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LinkedIn is a Virus

a.wholelottanothing.org

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Re: LinkedIn is a Virus

#71

Post by dgudkov »

mikevm wrote: post #68
qdog wrote: post #29

Rule 1: Make sure your linkedin password is not the same as your gmail password. I've tried to login to linkedin a couple of times in too much of a hurry, thinking I was logging into linkedin from some request and not reading the actual page. Luckily my passwords are different. I'd have to say I'm not sure how someone who is tech savvy can knowingly give a company their gmail account info and expect nothing bad to ha…

>I've tried to login to linkedin a couple of times in too much of a hurry, thinking I was logging into linkedin from some request and not reading the actual page. Luckily my passwords are different. Believe it or not, this had happened to me. I mistakenly typed in my Gmail password. When I realized this I started hating LinkedIn with a passion. They're a spam company. That incident made me stop using easy to remember…

Time to use 2-step verification.

Re: LinkedIn is a Virus

#72

Post by chintan »

rscale wrote: post #70
chintan wrote: post #59

Here is an example of another LinkedIn Virus (or may Crunchbase-linkedin virus), that I experienced the other day and got really pissed. 1. Go to this page: http://www.crunchbase.com/company/facebook 2. Click on the "In" Widget 3. It says X connections work at Facebook. with "X connections" hyperlinked. There is another link below that says "Follow Facebook" 4. Now you'd think that clicking on "X connections" will sh…

How to unfollow a company: 1. Go to this page: http://www.linkedin.com/companies?dspFllwed=&trk=hb_tab_... 2. Click 'Stop following' under the company you wish to stop following.

Thanks but I still have the status that "I'm following " that I cannot remove

http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/3003

Re: LinkedIn is a Virus

#73

Post by megablast »

Bjoern wrote: post #26
jpdoctor wrote: post #11

My version: I was on the iPad, somehow hit a link to send invites to everyone on my "you might know" list. Much embarassment ensued. Surprisingly, about 75% of people who I've never met (online or IRL) accepted the invite. I'm not exactly sure why Linkedin is worth a damn anymore.

That explains why $random people I've never met send me connect invites. I normally ignore them, but still waste time trying to figure out if its important or not. -.-. Can one safely ignore all these "Business" networks? Wonder what people get out of it.

I have a help button in my iOs apps, so that people can send me emails if they have a problem or a question. This email account gets a couple of linked in invites a day.

Re: LinkedIn is a Virus

#74

Post by EvanKelly »

Bjoern wrote: post #26
jpdoctor wrote: post #11

My version: I was on the iPad, somehow hit a link to send invites to everyone on my "you might know" list. Much embarassment ensued. Surprisingly, about 75% of people who I've never met (online or IRL) accepted the invite. I'm not exactly sure why Linkedin is worth a damn anymore.

That explains why $random people I've never met send me connect invites. I normally ignore them, but still waste time trying to figure out if its important or not. -.-. Can one safely ignore all these "Business" networks? Wonder what people get out of it.

I'll connect with someone in my field and location, because those are the connections I hope to foster with LinkedIn.

One of the weirder things I've experience is people "endorsing" my skills. Many of which are skills they've certainly never seen me use. I assume they were doing it for some sort of reciprocal endorsement, but I don't want my name attached to someone's skills that I know nothing about.

Re: LinkedIn is a Virus

#75

Post by INTPenis »

sc0rb wrote: post #22
seiji wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

LinkedIn was designed to clone myspace, but for grownups instead of high school kids. It's essentially myspace for realtors.

I've found linkedin to be massively useful when looking for new contracts. I'm a contractor based in the UK.

Thanks for changing the perspective on this story.

Look, I know linkedin's reputation so when I finally signed up, to keep in touch for jobs btw, I made sure not to click things without reading first. It's as simple as that. :)

Re: LinkedIn is a Virus

#76

Post by jpdoctor »

EvanKelly wrote: post #74
Bjoern wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That explains why $random people I've never met send me connect invites. I normally ignore them, but still waste time trying to figure out if its important or not. -.-. Can one safely ignore all these "Business" networks? Wonder what people get out of it.

I'll connect with someone in my field and location, because those are the connections I hope to foster with LinkedIn. One of the weirder things I've experience is people "endorsing" my skills. Many of which are skills they've certainly never seen me use. I assume they were doing it for some sort of reciprocal endorsement, but I don't want my name attached to someone's skills that I know nothing about.

