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LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

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Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#211
post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They used to give guidance about what 'know' meant and I still adhere to the 'I will only link with you if I have properly worked with you' line. The fact that few other people do have devalued its use.

At some point, LinkedIn changed its mind and decided that you should connect to anyone you're barely acquainted with and/or have exchanged an email with. They're actively encouraging forming these "devalued" links. They even use shady practices like borderline forgery of invitations.

To be fair, there is evidence that weaker ties can be highly valuable in job search: http://changingminds.org/explanations/theories/weak_ties.htm

For this reason, I'm somewhat lenient in adding LinkedIn connections, as long as I at least have some idea who the people are. Unfortunately, many connection requests are from people I've never met before.

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#212
post #14

Honestly I am feeling a bit of joy watching LinkedIn take a hit. Not because I think their product is terrible but because of the endless spam emails I keep receiving from them, despite how many times I click unsubscribe.

One of my biggest technological accomplishments and one of my biggest improvements in quality of life is when I finally managed (after 2 years of regular attempts) to delete my LinkedIn account and halt all emails.

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#213
post #202
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or how about the phony "people you may know". They suggested I may know my 4 year old Niece because somebody uploaded the email address created for her into their system. She definitely doesn't have a LinkedIn account, but they portray a profile-photoless "shadow profile" as-if she does.

If you read the button it's not an CTA to connect with her but a CTA to invite her to LinkedIn. She would then get an email basically saying "Uncle Uptown would like you to join LinkedIn!" Agree it's scummy and they are mixed in with actual folks on LinkedIn but they are not creating shadow profiles.

This is on mobile. It shows her name, her email address, and a circular button with a human silhouette and a plus symbol on it. All in a section titled "People you may know". The implication is absolutely that she is a user of the site.

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if that's why the manager of a Grease Monkey endorsed me for parallel algorithms... I see bogus endorsements so often.

My mom has endorsed me for literally every tech under the sun without knowing what any of it means.

I've been endorsed by very close friends, who absolutely know what the endorsements are for, for things that I don't actually have any experience in. There's no way they could have been doing the endorsement intentionally.

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#219
Over the years I've been either a freelance IT consultant or the head of an IT consultancy. I never got a client from LinkedIn, no one that worked for me ever got a client from LinkedIn, and more broadly, no one I know has ever got a client from LinkedIn. I'm sure they have some purpose (public resume database?) that I'm not clear on, but their value from my perspective is 0.

Re: LinkedIn shares drop 40%, erasing $10B of company's value

#220
post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It would probably be pretty trivial to set up a filter or two to automatically delete those emails. Or maybe just leave your account open (though it sounds like you would refuse to do this on principle). I never receive emails from Facebook. I think it's a bit extreme to cheer for hackers to take down a big company just because they send you a few emails. How much time has it really cost you, in total, to delete thei…

Exactly. If it's 5 minutes per 1 billion customers, 5 billion minutes wasted. That's 9512 years. 135 lives.

This calculus doesn't make much sense. Multiply any enormous number of people by a few minutes and you'll get hundreds of lives equivalent time.

That's pretty much the kind of fallacy behind "if all people on Earth give 10$ for we can solve ."

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