Live data from Hacker News

LinkedIn is ignoring user settings

petermolnar.net

91–100 of 200 posts

Re: LinkedIn is ignoring user settings

#91
post #37

LinkedIn is a weird, weird place. There's always people wanting to add me, but then they mostly don't introduce themselves. Even half of the recruiters who add me don't do an intro. How is that networking? The articles seem pretty low quality. Sorry to say it, but a lot of them seem to be written as a form of homework, as in "you should write something to be seen". There's rarely any insightful comments on news piece…

LinkedIn is going the MySpace way. Total crap “content”, endless amount of people that indeed just want “connect” without intro, reason or anything else than bumping their numbers. Weird thing, I found it pretty useful up to 2 years ago. I guess that’s when the influencers takeover and bullshit blogging began.

I no longer connect with any requests unless they include a personal message in the request, because they're either a "legitimate" connection trawler, or (I suspect) LinkedIn making the request "on behalf of" the "requestor."

The last time (among many) that I accepted a generic, canned message request, I waited a week for the guy to say something to me. Nothing, and I dropped him.

One problem for LinkedIn is that they have not made themselves so obviously above-board that a suspicion like mine would be implausible.

Re: LinkedIn is ignoring user settings

#92
post #63
post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not about that. I'm the CEO. I'm sure it's somewhat my mistake because they wouldn't risk lawsuits for shady tactics. Probably a 0.8px text in gray somewhere on that page saying I'll get charged yearly and not monthly.

"...they wouldn't risk lawsuits for shady tactics." This sounds like you don't do business often (with US corporations?) They're hoping more people like you just let it ride. That's how they're making money. Hit them where it hurts - have the bank perform a chargeback. Enough of that happens, and their rates to accept credit cards goes up.

I completely agree. This is their core business: they know very well what to do so that people don't cancel (keep quiet, not send a reminder), they know equally well the percentage of people who will get mad, they know how small the group is, and that the net benefit is well worth it.

I don't think one chargeback changes anything, but if people are more aware (not just in case of LinkedIn, but in general), this could make this shady business strategy less profitable.

Re: LinkedIn is ignoring user settings

#93
post #19

I always think about LinkedIn as a "light scam". LinkedIn always pretended to help businesses and employees but indeed they don't do anything special to match people except for recruiters, which at the end it is enough with a search. To put it straight, it is not a Tinder for business. I tried many paid services like Ads, Premium, and API. They are subpar. I recruit better via Reddit than via LinkedIn, you can post i…

Let's give the power back to users. Please someone create an open source alternative, where everyone will contribute to do something good . Wait. That was just a dream.

Add private connection requests (no one but you knows who you're connected to or how many you have) to HN. Problem solved.

Re: LinkedIn is ignoring user settings

#94
post #68

I've hated Linkedin for years, but what's interesting is to understand why. I think it's a mix of - really, really bad UX resulting in an ugly product - the level of emptiness of the news feed, full of people talking about respectful bosses and good work condition while quoting Steve Jobs (oh, the irony) - seeing people becoming apparently more successful than me (if I have to be honest) - the level of intrusiveness…

What bothers me the most about LinkedIn is how vapid everyone seems to be. Everone has a job title like 'dynamic individual searching for creative opportunities' when they really mean unemployed. It's like a game where everyone pretends while simultaneously knowing that everyone else is pretending too.

> It's like a game where everyone pretends while simultaneously knowing that everyone else is pretending too.

To be fair, that sounds a lot like job-hunting, in general. The whole process can be filled with rituals meant to obfuscate the fact that you just want a job.

Re: LinkedIn is ignoring user settings

#96
post #30

2 months ago I signed up for a 30 day trial to search for people to hire and then 140 eu/mo if I decide to continue using it. Of course I forgot to stop it (they were pretty quiet also) and they charged me 1400+ eu for a full year because...why not - no refunds (that's what their page says). I know, I know...should have read the whole shebang. Lost 1400 euros for something I didn't really use. I was about to pay for…

I literally just realized I was a premium member after reading this comment and cancelled my subscription.

Yeah, I canceled my premium membership a few years ago after they just kept doing stupid stuff, and only this week finally got around to deleting my LinkedIn account entirely.

LinkedIn barely serves any useful purpose any more, and with Microsoft in charge I don't imaging them using the data for positive-for-me purposes.

Re: LinkedIn is ignoring user settings

#97
post #54

Sort of funny LinkedIn story: I was fed up with the recruiters constantly contacting me without any relevance to the work I actually would like to do (if I was looking for a job in the first place, which I am not as my profile states). So I went ahead and changed my job descriptions to things like "The theme for Fresh Prince Of Bel Air plays in the background" and I have now been contacted about my Fresh Prince Of Be…

Those are the "spamcruiters" who just use bots to scrape the pages and automate the whole process. I don't use it myself but I've heard from others who have, several times, received offers for jobs in the company they were already working at .

LinkedIn has suggested that I connect with addresses of mail lists.

Re: LinkedIn is ignoring user settings

#98

I deleted my LinkedIn profile years ago. The amount of spam I was getting from them was ridiculous (the owner of the pizza joint next door wants to add you, etc.). The final straw was when someone pointed out to me that unless you keep it up to date, it reflects poorly on you. And I had no interest in doing that.

I did the same and still received spam from them for a couple months. After contacting them, it stopped, but I still get "networking requests" from real life friends and colleagues every so often. I assue those are just because I'm in these people's contact lists or something.

Re: LinkedIn is ignoring user settings

#99
LinkedIn seems to be moving heavily towards monetize at all costs. They’ve always been an Enterprise Company making money off of ads and HR departments. Now they’re going more extreme with aggressive credit card policies and more user limits. They risk killing the goose that’s laying their golden eggs. Facebook is learning it quicker than they are.

Re: LinkedIn is ignoring user settings

#100

LinkedIn is a complete joke, but also somewhat necessary. It's become the new resume. I personally maintain a parody of myself profile (check it out if you want: https://linkedin.com/in/brndnmtthws ) but I'm considering deleting my account altogether because LinkedIn seems to only be used as a spam delivery mechanism these days.

Can't see it without logging in... O the irony.
Post reply on HN