. As if the lock in and enshittification he advocates against are just his personal opinion. They are not. The vast majority (last time I checked >80%) of the public shares the opinion that you should own the equipment you buy and that it should be repairable.
If you happen to be a person that tries to establish neo-feudalism at the cost of everybody else, a public figure successfully making that an issue, might be problematic for your goals, sure. But then your goals may just be beneath contempt anyways and you should working on becoming a productive member of society instead.
If you think it is a shtick because you haven't really looked into it that much and you have a contrarian reflex, maybe try to bring the receipts next time. You know, like:" Louis Rossmann is a drama queen because remember when he said X about Y? Remember when he said Y about Z? It turned out to be Q and Louis had to know it was Q" etc.
Rossmann turned his YouTube fame into political advocacy for a popular topic, that he politically represents. Don't like that topic? Don't watch his content. People change and so does the focus of their life.
I run an university electronics workshop and the issues he mentioned are the issues I have to deal with every week, be it some shitty vendor lock-in on some gear or equipment where just the part that dies first is proprietary and service-hostile.
So did the situation change to the better?
If not, why should he stop?
What a shallow take. Activism isn't "drama". Maybe the problem is just that cynicism has rotted your frame of reference.
It isn't necessarily but I think it often qualifies. IMO (approximately) activism describes motivation while drama is a characteristic of an action. Thunberg for example is undoubtedly very dramatic.
Thank you. My Bambu printer works excellently. The previous one I bought years ago is still going strong with a friend now. When parts wear out, I can easily get official, known quality replacements.
I have never had a problem with the software, the outrage is totally manufactured to have something to complain about. Louis was fun to listen to for a while, but his schtick is so tired now.
Your off-topic remarks about Bambu printers and their replacement parts tell me that you didn't even take the time to read what this story was about. In the same breath you're accusing Louis of "manufacturing outrage just to have something to complain about" while you're the one doing that.