Comments on: LinkedIn and Out and In Again

By: Michael M. Butler

Michael M. Butler — Mon, 18 May 2009 01:23:57 +0000

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.

By: David O'Dowd

David O'Dowd — Sun, 17 May 2009 05:35:02 +0000

You did!

By: Michael M. Butler

Michael M. Butler — Sun, 10 May 2009 07:57:51 +0000

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?

By: Michael M. Butler

Michael M. Butler — Sun, 10 May 2009 01:50:04 +0000

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!]

By: David

David — Wed, 06 May 2009 20:04:41 +0000

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.]

By: Dumitru

Dumitru — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 22:09:57 +0000

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!]

By: Bramblejam

Bramblejam — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 21:28:19 +0000

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.