LinkedIn dark patterns, or why your friends keep spamming you to sign up for it

Post by vletmixutechre » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 12:58 PM UTC

anilgulecha wrote: post #5

Here's a question to HN: if we were to design an alternative to linkedin (for IT/technical folks), what would be the features you'd want? I'll start: 1) The ability to go no-opportunities. When you're not looking for work, you turn this on, and you will not turn up on any search result. 2) Simple export API, with a guarantee of you having complete say over your data. You may export as a json anytime, and import into…

Post by anilgulecha » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 1:00 PM UTC

Sir_Substance wrote: post #12

anilgulecha wrote: post #5

Here's a question to HN: if we were to design an alternative to linkedin (for IT/technical folks), what would be the features you'd want? I'll start: 1) The ability to go no-opportunities. When you're not looking for work, you turn this on, and you will not turn up on any search result. 2) Simple export API, with a guarantee of you having complete say over your data. You may export as a json anytime, and import into…

>if we were to design an alternative to linkedin (for IT/technical folks), what would be the features you'd want? The ability to confidently wipe all data you've ever fracked from me as part of deleting the account if/when I chose to leave your service. Please plan the delete operations as a core part of your architecture, rather than an addon you can't properly support because you didn't think about deleting data wh…

Post by bsilvereagle » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 1:05 PM UTC

anilgulecha wrote: post #24

vletmixutechre wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This entire notion of a professional social network I believe is flawed in that it is built upon the notion that it would be better to hire someone who has a smaller degree of separation from you, which makes no sense. I do a fair amount of interviewing of programmers, and not a single person I work with could give a damn about anyone's linkedin profile; it's meaningless. I just find the whole idea to be very shallow…

Should it instead be only a directory of people currently looking for opportunities. People who find work, take themselves off the directory, and people who want work add themselves in?

Post by mannykannot » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 1:15 PM UTC

anilgulecha wrote: post #18

charlieegan3 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not doing 'creepy' things with your data ( http://www.interactually.com/linkedin-creepiest-social-netwo... ) Related discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9045677 and archived page: https://web.archive.org/web/20150812004139/http://www.stopus...

It's hard to convert this to technical requirement -- this is largely a moral requirement on someone running the service. That's the second best option -- first would be this being technicall not possible. The only way I can think of to deter this is cost per action. So accounts start with some virtual (or real) currency which spends on actions like connecting or adding to the graph. This will at-least minimize if no…

Post by austinjp » Tue, Feb 09, 2016, 1:27 PM UTC

dspillett wrote: post #3

austinjp wrote: post #2

Another "dark pattern" I recently noticed: One page (member homepage perhaps) displays a list with the standard "add these people to your network" and in an absent-minded moment I clicked a few. Too late, I realised it was a mixed list of LinkedIn members and non-members extracted from my address book. Existing members, fine, they get an invite to connect. But non-members no doubt receive a message "from austinjp". I…

> extracted from my address book This is why nothing like linked-in gets anywhere near my address book, and therefore nowhere near my portable devices because the only way to install the phone app is to agree to that permission and the site itself is terrible on mobile. If you let an app install that asks for permission to read your address book assume it will one day it will spam everyone in it and if someone in you…