

LinkedIn: You Are Fired. - jaredsohn
http://om.co/2012/04/12/linkedin/ 

======
angdis
I think that blog post was a bit hasty. Sure, I can see how LinkedIn might
have poor signal-to-noise for a well-connected venture capitalist type whose
job consists largely of making connections. It doesn't work for HIM, and
that's OK.

However, for many people it is an excellent way to keep in touch with
colleagues. It lowers the difficulty threshold for maintaining vital
professional contacts. For example, when I change jobs now, I don't have to
think about manually digging up all my former colleagues' contact info and
worry about pestering them with an awkward email about what I am doing. I just
update my status, and voila, the news gets out and I hear from folks if there
is anything interesting to them to say. LinkedIn is an awesome tool for job
hunting and a nice place to log your resume bullet points.

That said, it really sucks at the open-ended social functions. Discussion
groups are filled with incredibly stilted Q/A where everyone is fronting their
best "professional" face. It is enough to give me a headache just reading it.

------
therealarmen
Maybe this is old news, but I really like Om's blog layout. Content is front
and center with good typeface and size. Social buttons are easily found but
desaturated so as to reduce distraction. Commenting isn't locked in to one
auth system and encourages useful discussion. Does anyone know if this is a
blog theme or is it custom made?

------
ggchappell
Obviously this is supposed to be negative, but it contains one very positive
thing about LinkedIn:

> I will give them full credit for making it much easier than say Facebook to
> delete my account.

If it's true, then this is _important_ , the kind of thing that LinkedIn ought
to be pointing out on their main page, IMHO.

~~~
ricardobeat
Is it that important from a marketing pov? "Come to my restaurant, you can
leave anytime". You can tell from Facebook's existence that people don't care
that much about privacy.

~~~
ggchappell
Every restaurant allows people to leave. Pointing this out does not make any
particular restaurant stand out. But it does make websites stand out.

Also, we're not talking about privacy here. The question is whether signing up
for an account is a lifetime commitment. A FB account essentially _is_ a
lifetime commitment; I think it would be good if people understood that.
Apparently, a LinkedIn account isn't. That's certainly a plus in my book.

~~~
ricardobeat
Is it? Try <http://facebook.com/help/delete_account> (after deactivating).
You're only worried about the depth of commitment because your data is there,
i.e., privacy.

------
ricardobeat
Many people fail, for some reason, to understand that LinkedIn is for
business. I make a point of not adding anyone I haven't met in a work-related
setting, including friends. Just think of it as a directory, not a social
network.

------
CowboyRobot
LinkedIn is like voicemail, more annoying than useful.

My question is, since everyone seems to agree with this assessment, how did
they ever get all that IPO attention?

------
smashing
I use it as link juice for my projects. But since I'm not a head hunter, nor
do I enjoy being "hunted" then it is otherwise useless.

