

LinkedIn's Most Glaring Deficiencies - dohertyjf
http://www.annielytics.com/linkedins-most-glaring-deficiencies-and-how-to-get-around-them/

======
Peroni
The most laughable 'feature' used to prompt users to upgrade to a premium
profile is the attempted obfuscation of 3rd party connections.

Step 1: Find a 3rd party connection whose name is displayed as First Name +
Surname Initial (eg. Steve B.). You'll find that none of their work history is
displayed.

Step 2: On the right you will see a list of "People who viewed this profile
also viewed..." Click on someone who works for the same company or has a
similar job title.

Step 3. On this new profile take another look at the "People who viewed this
profile also viewed..." list and 99% of the time you will see the original
obfuscated profile with the full name on display. Go ahead and click on their
name.

Step 4: View their full name & profile without any need for upgrading.

~~~
serendipitee
Oh, this is awesome. Would you mind if I included this workaround in the post?
If so, is there a link I can include to give you credit?

~~~
Peroni
By all means. You can link to my twitter handle @StevieBuckley.

Great piece btw.

~~~
serendipitee
Thanks! And I updated the post with your steps. I hope you don't mind that I
changed "third party connections" to "third degree connections."

~~~
Peroni
_...to get users to upgrade to Premium is the ability to third degree
connections_

Missing the word 'view'

~~~
serendipitee
Derp. Fixed.

------
TomAnthony
How is it even to their benefit to remove the 'Mark as Spam' button? Makes me
so angry. YOu'd thought they'd be fed up with this sort of coverage by now:

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5680680](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5680680)
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5357427](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5357427)

~~~
serendipitee
I love how they even reference the Report as Spam in their help file when
there is no option to be found. Anywhere. Talk about getting caught with your
hand in the cookie jar.

Pro tip: If you're going to remove an [essential] option from your network, at
least update your help files!

------
kephra
my main problems with LinkedIn are:

\- LinkedIn is not designed for self employed, startup owners or freelancers.
They provide no way to opt out of job advertisements, like "Foobar posted a
job you might be interested in:", or "Jobs You May Be Interested In", "Get
hired faster with Job Seeker Premium" and many more.

\- LinkedIn traps people to give it their IMAP password, so they download the
mail contacts and SPAM everyone. And by SPAM I mean, they put this mail
contact into the From: header, so it looks first like a real mail from your
contact. ( Both are in illegal in Germany, so I wonder that nobody send them
(LinkedIn Germany GmbH, Maximillian str. 35a, 80539 München), a cease and
desist. And when we talk about a cease and desist, they do not show their
German postal and contact address to their German customers, as
Impressum/Imprint.

\- Nothing happens, if you flag a group posting as inappropriate. But _lol_ a
group posting goes away completely, if you flag it as job.

~~~
serendipitee
I'm not sure I followed you on the last one. Why would a group posting go away
if you flag it as a job?

Also, would you mind if I add these to the post? If not, is there a link I can
provide to credit you? The first one has bugged me a lot. I just forgot about
it. It's insulting to get emails from LinkedIn telling me they found me a job.
I don't want one. It's like your mother or best friend telling you she found a
really nice man for you to meet ...

~~~
kephra
I dont know why - I think its a bug - the posting also does not appear at the
groups job tab.

You can use the URL from my HN profile.

~~~
serendipitee
Okay, I added your observations. Thank you!

------
ceautery
"The thing I hate most is that LinkedIn comes across as very desperate"

Absolutely. There are also many users desperate for visibility, clogging their
tech boards with low-quality posts. I became so fed up with the atmosphere
there that I closed my account.

I hope that I never need a platform like that to market myself.

------
FreakyT
The thing that has continually bothered me is that the "publications" section
still won't allow you to create papers on which you're anything but first
author. No one there must have ever worked in academia at all, since typically
you include papers on your resume even if you weren't first author.

~~~
serendipitee
I added your observation. I didn't know about this. If you'd like me to add a
name/link, I'd be happy to do it.

------
jennita
I literally spent 45 minutes one time trying to figure out how to un-friend
someone on LinkedIn.

~~~
serendipitee
I think that is by design ...

