LinkedIn quietly removes option to export contacts • Hacker News Board

Re: LinkedIn quietly removes option to export contacts

#41

Post by gknoy » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 9:28 PM UTC

yankoff wrote: post #30

dm2 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some sites just give off a vibe that prevents me from ever trusting them, LinkedIn is the most predominant in that category and I have never been able to put my finger on exactly why. The email proxy apps and the pay to see who viewed your profile aspects don't help. I'm not saying that it's any worse than any other sites, but LinkedIn has always felt like a shady company, like they're not on the users side. I was re…

The "best" feature they have is automatically sending notifications to all your peers (and through email) when you change one little thing in your profile. And they show specifically what you edited. You can disable it of course in settings, but you have to know about that. I've seen enough awkward situations come out of this. How is it even possible that they think it is okay?

I can see the rationalization: I've added React and Javascript to my LinkedIn profile, so it's probably nice to publish that to recruiters that I'm connected with, or friends who can endorse them.

Of course, I really don't want to spam them while I am rewriting prose about jobs until it's done, though, so it'd have been nicer if the spamming didn't happen until I pushed some kind of "publish" button.

Re: LinkedIn quietly removes option to export contacts

#42

Post by gknoy » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 9:29 PM UTC

tarr11 wrote: post #28

toomuchtodo wrote: post #23

Are there any tools out there that can create something akin to a LinkedIn profile for static hosting? Something like Jekyll?

Maybe something like h-resume? http://microformats.org/wiki/hresume

Serendipitously, I also found something similar this weekend, but specifying one's resume in JSON rather than XML: https://jsonresume.org/

Re: LinkedIn quietly removes option to export contacts

#43

Post by ghostly_s » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 9:32 PM UTC

fwn wrote: post #15

markcerqueira wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you for real or just exaggerating to add some unneeded emphasis to your disdain of LinkedIn? While I don't think LinkedIn is the shining star, it's definitely not one of the worst websites I've ever used; it's actually been quite helpful for connecting with people.

I can't talk about the interface but for people who don't have an account there, this website is absolutely hostile. (think: much worse than most) I'm a calm person but I needed serious gmail filter tinkering to catch all those we-want-you-to-join-or-feel-bad emails.

I'm not following... you're getting emails from LinkedIn even though you haven't signed up? You mean those 'I accidentally clicked a button without reading it and it spammed all my contacts' emails from current members?

Ironically, LinkedIn is the only site I've encountered where non-members get more access than (free-tier) signed in users. I regularly open a profile in a private window via Google search because it won't show me 3rd-degree connections without paying for them, but will happily share those profiles with Googlers...

Re: LinkedIn quietly removes option to export contacts

#44

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 9:33 PM UTC

fwn wrote: post #15

markcerqueira wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you for real or just exaggerating to add some unneeded emphasis to your disdain of LinkedIn? While I don't think LinkedIn is the shining star, it's definitely not one of the worst websites I've ever used; it's actually been quite helpful for connecting with people.

I can't talk about the interface but for people who don't have an account there, this website is absolutely hostile. (think: much worse than most) I'm a calm person but I needed serious gmail filter tinkering to catch all those we-want-you-to-join-or-feel-bad emails.

[deleted]

Re: LinkedIn quietly removes option to export contacts

#45

Post by vonmoltke » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 9:35 PM UTC

lemevi wrote: post #26

jcroll wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Recruiters add liquidity to the labor market. I really don't see how they are a bad thing.

I dislike receiving emails from recruiters, especially when they're multiple times per day when I've never indicated to anyone in anyway that I'm looking for work. The fastest and easiest way I have reduced recruiter email was by just deleting my LinkedIn account. I got them down to like once or twice a week that way. Now I don't get any because any of the ones that continued to email I've asked them to stop.

I consider myself lucky if I get more than one a month. I understand the problem that you and others have with deluges of crap, but some of us are appreciative of any interest we get. The "hot" market seems to be rather geographically and specialty limited.

Re: LinkedIn quietly removes option to export contacts

#46

Post by JohnTHaller » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 9:47 PM UTC

zeeed wrote: post #5

They changed a process to make it slower?! o.O 3 days sounds an awful lot as if human intervention were required. What purpose would this serve?

