I used to be a big LinkedIn fan as recently as November 7, 2008. As of a few moments ago, I now loathe LinkedIn. Here’s why: LinkedIn deleted my profile image because the image was not an image of me. It was an image of my business logo. Here’s their removal letter that just hit my Inbox:
I couldn’t believe what I was reading — that LinkedIn image policy is idiotic, dangerous and actually anti-business — but, sure enough to my weeping eyes, this is what I found when I visited my LinkedIn profile: No image!
Here is the craven image LinkedIn removed without notice. It is the “B.U.” logo for my “Boles University” company:
Here is the text of the letter I just shotgunned back to the LinkedIn Idiots:
Dear LinkedIn Customer Service —I am writing to protest your removal of the image attached to my profile. You didn’t give me fair warning. You just removed the image. That’s no way to run a business or treat a paying customer.
I am a paid member of your service. My image was my company logo.
I do not understand or condone the requirement to place an actual image of the person on your LinkedIn profile and I do not comprehend how you are policing that the “face attached to a profile” actually belongs to the person.
The “your face or nothing” requirement is clearly unenforceable and untenable on your end — unless, of course, you decide as in my case to discriminate against non-facial images.
Because of your hasty reaction — I have had death threats on the internet and I’m not interested in helping provide my hopeful killers a blueprint of how to recognize me offline — I have deleted the three groups I started on your service; I have removed LinkedIn links from my 13 websites and 11 blogs and my email signature; I have made all of my profile private.
I am asking for a refund of the remainder of the $199.95USD monies I paid to have an business account.
By removing my image you instantly made your service less desirable and more repressive and I no longer want to pay for that humiliation.
I am also in the process of recanting my support of your service as evidenced in this review:
http://urbansemiotic.com/2008/11/07/linkedin-creates-circles/
Please reply to confirm the amount you have returned for the remainder of my paid subscription and that you have also successfully cancelled any and all possible renewal of my paid subscription on your end in the future.
David W. Boles
http://BolesUniversity.com
As a record of my determination, here is the proof of my deletion of the popular “American Sign Language” group I created:
Here’s the evidence of the deletion of the “Dramatic Writing” group I created:
Here is the confirmed deletion of the “David Boles” networking group I created for the 14 other “David Boles” people on LinkedIn:
I removed the LinkedIn buttons for all Authors on the Boles Blogs Network Author Pages.
I liked LinkedIn a lot, but now I realize it isn’t the right company for me to help promote.
I guess now I’m stuck with Twitter for all my business networking needs.