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.
It's essentially myspace for realtors.
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. :)
You need to get out there and grow your network in person as well as online. Online should supplement what you do in real life.
I also only add recruiters that work in the specific technologies that I use, I also try and call these recruiters for a casual chat about the state of the market. Only recruiters that I get a good vibe from remain on my list.
This has resulted in me never being out of contract work for a few years now and my network now includes CEO's and MD's at very good companies who I have personally developed relationships with.
The power of linked in isn't building a giant list of everyone who is related to you, it's building a tiny list of really awesome people who have a tiny list of really awesome people who have a tiny list of really awesome people...
TL;DR: If you curate content, don't be surprised if the quality rises.
EDIT: This is the perspective of a more introverted type who tries to build fewer strong connections instead of many weak connections. If you can build and maintain many weak connections effectively, go ahead! I just know that I absolutely cannot maintain those well, and prefer to network with those who can and rely on them to maintain those connections.
But now that linked in is trying to monetize their platform and restricts you from seeing people outside of your immediate network it has become a connect to everyone network.
It has been interesting to watch how linked in's efforts to make money has been leading to the weakening of their platform.
Can one safely ignore all these "Business" networks? Wonder what people get out of it.
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.
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.
On LinkedIn, I accept all invites. It's my business contact data and if someone wants to get my business contact data in his LinkedIn address book, I am glad to provide them.
On other platforms, I am more restrictive. On Facebook for example, I only accept friend request from persons I know in some way or another.