7 ms·

I deleted my LinkedIn profile years ago. The amount of spam I was getting from them was ridiculous (the owner of the pizza joint next door wants to add you, etc

I deleted my LinkedIn profile years ago. The amount of spam I was getting from them was ridiculous (the owner of the pizza joint next door wants to add you, etc.). The final straw was when someone pointed out to me that unless you keep it up to date, it reflects poorly on you. And I had no interest in doing that.

visarga 9y ago
I deleted mine too, but recently I wanted to see someone else's page and was not allowed. Not even a detail shown without login.
- jasonkostempski 9y ago
  Make a fake account using a throwaway email everytime you want to view a page.
- kuschku 9y ago
  If your referrer is from Google, they actually do allow you to see public detail. So just override referrer header, and you'll see a lot more.
  - pmlnr 9y ago
    Doesn't work for me either, at least not with cURL.
    - BenjiWiebe 9y ago
      Don't forget that you have to misspell Referer.
      - pmlnr 9y ago
        !!! I'm having a really bad day with typos and overlooking them. You are correct; it does work with https://google.com https://google.com as referrer. I'm updating the entry. EDIT aaand it stopped working. It was either a glitch or it will lock you out after a few requests.
        OkGoDoIt 9y ago
        It definitely locks you out after a few requests. In the past I built a LinkedIn profile scraper, but they are really really good at locking down their data. If you even somewhat appear to be a bot, you’re blocked.
        flukus 9y ago
        Can it differentiate between a bot and a human opening up a dozen links in tabs? I suspect the tumblr one can't, it appears to rate limit me for using there archive pages.
  - deleted 9y ago
    [deleted]
- JBlue42 9y ago
  That's what the linked post is about, no? How a public profile isn't really public.
kirykl 9y ago
A hiring manager told me recently I need to work on “curating [my] linked in presence” in response to how I could position myself better for the job
- nvr219 9y ago
  Sad but true. Clients look me up on linkedin (I know because they mention it to me) and I'll bet if I didn't have a linkedin page they'd think that's weird.
  - throwanem 9y ago
    It also, if you invest a little effort to produce an appealing profile, does a great deal to make up for weak face-to-face networking skills. The "LinkedIn, faugh, who needs it" attitude around here really doesn't do an introvert any favors, I think.
    - IgorPartola 9y ago
      Why not host your own resume?
      - throwanem 9y ago
        No reason not to do both. But if you only do one, LinkedIn has discovery benefits that are very hard to equal with self-hosting.
      - nvr219 9y ago
        I do both.
      - apple4ever 9y ago
        Actually, that's a good point. If you don't want to do linked in, then host one on your own site, and make sure its on your resume.
  - apple4ever 9y ago
    I know I do. If you applied and you can't even keep up a decent LinkedIn, why should I interview you? Or better yet, trust you?
squarefoot 9y ago
Same here, I unsubscribed about 10 years ago and never regretted, but although choosing not to receive anything anymore, they kept pestering me with unwanted invitations until I contacted again them in 2014 and finally got completely deleted from their lists (hopefully).
astura 9y ago
I've never had a LinkedIn account and I still get spam from them. The "so and so wants to connect with you on LinkedIn."
- stareatgoats 9y ago
  Technically this is because Linkedin asks to be given access to a user's contacts (phone, email or otherwise) and then displays the contacts as people possible to connect to, regardless of whether the contacts are members already or not. No doubt some manager with shady ethics thought this a very clever way to expand the number of users.
- robin_reala 9y ago
  I used to just delete LinkedIn emails but started to hit unsubscribe on each email I got, one month after another. That lasted for 6 months before I flipped and said that this was the only warning I’d give that they’d be taken to court if they ever emailed me again. Not a single email since that point, so an internal blacklist must exist.
- aendruk 9y ago
  You can preemptively add yourself to their "do not contact" list: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/426 https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/426 I did it four years ago and they've honored it since.
  - alxndr 9y ago
    The captcha on that page is broken in Chrome 63.
enobrev 9y ago
I did the same and still received spam from them for a couple months. After contacting them, it stopped, but I still get "networking requests" from real life friends and colleagues every so often. I assue those are just because I'm in these people's contact lists or something.

