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Stop Using LinkedIn

stopusinglinkedin.com

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Re: Stop Using LinkedIn

#201

Post by dkarapetyan »

fsloth wrote: post #196
dkarapetyan wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It indeed is just you. I don't know how you're going to find anyone worthwhile if all you do is keep everything restricted to linkedin. I've met plenty of awesome people at meetups, conferences, etc. that don't have a linkedin profile and maintain control of their own web presence. A simple bookmark and an email contact list is not much of a burden to keep track of such people in my opinion.

"It indeed is just you. " Now you are projecting otherness to people who do things differently than you. "Being a programmer" is not some weird club where everyone needs to behave exactly the same. Bytes and algorithms have zero tribal affinity, you know.

And you are misinterpreting everything I say and not even trying to address any of the points that are made in the original post and my subsequent comments.

To get things back on track here are the points. Cultivating a professional network does not require mediating parties like linkedin and can be accomplished by more decentralized and democratic means that lets each professional maintain control over their own digital presence. Linkedin does not do that and in fact diminishes everyones' ability to do so and therefore it is a bad trade-off to make in the long term since I've already outlined several other ways of cultivating professional connections that are just as easy as keeping everything in linkedin.

Re: Stop Using LinkedIn

#202

Post by austinz »

MagicWishMonkey wrote: post #50

LinkedIn screwed me over real good a few weeks back. They sent me an email saying "There are 108 people you might want to connect with", so I click on view all and it shows a giant list of people with checkmarks by their names. Nice. I uncheck all of them, and scroll through checking a few folks who I want to network with (5 people in total). Click next, it takes me to a screen showing the 5 people and the banner cle…

I heartily recommend everyone with a Google account follow that link and double-check your security and allowed app settings. (Also take some time to go through your app-specific passwords and revoke any that aren't relevant anymore.)

In addition to being good practice in and of itself, Google is currently doing a promotion where they'll increase your Google Drive space by 2 GB if you go through their security checklist (see link below):

http://googledrive.blogspot.com/2015/02/safer-internet-day-2...

Re: Stop Using LinkedIn

#203

Post by patmcc »

whybroke wrote: post #147

One of the more disturbing issues with linkedin goes almost unnoticed: For what possible reason does linkedin effectively mandate a photo? Because while I can not think of any reason this could possibly be necessary for any profession except super model, I can certainly see how it can be used in a very negative way.

I find it helps in recognizing connections - "Susan Smith? That doesn't ring a bell...ohhh that Susan, I guess she married and took his name."

But I take your point, it can absolutely be used in a negative way.

Re: Stop Using LinkedIn

#204

Post by BorisMelnik »

fsloth wrote: post #193
rnovak wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't understand why anyone would give any entity access to their email, it's really baffling. I personally see LinkedIn as horrible, and deleted my account long ago. They don't let you restrict who can view your profile, and they allow people to remain anonymous. For anyone who cares about Privacy, this should be a huge no-no.

I agree, the email access thing is crazy. Both from a feature side and that someone would agree on it. However, I would claim the fully visible profile is actually a feature. LinkdedIn is not Facebook. LinkedIn is a professional index, like the yellow pages, with the difference that the minimum inclusion is free.

> LinkdedIn is not Facebook. LinkedIn is a professional index, like the yellow pages,

with the exception that LI is a social network, where the goal is to interact, rate, and comment on different scenarios

Re: Stop Using LinkedIn

#205

Post by jsprogrammer »

FD3SA wrote: post #120
btipling wrote: post #25

API issues aside, I recently deleted my LinkedIn account and my life has been better off for it. My recruiter spam volume dropped from daily emails to maybe two or three times a month. I'm not sure if LinkedIn provides any value, I've never gotten a job that way. I think stalking people on social networks is also a net negative experience. I realized I should spend less time worrying about what other people are doing…

Agreed with all of your points, but I'd like to add that your employment history is very personal and can quite often be used against you in ways you wouldn't imagine ahead of time. Just like any personal information, its best to keep it as private as possible and default to a "need to know" basis. The era of naively optimistic voluntary sharing of sensitive personal information ended when we saw the potential conseq…

>Information asymmetry is power in the modern world.

And likely favors those who place lots valid information into the world, not those who keep it secret.

Re: Stop Using LinkedIn

#206

Post by din-9 »

BorisMelnik wrote: post #204
fsloth wrote: post #193

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, the email access thing is crazy. Both from a feature side and that someone would agree on it. However, I would claim the fully visible profile is actually a feature. LinkdedIn is not Facebook. LinkedIn is a professional index, like the yellow pages, with the difference that the minimum inclusion is free.

> LinkdedIn is not Facebook. LinkedIn is a professional index, like the yellow pages, with the exception that LI is a social network, where the goal is to interact, rate, and comment on different scenarios

I would argue that it is a professional index dressed up for non-recruiters as a social network.

Re: Stop Using LinkedIn

#207

Post by eridius »

TylerJay wrote: post #136
monochromatic wrote: post #93

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The assholes sent 300 people linkedin connection requests through my own personal gmail account. With zero warning whatsoever. The fact that they requested access to your email account should have been warning enough.

Isn't it more likely that they just sent the emails themselves but used his email as the "Reply To" address? A lot of software systems (SalesForce, Hubspot, etc.) do that too.

That would instantly get flagged as spam by virtually everybody if SPF is enabled on his domain. And yes, gmail.com seems to have SPF enabled.

Re: Stop Using LinkedIn

#208

Post by cstejerean »

basseq wrote: post #72
MagicWishMonkey wrote: post #50

LinkedIn screwed me over real good a few weeks back. They sent me an email saying "There are 108 people you might want to connect with", so I click on view all and it shows a giant list of people with checkmarks by their names. Nice. I uncheck all of them, and scroll through checking a few folks who I want to network with (5 people in total). Click next, it takes me to a screen showing the 5 people and the banner cle…

I don't think I ever granted them access, but somehow they got a list of random email contacts. So every once in a while I'll get an email that says, "Connect with Joe?" Looks like a normal inbound connection request, but it's actually a trap to get YOU to initiate a request. Awkward for contacts you might accept a request from, but not reach out to.

Are you using an Android phone? I noticed this too with LinkedIn and it happened immediately after installing LinkedIn on Android. Never happened in previous years while using iOS.

Re: Stop Using LinkedIn

#209

Post by ddxv »

MagicWishMonkey wrote: post #50

LinkedIn screwed me over real good a few weeks back. They sent me an email saying "There are 108 people you might want to connect with", so I click on view all and it shows a giant list of people with checkmarks by their names. Nice. I uncheck all of them, and scroll through checking a few folks who I want to network with (5 people in total). Click next, it takes me to a screen showing the 5 people and the banner cle…

Thank you. I posted that on LinkedIn to spread the word.

Re: Stop Using LinkedIn

#210

Post by vsl »

eridius wrote: post #207
TylerJay wrote: post #136

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn't it more likely that they just sent the emails themselves but used his email as the "Reply To" address? A lot of software systems (SalesForce, Hubspot, etc.) do that too.

That would instantly get flagged as spam by virtually everybody if SPF is enabled on his domain. And yes, gmail.com seems to have SPF enabled.

That would only be true for only some recipients (by far not "everybody") only if Google's SPF record forbade other SMTP servers with -all. It doesn't, it uses ~all soft-fail.

Why? Precisely because of this: there are lots of perfectly legitimate situations when a third party sends email on your behalf.

Moreover, if LinkedIn signs their outgoing emails with DKIM, that would be a positive signal for a spam filter (and e.g. Gmail would show such mail as "sent via LinkedIn" or something to that effect).

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