One optimistic possibility is so that if you leave your LinkedIn account logged in on a computer somewhere, another individual can't immediately export all your contacts, which could have competitive or security implications. It takes multiple days and you get notification of it happening.

Re: LinkedIn quietly removes option to export contacts

#47

Post by bduerst » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 9:49 PM UTC

shiv86 wrote: post #31

Linked in is the king of dark patterns and practices. I was foolish enough to sign up for a free 30 trial period (of course handing over credit card details with the expectation they wont just automatically charging me and seek my permission before charging). I didn’t check my cc statements for a few months and there you have it ...linked in charged me every month after the trail period ended.

I get what you're saying but your trial subscription example isn't that unusual.

A better example of dark patterns is how they repeatedly try to get you to sync your email contacts by sneaking it in at random points, where you may accidentally click through it.

Their website has also become a minefield of upsell links, some disguised as benign engagement (e.g. "Add a new skill") while others are much more spammy (e.g. "Follow this unrelated business which promotes through us").

Re: LinkedIn quietly removes option to export contacts

#48

Post by coddingtonbear » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 9:50 PM UTC

JohnTHaller wrote: post #46

zeeed wrote: post #5

They changed a process to make it slower?! o.O 3 days sounds an awful lot as if human intervention were required. What purpose would this serve?

One optimistic possibility is so that if you leave your LinkedIn account logged in on a computer somewhere, another individual can't immediately export all your contacts, which could have competitive or security implications. It takes multiple days and you get notification of it happening.

I think you've hit the nail on the head, here.

Re: LinkedIn quietly removes option to export contacts

#49

Post by stilldavid » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 9:52 PM UTC

ghostly_s wrote: post #43

fwn wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't talk about the interface but for people who don't have an account there, this website is absolutely hostile. (think: much worse than most) I'm a calm person but I needed serious gmail filter tinkering to catch all those we-want-you-to-join-or-feel-bad emails.

I'm not following... you're getting emails from LinkedIn even though you haven't signed up? You mean those 'I accidentally clicked a button without reading it and it spammed all my contacts' emails from current members? Ironically, LinkedIn is the only site I've encountered where non-members get more access than (free-tier) signed in users. I regularly open a profile in a private window via Google search because it w…

> I'm not following... you're getting emails from LinkedIn even though you haven't signed up? You mean those 'I accidentally clicked a button without reading it and it spammed all my contacts' emails from current members?

As with many others, I get these constantly: "I'd like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn." with seemingly no way to disable them. You can stop them for that one person's 'invitation', but invariably someone else will start the process over again. I have a filter set up that sends all LI email to trash

> Ironically, LinkedIn is the only site I've encountered where non-members get more access than (free-tier) signed in users.

I can't even imagine how this is defensible. This kind of behavior doesn't give me any reason to want to make an account.

Re: LinkedIn quietly removes option to export contacts

#50

Post by lemevi » Thu, Jul 23, 2015, 9:58 PM UTC

vonmoltke wrote: post #45

lemevi wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I dislike receiving emails from recruiters, especially when they're multiple times per day when I've never indicated to anyone in anyway that I'm looking for work. The fastest and easiest way I have reduced recruiter email was by just deleting my LinkedIn account. I got them down to like once or twice a week that way. Now I don't get any because any of the ones that continued to email I've asked them to stop.

I consider myself lucky if I get more than one a month. I understand the problem that you and others have with deluges of crap, but some of us are appreciative of any interest we get. The "hot" market seems to be rather geographically and specialty limited.

Recruiter emails are basically spam built from templates. They'll include jobs for which I'm obviously not qualified for if the recruiter knew anything about me. I've received emails that still had the template variables in them or had wrong names.

Having followed up on recruiter emails a couple of times I have to also state that it is a less pleasant experience than going through the employer directly. All your communication is through the recruiter and you get no feedback at all. In the case you have done an on site interview and you got to meet people, having be the recruiter telling you that the employer wasn't looking to move forward, with no explanation whatsoever, makes a bad experience even worse.

In other words, these aren't lists that I think anyone would want to be on. I agree that some areas are better for jobs than others which is why I live where I do.