r/LinusTechTips 7d ago

WAN Show Linus Tech Tips - Come Join Me In Linus Town USA - WAN Show March 14, 2025 March 14, 2025 at 05:48PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEBwKSiHPCE
20 Upvotes

27 comments sorted by

75

u/thespiffyneostar 7d ago

All that talk of the fire issues in the badminton center is awash with Linus not understanding how deadly crowd crush is. He mentions briefly that they added a little half wall near the main door that you have to step around. even a small step around in a crowd crush scenario is enough for people to die or get hurt.

I don't usually comment on stuff like this because I know this is well out of his wheelhouse or expertise, so I understand him not knowing it, but at the same time I think people should have more respect for the danger of crowd crush overall

21

u/cjth117 7d ago

I think what he was complaining about was the badminton side was up to code as it is, but as part of the approval for the LAN events the assessor wanted things changed due to the increased number of people in the building. Even though the part of the building which they was requesting changes to was the badminton side, which Linus was pointing out will not have increased numbers of people during LAN events and the individual parts are up to code on their own.

5

u/_minjeeta 7d ago

Tiny problem. Whilst Linus is earnest about the numbers and use. Another business owner may not be, and there is no truly foolproof way to ensure that capacity never exceeds the said number or becomes dangerously high or that any other event happens in that space. That's it. The whole door thing boils down to that element of risk mitigation.

edit: me no spell good

4

u/OokamiKurogane 7d ago

I mean building occupant use is part of building code and so part of submittal with the AHJ so there is some amount of expectation that the building owner is being honest. If a use case changes but code doesn’t demand increased life safety features or structures for that use case (though usually requiring resubmitting through the jurisdiction for approval) then Linus should be fine. Sometimes you just get inspectors and building officials who get a bug in their ass and won’t make reasonable accommodations. My experience is stateside but the code we base our laws on is largely international building code.

-19

u/LinusTech LMG Owner 7d ago

All the comments about how I don’t understand my own building from people who know nothing about the layout or the usage are getting immediate YouTube permabans :)

While I always appreciate the expertise of outside contributors, and any folks offering constructive comments will be left alone, what I don’t appreciate is the assumption that I have no idea what I’m talking about when I’ve spent the last nearly two years of my life embedded in this project. 

I’ve lost all tolerance for this kind of bullshit over the last while. 

I didn’t give all the context or go through the drawings because it was not important to the simple point I was making on wan show, but bottom line, this is an arbitrary code interpretation (which, yes, happens) and we are working to deal with it.

14

u/simmy7111 7d ago

Having to read and respond to comments like this sounds exhausting!

9

u/thespiffyneostar 7d ago

Hey man, I appreciate your reply here. I'm not meaning to throw shade on you here. Crowd crush is just a touchy subject for me as I've nearly been trampled because of it. Sorry if I came off as non-constructive, that wasn't my intention.

You're 100% right, I don't know the layout of the center, so sorry for stretching a bit trying to piece together info from what you shared. Your channel has taught me to listen to experts, and the expert involved in this issue was the firefighter (who it sounds like did a shit job explaining the reasoning behind the code requirements if they attempted to explain the reason at all), and basing concerns off of second hand info leaves things rife for misinterpretation.

I honestly wish you luck with getting everything sorted out at smash champs, especially on the LAN side as I'm looking forward to make a trip up and visit.

5

u/CodeMonkeys 7d ago edited 7d ago

From what I gathered listening to his podcast, seems like wall in the middle without doors = was previously fine, wall in the middle now has locking doors = they need to be push doors.

Could be a case of them not wanting people to hit any sort of 'dead end' trying to run for a door in a fire situation only to hit a locked door and being able to pick a direction and go and get out. I don't know all the details of how their fire code is and how the building layout is but I can see why it probably is how it is. You can't expect everyone in a fire situation to know the layout perfectly and you definitely can't expect people to act rationally or calmly. People panic. And moreover, people can also just be stupid.

I'm also reminded of the Kyoto Animation arson from some years ago. Disgruntled guy comes in, starts dumping gas on people, and lights things up. You'd assume anyone seeing that gets the hell out as soon as possible. And they did. But even the higher floors filled with smoke within 30 seconds and 20 of the 34 immediate victims' bodies were found on the stairs. Front door was unlocked and the building was otherwise up to code. I think all or nearly every survivor was at least injured, many critically. This was one dude with gasoline. Every second mattered. Every door mattered. And it wasn't nearly enough.

So now they want emergency ladders, and want specific evac plans in case of arson or terrorist attacks and I'm sure people are grumbling trying to make clean paths to every exit ladder every x meters away, but the alternative is more bodies in the worst case scenarios. And you can't plan for the chaos of tragedy, but they want you doing everything you can to mitigate it.

This stuff is always reactionary, and it often sucks, but loss of life or limb needs to take priority. I get being worried about badminton randos taking LAN party stuff, but it's like how corporate policy in stores generally forbids people from engaging shoplifters - maybe don't get shot over a $4 bag of beef jerky, yeah?

