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I actually thought this service made LinkedIn somewhat useful. It's a loss for LinkedIn in my book. I have no idea what API changes caused this, but all this

I actually thought this service made LinkedIn somewhat useful. It's a loss for LinkedIn in my book. I have no idea what API changes caused this, but all this process of closing down ecosystems by locking down the public APIs makes the next public API less likely to be adopted, and we all lose in the end.

timdorr 13y ago
They are "upgrading" all app tokens to require their new scoped login system, which they've been using for new apps for the past couple years. It's a better system for the consumer, because the app has to specifically request access to information like your list of connections or email address. However, it also comes with a requirement to refresh your oAuth token every 60 days by sending the user through the authorization flow transparently. JCN relied on an infinite session to continually poll your connection list and send you an email when anyone changed jobs. Users visited their website once and then left, interacting with JCN almost exclusively via email. There's very little chance of re-engaging them to go log into the site (and thereby refresh their oAuth tokens) because there's almost nothing to do there.
- pieterhg 13y ago
  They could easily send an email with a link to renew the OAuth token after 60 days though.
- matznerd 13y ago
  why not just send them an email telling them that they need to re-auth to continue receiving notifications? Seems pretty simple to me...
  - timdorr 13y ago
    I'm a cofounder on a competing product (http://my.salesloft.com http://my.salesloft.com) and you would be surprised at how much of an uphill battle it is to get email users to engage with a web app. In particular, sales folks (our target market) are hard to convert. I can understand Roger wanting to shut down JCN rather than invest any more time and money on something that's not earning him anything directly.

timdorr 13y ago

They are "upgrading" all app tokens to require their new scoped login system, which they've been using for new apps for the past couple years. It's a better system for the consumer, because the app has to specifically request access to information like your list of connections or email address. However, it also comes with a requirement to refresh your oAuth token every 60 days by sending the user through the authorization flow transparently. JCN relied on an infinite session to continually poll your connection list and send you an email when anyone changed jobs. Users visited their website once and then left, interacting with JCN almost exclusively via email. There's very little chance of re-engaging them to go log into the site (and thereby refresh their oAuth tokens) because there's almost nothing to do there.

pieterhg 13y ago
They could easily send an email with a link to renew the OAuth token after 60 days though.
matznerd 13y ago
why not just send them an email telling them that they need to re-auth to continue receiving notifications? Seems pretty simple to me...
- timdorr 13y ago
  I'm a cofounder on a competing product (http://my.salesloft.com http://my.salesloft.com) and you would be surprised at how much of an uphill battle it is to get email users to engage with a web app. In particular, sales folks (our target market) are hard to convert. I can understand Roger wanting to shut down JCN rather than invest any more time and money on something that's not earning him anything directly.