Never thought I'd say this but I find myself on the same side of an issue as Georgia's premier loudmouth and omni-challenged Congressional representative, Marjorie Taylor Cretin.
We both have a beef with Silicon Valley.
She, for spreading disinformation, public health lies and seditious rhetoric that tears at the pillars of our democracy. And me, for, well I don't exactly know.
Mind you I'm no stranger to FaceBook Jail, and have spent accumulated months locked out of the insidious platform. To be honest, it stung at first, but compulsory breaks from the Kardashian of Social Media Networks was actually a godsend. In fact my many 30 day suspensions had a calming effect on my easily ignitable social justice temper.
Similarly, I've drawn the ire of Twitter TOS folks in the past and been booted for weeks at a time. And again suffered no ill effects.
Recently, however, I've run afoul of LinkedIn, where through no fault of my own, I have created a network of more than 10,000 connections. Just before my recent vacation I was informed that my LI connection had been suspended.
I don't know if any of you have had this unfortunate experience, but it is not pleasant in the least.
To get back on you must provide proof of identity and then wait for an appeals board to review your case. But try to find out what you said or did to trigger a wholesale suspension of indeterminate length and you will find yourself in a quagmire of corporate bureaucracy on infuriating BOT steroids.
"To learn more about incident 14593-984, please visit the Help Center"
Of course, to visit the Help Center you have to be able to log in, which is impossible pending a decision from the appeals board.
To make matters worse, I have been receiving emails from the LinkedIn Support Center.
These emails are written by a panel of AI assistants with human sounding names like Megan, Laura, and Kelly. When I attempt to reply to the emails, I am regularly informed that correspondence with the appeals panel will only be accepted from recognized email addresses.
"AAAAaaaaargh!!!"
I'm replying from the email address you sent an email to, I scream at my computer monitor, to the horror of my neighbor, whose house is just 8 feet away.
At this point I am SOL.
Which doesn't bother me except for the fact that I have actually done a lot of good on LinkedIn. And I say this not as a humblebrag. For one thing the platform gives me a bullhorn to distribute this blog, which is not as well read as George Tannenbaum's Adaged, but liked by many -- so I'm told.
More importantly, I've been able to help many young people just starting out in the business, either as a writer or as someone seeking advice or connections. Just last week I paired a friend of Ms. Muse with my former employers at PayPal.
I don't want to seem too softhearted here (cause it doesn't fit my brand) but I thoroughly enjoy helping others navigate the business world. Mostly by telling them not to make the same mistakes I have.
Like pissing off the TOS folks at LinkedIn.
I've since penned a letter to the CEO at LinkedIn and am hoping to get reinstated. Until then, I hope you'll look for R17 here. Keeping my hunting and pecking fingers crossed.
--------------------
If you'd like to see me back on LinkedIn, feel free to drop a line to our vocational overlords, I would very much appreciate it.
No comments:
Post a Comment