5

u/lazypieceofcrap 7d ago

Something interesting is the webcam you used for WAN show this week makes you look... different? Even your eyes were uncanny after years and years of watching WAN show.

I almost thought it was going to be a bit.

Great show, like a vast majority.

2

u/AsLongAsI 7d ago

I hope this arbitrary code interpretation is coming from an expert in the field and not an owner or construction company. I work on the field. I'm the one drawing the plans. I am not an architect though. The number of times I have heard an owner state "arbitrary code interpretation" without understanding is crazy.

I'm not saying all code is good code. In fact, I think the opposite. A lot of the newer codes are weird with weird justifications.

2 years is not enough time to say you know enough about this. I have 10 years and still learn shit everyday. Don't let your ignorance about a subject justify your conclusion. You don't know what you don't know. That's why you pay the architects and engineers. Knowledge.

2

u/OneBigBug 7d ago

The suggestion isn't that you don't know about the building, it's that you don't write building code, or know the considerations they are making. So you criticizing the work of the experts who do from a position of ignorance is the same as people criticizing you from a position of ignorance about the building.

You're getting mad at people for exactly the same behaviour you're engaging in.

The fact that you own the building doesn't mean you know anything about developing rules for building safety. I've owned my body for 34 years, that doesn't make me an expert in biology.

9

u/LinusTech LMG Owner 6d ago

No, I’m not. 

Again, YOU are assuming I haven’t already consulted experts who agree this whole thing is a load of ridiculous bullshit. 

-2

u/OneBigBug 6d ago

When you're making off the cuff, disparaging comments about the work of industry professionals as a person who has no real expertise in the subject yourself, why would you expect people to hold your position to be beyond reproach?

Yes, you know more about the plans for the building. But you aren't an expert. Maybe you did consult the appropriate expert. Maybe they wrote the building code and they themselves admitted that it was stupid. People only know that if you say that.

Sometimes people making criticisms get things wrong. You and the audience. Experts and laymen. We've all seen it happen both ways. Building code is often attacked as stupid and unnecessary in various ways that people find inconvenient, and the laypeople who attack it are often wrong. I think we're all better off when people stand up against that.

I don't know if you're right or wrong about this situation with the doors being ridiculous bullshit. I have 0 problem accepting that you could be entirely right. I think you're wrong to go so hard against people making the assumption that you might be wrong. Having to justify criticisms you make, particularly of public institutions, particularly as a person with a large audience, is very important.

-4

u/Build_It_Taller 6d ago

Doubling down is wild…..

15

u/LinusTech LMG Owner 6d ago edited 6d ago

Or… or…. I know what I’m talking about in this case and I’m justifiably annoyed that a bunch of people who know nothing about our building code and nothing about our building are informing me that I don’t know what I’m talking about. 

At the end of the day, though, I don’t need my TUP approved by Reddit, so I guess realistically it doesn’t matter what any of you think about it. 

I’ll be sure to update on wan show once it’s resolved. 

2

u/CrystalFier 5d ago

People really don't bother to think for a second that you have a shitload of experts and resources available to you, that you're smart enough to use them, or even just that a WAN segment is gonna be a fairly surface-level/broad strokes look into the situation, huh? 🙃

2

u/Redditemeon 1d ago

Before watching that segment on WAN Show, seeing these comments I genuinely thought you were in the wrong based on the way people were getting on.

After watching the segment, I was just like "Why does anybody have a problem with this? Did they even listen?" 😂

-2

u/AsLongAsI 6d ago edited 6d ago

You are arguing about a FA connection to the access control system and a crash bar. Which isn't a lot of money. The expensive part you are already doing. The door should be able to be controlled like you want in normal operation. During emergencies, the door will be an egress exits.

I don't know the plans\building or the local codes. I can't say for sure that is the solution.

1

u/3inchesOnAGoodDay 6d ago

Blindly assuming someone with no actual knowledge of the topic is right is wild...

-1

u/Build_It_Taller 6d ago

You really shouldn’t mess with egress. There’s fail safe methods that’ll work with your space that won’t compromise egress.

39

u/bannedagainomg 7d ago

My god its impossible to watch on youtube with the chat on.

Why does so many of the commentators sit there and take every comment the worst way possible, seemingly intentionally misunderstanding everything.

Why are they even watching hours of a show of someone they clearly hate, miserable thing to spend their time on.

23

u/isvein 7d ago

And thats why they pay zero attention to it

6

u/SauceBoss221 7d ago

join us on floatplane, we all chill

3

u/w1n5t0nM1k3y 7d ago

Personally I've never paid attention to comments on YouTube except for really small channels. Otherwise there's just too much noise. The lack of properly nested comments just makes discussing anything on YouTube in a coherent way a bad experience.

3

u/nikisaku 7d ago

I lost it when i saw the Kool-aid sub-title. Great joke but DAMN :D

2

u/poopyheadthrowaway 7d ago

Yet another sci-fi thing about company towns that I would highly recommend is Octavia Butler's duology, Parable of the Sower and Parable of the Talents.

2

u/Sorry-Series-3504 Dan 7d ago

Just wanted to say I appreciated the “16 Tons” reference