Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Ask HN: What LinkedIn alternatives don't suck?

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 63 posts

Re: Ask HN: What LinkedIn alternatives don't suck?

#21

Post by tomduncalf »

hurls87 wrote: post #9

Why would you accept 6,000 connections of mostly people you don't know and complain about it?

In the (excellent) Tech Resume Inside Out book [1], the author mentions that when recruiters perform a search on LinkedIn, you will be ranked higher if you are more closely connected to the recruiter (e.g. you are one degree of connection away), so in this sense it might make sense to accept every request, if you don't care about the actual newsfeed etc. Could do with a "Accept but don't show posts from this person" option, mine is super spammy and I'd never dream of using it as a social network because of this, but I still think it's a good way to make yourself discoverable.

[1] https://thetechresume.com/

Re: Ask HN: What LinkedIn alternatives don't suck?

#22

Post by kn0thing »

aloisdg wrote: post #8
oliverjudge wrote: post #6

I've moved over to Polywork. Which has a bit more of a tongue in cheek feel, but definitely feels better thank Linked in does, with a better community. Invite link for the curious https://www.polywork.com/invite/olliejudge-hypno

"Wow, looks like Ollie's looking out for you... but they're out of invites. Sign up for the waitlist today "

I got you - use my code: ALEXISVIP

Re: Ask HN: What LinkedIn alternatives don't suck?

#25

Post by mosselman »

the-dude wrote: post #18
yonixw wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In some of my circles, it is considered rude to reject a LinkedIn connection. Probably came from the same mindset that you shouldn't miss any business opportunity. Which is what the OP hoped for, but instead found out that spam exists in every industry. My suggestion would be to open a new LinkedIn. But, this time, filter heavy just like anyone would have done on Email.

It reminds me of something else : older people seem to feel obliged to answer the phone ( and the door ).

> older people seem to feel obliged to answer the phone

Haha I don't know if the generalisation holds true, but one time me and my daughter were Skyping with my mother and my mother's phone rings and she picks it up and starts talking, we found it rude so after a minute or two (my daughter was doing a puzzle) I told her to just close the laptop.

My mother never did it again while Skyping, but she still feels a strong need to answer ringing phones.

I don't really feel obliged to open the door for people who ring the bell, but I would find it rude if they could see me ignoring them. I do close the door again pretty freely if someone tries to sell me something at the door.

So what am I? Half old?

Re: Ask HN: What LinkedIn alternatives don't suck?

#26

Post by lopatin »

If your intention is to show off your skills and network, you're doing yourself a disservice by deleting your LinkedIn on the basis of it being "spammy like Facebook".

LinkedIn's value isn't in it's website or app, it's the fact that you, your mother, your boss, and your boss's boss all have a profile too.

If you don't want to get spammed by people in your network who treat it like a business-oriented Facebook, mute/delete them. If you don't want to receive recruiter spam, I think there's a setting for that too.

TLDR: There are no good LinkedIn alternatives

Re: Ask HN: What LinkedIn alternatives don't suck?

#28

Post by throwaway98797 »

tomduncalf wrote: post #21
hurls87 wrote: post #9

Why would you accept 6,000 connections of mostly people you don't know and complain about it?

In the (excellent) Tech Resume Inside Out book [1], the author mentions that when recruiters perform a search on LinkedIn, you will be ranked higher if you are more closely connected to the recruiter (e.g. you are one degree of connection away), so in this sense it might make sense to accept every request, if you don't care about the actual newsfeed etc. Could do with a "Accept but don't show posts from this person"…

You get what you optimize for.

Re: Ask HN: What LinkedIn alternatives don't suck?

#30

Post by fecak »

It really depends what you use LinkedIn for.

Discovery: You say you had lots of incoming messages from recruiters but few of any use, so it sounds like you may have interest in discovery (being found by recruiters for opportunities). Unfortunately, LinkedIn is pretty much the standard and there aren't many other places recruiter can go to find candidates en masse. Angel.co is perhaps the closest thing I've seen there.

Resume - If you want to post a resume somewhere that you can quickly send a link to someone looking for it, you could of course use GitHub or any number of other options like a personal website on any platform like Angel.

Contact storage (Rolodex) - You said you had 6K connections, which is a huge number compared to most. It doesn't necessarily matter how many of them you actually knew - what matters more (it seems anyway) is how many of the 6K would be useful to you depending on what you wanted to do. If you want to find a job, or if you wanted to hire someone (which is another reason people use LinkedIn), putting out a message that has the potential to reach 6K people is pretty powerful.

Brand building - Some people use LinkedIn as a publishing method to build some kind of brand or reputation, and either publish material direct to LinkedIn or link material off the site. The competitors for that would probably be social media sites or blogging.

Post reply on HN