visarga 9y ago

I deleted mine too, but recently I wanted to see someone else's page and was not allowed. Not even a detail shown without login.

jasonkostempski 9y ago
Make a fake account using a throwaway email everytime you want to view a page.
kuschku 9y ago
If your referrer is from Google, they actually do allow you to see public detail. So just override referrer header, and you'll see a lot more.
- pmlnr 9y ago
  Doesn't work for me either, at least not with cURL.
  - BenjiWiebe 9y ago
    Don't forget that you have to misspell Referer.
    - pmlnr 9y ago
      !!! I'm having a really bad day with typos and overlooking them. You are correct; it does work with https://google.com https://google.com as referrer. I'm updating the entry. EDIT aaand it stopped working. It was either a glitch or it will lock you out after a few requests.
      - OkGoDoIt 9y ago
        It definitely locks you out after a few requests. In the past I built a LinkedIn profile scraper, but they are really really good at locking down their data. If you even somewhat appear to be a bot, you’re blocked.
        flukus 9y ago
        Can it differentiate between a bot and a human opening up a dozen links in tabs? I suspect the tumblr one can't, it appears to rate limit me for using there archive pages.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
JBlue42 9y ago
That's what the linked post is about, no? How a public profile isn't really public.

kirykl 9y ago

A hiring manager told me recently I need to work on “curating [my] linked in presence” in response to how I could position myself better for the job

nvr219 9y ago
Sad but true. Clients look me up on linkedin (I know because they mention it to me) and I'll bet if I didn't have a linkedin page they'd think that's weird.
- throwanem 9y ago
  It also, if you invest a little effort to produce an appealing profile, does a great deal to make up for weak face-to-face networking skills. The "LinkedIn, faugh, who needs it" attitude around here really doesn't do an introvert any favors, I think.
  - IgorPartola 9y ago
    Why not host your own resume?
    - throwanem 9y ago
      No reason not to do both. But if you only do one, LinkedIn has discovery benefits that are very hard to equal with self-hosting.
    - nvr219 9y ago
      I do both.
    - apple4ever 9y ago
      Actually, that's a good point. If you don't want to do linked in, then host one on your own site, and make sure its on your resume.
- apple4ever 9y ago
  I know I do. If you applied and you can't even keep up a decent LinkedIn, why should I interview you? Or better yet, trust you?

squarefoot 9y ago

Same here, I unsubscribed about 10 years ago and never regretted, but although choosing not to receive anything anymore, they kept pestering me with unwanted invitations until I contacted again them in 2014 and finally got completely deleted from their lists (hopefully).

astura 9y ago

I've never had a LinkedIn account and I still get spam from them. The "so and so wants to connect with you on LinkedIn."

stareatgoats 9y ago
Technically this is because Linkedin asks to be given access to a user's contacts (phone, email or otherwise) and then displays the contacts as people possible to connect to, regardless of whether the contacts are members already or not. No doubt some manager with shady ethics thought this a very clever way to expand the number of users.
robin_reala 9y ago
I used to just delete LinkedIn emails but started to hit unsubscribe on each email I got, one month after another. That lasted for 6 months before I flipped and said that this was the only warning I’d give that they’d be taken to court if they ever emailed me again. Not a single email since that point, so an internal blacklist must exist.
aendruk 9y ago
You can preemptively add yourself to their "do not contact" list: https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/426 https://www.linkedin.com/help/linkedin/answer/426 I did it four years ago and they've honored it since.
- alxndr 9y ago
  The captcha on that page is broken in Chrome 63.

enobrev 9y ago

I did the same and still received spam from them for a couple months. After contacting them, it stopped, but I still get "networking requests" from real life friends and colleagues every so often. I assue those are just because I'm in these people's contact lists or something.