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Comment by gwbas1c | Hacker News Reader

I hardly look at LinkedIn. Why?

Two reasons:

- I don't need another Facebook

- I get so much connection SPAM from LinkedIn that I consider LinkedIn one of the biggest cesspools on the internet. (Mostly recruiters who I've never worked with trying to connect, but sometimes people trying to connect as a way to promote their business.)

If they (LinkedIn) better policed connection SPAM, I'd use it. Maybe I'm in the minority; but constantly getting connection requests from people who I don't know is a major turnoff to me.

That being said, IMO, the observation that LinkedIn has a good tone to its conversations makes it an attractive alternative to platforms like Facebook where the tone turns toxic.

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> I get so much connection SPAM from LinkedIn that I consider LinkedIn one of the biggest cesspools on the internet. (Mostly recruiters who I've never worked with trying to connect, but sometimes people trying to connect as a way to promote their business.)

In my case it's mostly the latter that drives me nuts and happens very frequently.

LinkedIn's official Community Guidelines[1] have this to say under the section "2. Be Professional" -> "Honesty and Authenticity":

> Do not invite people you do not know to join your network

You used to be able to report people for abusing that policy by saying "I don't know this person" after you declined the invite. However, LinkedIn are phasing that functionality out[2].

If LinkedIn wasn't overflowing with incessant spam, then it could actually be a valuable service for professionals. However, it's mostly a waste of time because there's zero quality control.

[1] LinkedIn Community Guidelines - https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/34593?lang=en

[2] Removal of "I don't know this person" - https://www.reddit.com/r/linkedin/comments/ccaky7/linkedin_r...

> You used to be able to report people for abusing that policy by saying "I don't know this person" after you declined the invite. However, LinkedIn are phasing that functionality out

Because Microsoft realizes that the only people who actively use LinkedIn are recruiters and foreign outsourcing salespeople (posing as hot girls) trying to weasel into the networks of people they don't know. Monetizing what used to be unacceptable behavior on the network is the only way for them to make it profitable.

> - I don't need another Facebook

> - I get so much connection SPAM from LinkedIn that I consider LinkedIn one of the biggest cesspools on the internet. (Mostly recruiters who I've never worked with trying to connect, but sometimes people trying to connect as a way to promote their business.)

I deleted LinkedIn for these reasons two. I was on the platform for years and not once ever got a job out it. Why bother?

If you want my resume, I'll send it to you. If you want to see my work, go to my website.

Yeah the recruiter spam is terrible.

I'm interested in opportunities... I have zero interest in most of the recruiter contacts I get that are just "spam everyone with a single keyword that matches this job / waste their time".

I had a linkedin recruiter tell me about part time job positions at Target, via text message. What part of my resume says I'm looking for part time retail work and wanting it texted to me??

I hear ya man.

I worked in the datacenter networking industry for 20 years and changed careers. Some of that time could be called "tech support". Then I decided I wanted to do something new so I went into web development.

So what do I get for spam?:

- Overnight desktop support roles ... some that talk about windows 98 (what the hell...).

- Tons of Java inquiries... I don't know Java but JavaScript is on my resume.

- Tons of semi related web dev roles but looking for Sr. people with 10 years experience and I've got all of 1 year experience.

All total wastes of my time. And that's near 100% of my unsolicited contacts.

I get lots of messages from recruiters, but they're either in a neighboring state, or in a part of my state that I live nowhere near.

"I see you were a janitor for three months and you also worked part time as a hand on a construction site during high school. Well based on your experience I thought you would be a great fit for an opportunity I have right now for a contract Maintenance Professional at $NAME Regional Vocational School. If you think you like variety in the work you do, have a great work ethic, and are not afraid of a challenge please contact me at $EMAIL!"

As if on demand I just got my first recruiter spam txt message. Thanks man, I think you cursed me.

I haven't worked in Java since college and my first job out of college was tech support in 2001. To this day, I still get recruiter SPAM for Java dev and L2 tech support roles. Nevermind that I've been a SQL Server Dev and DBA for the past 16 years!

Simple solve is to remove those keywords from your profile, and only keep keywords for jobs you want. Even changing Java Developer title to something generic as Software Engineer.

Many Recruiters/Sourcers spam everyone that come up in their keyword search and don't read the profile.

I think mentioning any kind of tech ... now you've got a keyword there.

Software Engineer is going to be a keyword too.

I love when they tell me they're impressed by my experience it tech that I've never used. I know that they just write a generic message and shotgun blast it to as many people as possible, but it's still so annoying to read.

Yeah, I never say that I've had anything to do with SharePoint or ColdFusion online because then I either get people who want to sell me something indescribable or want me to clean up a mess that's older than some of you.

The way to deal with recruiter spam (and drive up wages) is to ask for a breakdown of the expected range of total compensation.

Do not budge until you get this (do not take a call).

It forces them to put skin in the game and gives you information on market rate for your time.

Even if you have already made up your mind that you are not interested, I do this and then disengage by saying sorry that is below my market rate.

My point is that recruiters should not be trying to add themselves to my network. They should be contacting me via messaging.

The fact that LinkedIn allows this usage pattern pretty much turns me off of the entire site.

You're talking about a step waaay further along in the process. I'm not currently looking for a job, and my linkedin profile says as much. Despite this, I still get so many recruiters asking to add themselves to my network that I ended up blocking those notifications from linkedin entirely, which probably has resulted in me missing non-spam requests from people I actually would want to connect with. I'm not going to waste my time responding to spam.

Don’t they make money off of the spam? Recruiters pay for premium access and they can send you a message. Then a few days later LinkedIn will remind me AGAIN that “Sanjay from Recruiting Associates in Bangalore wants to connect, WHY HAVENT YOU MESSAGED HIM”. Then if you accept they’ll let you know about a low pay 6-month contract in a programming language you don’t know halfway across the country.

But don't you enjoy being reminded of each of the work anniversary of your 600 linkedin contacts?

It's the first thing I check when I wake up in the morning!

To be honest those emails are more interesting than 90% of the emails I receive.

One of my coworkers never put in his college graduation date. Apparently he's been in undergrad for 9 years! I'm impressed.

I became so annoyed with LinkedIn I added every filter I could think of to block all email that even mentions LinkedIn. I don't care if I miss opportunities. I like the freedom from distraction .

You can configure your email preferences and you can even delete your account. Setting up filtering rules on the word "LinkedIn" in the body of any email doesn't seem like the best strategy to me.

You really can’t configure your email preferences. I have unchecked spam boxes on LinkedIn’s configuration page no fewer than 5 times in the last 5 years, but they keep inventing new categories and default-enabling them. They know exactly what they’re doing, and it isn’t nice.

Connection spam is LinkedIn's business model, it's not likely to go away.

You can tune your privacy settings and make it a lot more usable. Also, never ever instal the app on any of your phones.

That’s what I did and it’s working fine for me.

Also, it’s nice to have sone kind of social network without the drama of other social networks.

Last but not the least, sometimes some old ex-colleagues manage to sneak an old onside joke in a comment or in a review, and that makes me smile and brings good memories back to my mind. I sincerely appreciate this last thing as I do not have a Facebook profile.

One way to reduce connection spam is to change the primary CTA on your profile from Connect to Follow. That way it takes a few more clicks to send you a connection request.

See https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/now-you-can-switch-you...

I used to think linkedin was a low hanging spam machine but some people are claiming it does make useful networking..

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