LinkedIn Discussions Are Spam Magnets
I'm a member of several LinkedIn discussion groups, but my participation is lukewarm at best. One of the biggest problems is spam--the noise is drowning out the signal. There doesn't seem to be a way for moderators to review messages before they're posted or for participants to flag spam for review by moderators. As a result, a group I belong to that's dedicated to discussions of nonprofit social media projects includes the following off-topic messages:
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I'm a forum moderator on TechSoup and we hosts spend a lot of our time reviewing messages and deciding whether they're spam (many are spammy but not quite over the line). It can be a lot of work, but it pays off in a forum that's mostly signal. Part of the solution is having decent tools for managing spam.
Filed in Uncategorized 3 Comments so far
Robert on 11 Nov 2009 at 10:32 am #
I wrote LinkedIn about this issue a few days ago and received this non-answer:
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Dear Robert,
Thank you for contacting LinkedIn Customer Support.
We appreciate your concern for keeping LinkedIn a great site for all our members. Please understand that Groups are member-generated content and the primary responsibility for moderating group content lies with the group owner. They are provided with the ability to delete discussions or comments and remove problematic members. As the group owner, they are also given a certain degree of latitude for deciding the purpose of the group and what type of discussion content to allow.
Therefore, your first step should be to notify the group owner. You can locate the owner’s information by clicking on the group, then going to the Group Profile link to the right of all your group tabs. Click on their name to find the option to send them a message. You do not have to be connected to them to send them a direct message.
If you determine the group does not meet your expectations, your best option may be to leave the group and find one that better suits your goals.
Have a great day and thank you for being a valued member of our LinkedIn community!
Katie
LinkedIn Customer Support
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I replied suggesting that Katie try flagging a dozen spam messages to a group moderator. It requires pasting the subject or URL for each spam into an email. Who’s going to do that? Compare this to Craigslist, where I can flag a spam message with one click. Better yet would be tools to help moderators prevent spam from ever reaching a forum.
Chris Dumas From Donor Tools on 12 Nov 2009 at 2:55 pm #
Robert,
I totally agree with you and as a result I don’t really enjoy using LinkedIn groups. I know that our staff try really hard to create and add value to conversations. It is really annoying to see so many spam posts and in the end it makes the service harder to use for it’s intended purpose. For sincere, relevant and helpful posts to cut through the noise is tough.
I know it is a lot of work for you and the other TechSoup moderators to keep the forums clean. Thanks for helping keep the online world cleaner and more usable.
Patricia on 25 Mar 2010 at 5:52 pm #
I agree with you wholeheartedly about this problem. I noticed it when I first joined LinkedIn about 9 months ago and soon after decided to start my own group. The most frequent kudos I get in messages continuously is that it’s virtually spam-free and discussions truly stimulate dialogue.
While some might consider it overzealous of me, I DO keep an eye on those who ONLY post and never comment or discuss anything. I also quickly remove those thinly veiled discussions with a link leading elsewhere. I think what I find most disturbing is that many have groups that are huge in numbers but the content is so lousy and no one is sharing in discussions.
I have also mentioned this problem to LinkedIn and received a similar non-reply. If we could rally up enough people to send this request I’d hope they’d figure out how to add at least a few features to help we well-intended group owners to moderate our groups and keep them attractive for the better-intended members.