> but I don't want my name attached to someone's skills that I know nothing about.

The endorsements are a particularly bad move by linkedin. I've been endorsed for all sorts of things; Knowing what I've been endorsed for, I don't know why anyone would assign any credibility to those items on their website.

Re: LinkedIn is a Virus

#77

Post by bsg75 »

crygin wrote: post #62
bsg75 wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valid points, but they don't support the unnecessary flame bait in title. A virus is something completely different from an inconsistent UI.

And a viral pathogen is different from a computer virus, but that term has been adopted because it effectively used an existing term to clarify the behavior of an unfamiliar phenomenon. Like both, LinkedIn uses subterfuge to coerce a host into propagating it, often against the host's best interests.

The blogger and his intended audience likely know the dangers of biologic and technologic pathogens. I don't buy the "but I didn't know it was not a good idea to practice safe contact(s)".

There is a wider implication when people who should know better about safe practices don't apply a little common sense. Claiming "virus" in this case removes personal responsibility.

If someone savvy enough to blog about technology voluntarily exposes their contacts, how will the general public ever be expected to act in a safe manner and thus limit social engineered privacy and security breaches?

Re: LinkedIn is a Virus

#78

Post by corin_ »

mdlthree wrote: post #5
ghshephard wrote: post #3

I'm willing to wager that the "ease" by which this "feature" is executed was not entirely by accident (supporting the headline's premise).

I tried LinkedIn Pro as a try free for 30 days . This required a credit card as it will bill you if you forget to cancel. After a week or so, I was unimpressed and canceled. Or I thought I did. $150 later and three months of not seeing the recurring transaction on my credit card I realized that I had not clicked the right buttons to cancel. I felt cheated by deceptive UI design.

I've found a lot of LinkedIn's UI to be unintuitive even in areas where they have no motivation to confuse you, even when it comes to upgrading to Pro - my conclusion was incompetence rather than malice.

Side note: happy LinkedIn Pro user here, well worth the cost at least in my case :)

Re: LinkedIn is a Virus

#79

Post by Justsignedup »

shadesandcolour wrote: post #40
qdog wrote: post #29

Rule 1: Make sure your linkedin password is not the same as your gmail password. I've tried to login to linkedin a couple of times in too much of a hurry, thinking I was logging into linkedin from some request and not reading the actual page. Luckily my passwords are different. I'd have to say I'm not sure how someone who is tech savvy can knowingly give a company their gmail account info and expect nothing bad to ha…

A lot of those websites scan your address book and show you people that are already on the site and then ask you to send emails to people who aren't. It's reasonable to not know that 11,000 people would be on linked in. Also Linkedin isn't exactly a website that he "wasn't sure about". Everyone knows what the site is and does. Also your Rule 1 is kinda silly. I guess as long as I keep the passwords to those to sites…

Believe it or not, I blame this entire incident on Google, not LinkedIn.

Reasons?

a) you sign in using google. That is actually a REALLY GOOD PRACTICE because it gives you lots of benefits of oauth (I can de-authorize an account).

b) you only have the one password to remember, which is good for most people.

Why it's bad? Because when signing in, the other side can ask for details from your account and the best you can do is say "yes" or "no" and if you accidentally said yes, it's plowing though user preferences (something most people can't do) at google.

What should happen instead? An intentionally slow experience.

a) user clicks the sign in with google+ or whatever.

b) user is presented with option "allow/deny access for XXXX domain to log in with your credentials"

c) user is now presented with (all default off) options to allow sharing of data. There is a big message up top saying "these options are not required for you to log in with your google account. You may lose some functionality, but will not share any extra data with the 3rd party"

Vuala. Everyone is better off.

Re: LinkedIn is a Virus

#80

Post by bsg75 »

fghh45sdfhr3 wrote: post #15

All of social networking is a virus. They all rely on viral growth, viral "features" are often pushed despite no one liking them (see everything Facebook ever did). And most disturbingly if they succeed in growing big enough (Facebook again) then not having one can become a bit of problem in real life. Of course LinkedIn is a virus. It's what works.

"Viral" and "virus" often have different meanings in a technological / web context.

Compare: "Cute cat video goes viral" vs. "Cute cat download contains a virus"

Then compare: "Linked grows with viral features" vs. "LinkedIn is a Virus" (with capital V).

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