LinkedIn and Out and In Again
If you ever wondered what happens when you quit LinkedIn and then come back again, I can report that all your contacts will be gone. I expected that. But I didn’t expect that the recommendations I wrote for other people would also disappear. To those for whom I wrote recommendations– sorry! I thought they would persist.
Anyway, I quit LinkedIn last August, after feeling fed up with complete strangers asking me to connect with them. But I’ve decided that the hassle is worth the reward.
So, if you were connected with me before and want to reconnect, go ahead. Sorry for the flip flopping!
February 23rd, 2009 at 1:28 pm
I think this is the issue Facebook recently tripped over. Your recommendations are your property, so if you go they go too. I think there are quite a few decisions yet to be made about the circumstances around leaving social networking sites and what we expect to be left behind.
February 23rd, 2009 at 2:09 pm
Indeed interesting.
Even though you weren’t expecting this, now, looking back do you think it is the right thing to do? Having everything in mind, usability, friendliness (if I may say so), privacy and so on.
[James' Reply: It's not the way LinkedIn should behave. They warned me that my contacts would go away, but did not warn me about recommendations, and they didn't warn anyone else, either. So, at least one person I had recommended thought I was angry with him and had revoked his recommendation. The system should have generated messages to the LinkedIn inboxes of my contacts advising them that I had left. God knows they generate lots of other messages!]
May 6th, 2009 at 12:04 pm
I feel bad for adding you to my linkedin profile recently now. O well sorry about that…
[James' Reply: Did I accept your connection? If so then congratulations, you win. I don't accept everyone.]
May 9th, 2009 at 5:50 pm
As I’ve mentioned elsewhere, I’ve so far not used LinkedIn beyond figuratively dipping my toe in, because I decline to accept its design (or lack of it). The final straw for me was pretty soon after I created my account, when I found out that for me to list another LinkedIn client as a colleague, I’d have to specify a company we both work[ed] for and a set of dates.
BZZZT. Thanks for playing, LinkedIn, but “colleague” does not mean “co-worker”, and I refuse to pretend that it does. I’ll just have to manage my career without your asinine procrustean broken “design”.
Do I sound judgmental?
[James' Reply: Yeah, that sucks!]
May 9th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
The real downside on this is: You, James, have been my colleague for going on 21 years now, but we only worked together at Apple for six months. So if I play their game, who ends up looking stupid?
May 16th, 2009 at 9:35 pm
You did!
May 17th, 2009 at 5:23 pm
Thanks for clearing that up, Mr O’Dowd. I’ll be sure to pay close attention to all your posts in the future. I’m sure I’ll learn a lot.