

Linkedin Answers Shuts Down - JimWillTri
http://help.linkedin.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/35227
And I just started looking at them a few days ago.
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meritt
LinkedIn needs to shut down endorsements next. I'm tired of people endorsing
me for skills they don't actually lend any credibility to. Although I'll admit
it's fun to counter their generosity by endorsing them in Alcoholism and Horse
Training.

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adrianhoward
I've managed to get "coffee" to #6 most endorsed in my Skills & Expertise....
I suspect that I'm not taking it as seriously as LinkedIn thinks I should ;-)

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brk
For a while I had "trolling" listed on my profile, then one day it just
disappeared.

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adrianhoward
Bravo Sir/Madam ;-)

Reminds me of a friend who had "X's hobbies include lying about his hobbies,
lists, and the Oxford comma." on his CV.

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donretag
Has LinkedIn launched any usable features (Endorsements and LinkedIn Today do
not count IMHO) in the past few years? They removed Events, Answers, Github
integration, job search agents and others. Groups are basically spam
repositories. Not sure exactly what they are working on.

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unomateo
I haven't heard of any major enhancements or killer features. The last time
LinkedIn as in the news was when they released their iPhone app

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Angostura
A shame. I found Answers actually a great place to network virtually. In the
old days, before it was hidden, I used to answer a couple of questions a week
and made sure I did it well. Made some nice new connections and actually
garnered some work that way.

In comparison, I find he Groups noisy and pointless.

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simias
Was it popular? I had never heard of Linkedin Answers before today, what was
it exactly? Something like stack overflow?

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unomateo
Yes it was popular... The majority of business owners are not techie. They
probably do not know about StackOverflow. So answering questions asked by
business owners on Linkedin was a great way to make an impression. The biggest
problem with with linkedin it that it's just overrun with requiters and social
media experts. It's not professional anymore.

Answers evolved from a Q/A section to a just another portal for a social media
expert to just refer to someone in their network. It was really annoying...
The shutting down of Answers should be a warning to anyone that is trying to
build credibility on a network, it can close at anytime and all your
answers/reputation is gone

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codegeek
In my opinion, linkedin answers were far better than the groups. Groups are
easy to start but hard to maintain and keep engaged. I have learnt that the
best way to keep audience focussed is to give specifics which answers can do
better than a group. For example, creating a group called "Python developers"
might attract a few folks but what do you do when you join it ? A more
specific question like "What technology stack is used by python developers for
web" will definitely attract a more engaged conversation.

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adrianhoward
_In my opinion, linkedin answers were far better than the groups_

That's damning with faint praise - being better than groups isn't a very high
bar ;-)

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mnicole
So true, are there any worth joining? The UX/web design/CSS ones are jokes and
so are their [multiple] G+ counterparts.

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pestaa
This is the first time I hear someone saying this about G+ groups. I've felt
this way ever since people wanted to move to G+ just for its own sake.

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mnicole
Yeah, I'm not sure if user-generated groups were the way to go with that one.
I have no idea which of the ten with the same name are worth joining, so I
don't join any at all.

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codegeek
I have successfully used Linkedin 3 times in last 6 years to secure a contract
job.I was able to do that due to a very niche profile and well connected with
similar co-workers in the industry. That is where the strength of Linkedin is:
networking/connections with your co-workers. I can keep tab on my ex and
present co-workers as to where they are, what they are doing and if they could
be useful to me for a next gig or reference etc. The recommendation feature
can be useful _if_ done well. I have a decent number of recommendations but
all are from actual co-workers I worked with on many projects and I ask them
to be specific if they do want to give a recommendation. Generic ones are BS.

Everything else like endorsements (the most useless feature) groups, answers,
job postings are mostly crap and does not really add much more value than
other existing career sites.

For example, if I am interested in a person/company, I try to look them up on
linkedin. Their profile tells me what I need to know if they have relevant
information listed. To an extent, I could care about their "answers" or group
activity but does it really mean much when the newsfeed says "X person just
joined IT professionals group". Sure, other than the fact that I already know
he is IT professional.

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adam_lowe
meh, I don't know if accountants and lawyers gave that any use but never even
looked or thought about that for questions or research. Linkedin is a good way
for non-technical people to see a non-technical profile for you. They should
just be focus on being good at that, job postings (which aren't that
great/overpriced) and a company directory.

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Tekker
I liked the "Was this answer helpful?" at the end. Nice touch.

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Snoptic
Congrats. Halfway to the ultimate goal.

