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No way to deleted messages in LinkedIn
From day one of when internet messaging services were made available, whatever we received could easily be deleted.
Wether it’s because we read the messages or didn’t need them anymore, it’s always been “standard” to be able to DELETE (and permanently DESTROY) them.
And it just makes sense. Plain, common sense.
It’s the most fundamental of functions — like when snail mail (or “regular mail”, whichever you prefer) isn’t useful for us anymore, we can throw it out. It’s just how things are done. But NOT at LinkedIn. Oh! No, these folks have developed some kind of unexplainable “allergy against deletion”.
Case in point, all inbox messages, in your LinkedIn account, wether they’re…
- Received;
- Sent; or
- Archived.
…can NEVER be deleted!
Isn’t that just completely wicked?
For instance, if ten other members send you “invitations” every week, you’ll likely have hundreds of theses “declined invitations” floating around your inbox after just a few months. It’s unacceptable.
LinkedIn blog’s authors, such as “christman” seems to be purposefully ignoring the repetitive requests to implement a delete button, in the inbox.
So, LinkedIn is forcing its members to deal with a littered inbox system which is supremely counterproductive — why would LinkedIn, which is a network of “professionals”, allow for such a thing to happen? Well, that’s a question nobody seems to be able to answer and LinkedIn, itself, provides no explanation on this.
Advertising isn’t shown in the inbox area so it can’t possibly be that the LinkedIn admins want members to sift through old messages in the hope that such activity will generate a handful of clicks. No, it has to be something else.
Could it be sheer “coder laziness”? Like when web site coders decide it’s too much of a hassle to implement a “delete button” for any inbox message? That makes no sense either because the implementation of such a feature is very easy. So it’s something else… but what?
LinkedIn looks like it’s trying to pull wool over their members’ eyes with lofty comments about privacy like when Steve Ganz says “[...] we’ve always believed that users should own and control their data [...]” but what they fail to say (or “prefer not to say”) is that they too have access to all of our data.
But, that’s not all…
Ganz also states, for LinkedIn, that “[...] we firmly believe in users’ rights to privacy [...]” but that doesn’t say, in any way, that they’ll respect those rights! For a company that wants to “be clear” about everything, they’re “playing with words” all the time.
Just to prove that last point, Ganz adds “[...] we promise to continue to keep privacy firmly in focus [...]” but again, “keeping something in focus” doesn’t mean they’ll safeguard our rights, even from themselves.
Perhaps LinkedIn thinks its members are gullible and unintelligent but their doublespeak is exposing a somewhat intriguing agenda of theirs where they carefully (and apparently, purposefully) prevent their users from deleting their messages. Even MySpace allows that!
And perhaps that’s where the real answer to the “no delete button, in the inbox” lies.
For several years, messages have been accumulating in LinkedIn members’ inboxes, without any possibility to delete them. That’s just plain wrong. But LinkedIn doesn’t seem interested in discussing the matter or better yet, resolve it.
Because of this sorry state of affairs, perhaps members should think twice before posting their private information in a network where all of those “interesting details”, ending up in your inbox or someone else’s, may never be deleted, ever.
If LinkedIn is acting in your best interest, it just doesn’t end up looking that way, at all…
Tags: linkedin, delete, delete button, inbox, feature, business messages, contacts, privacy, member privacy, user privacy, use of information, archive, receive, send, messages, social network, business social network, rights, user rights, can’t delete email messages in inbox, linkedin inbox problem, no way to delete messages in linkedin
6 Responses to “No way to deleted messages in LinkedIn”
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You guys need to act on it. I am talking about the linkedin people. This is so ridiculous how you ignore so many people. People are starting to hate you for that!!! You will see the consequence in the coming future.
They have now a functionality to archive messages, but that still is not the same as deleting messages. Archiving is not the same as Deleting. People do not want their messages to be stored on servers forever. LinkedIn needs to get that “Delete” button in!
I agree with your article completely. It’s crazy that there is no delete functionality within LinkedIn’s inbox. I mean, come on – it’s 2009 already…get with the program or lose users to more efficient online networking tools. It’s that simple.
Anyway, great article. On a personal note – I don’t put my real email address out there for any web forum though – so if you decide not to publish my comment, that’s jiggy with me too…it’s just my personal policy not to share my email on random blogs.
Thanks – enjoyed your article!
I thought I was just missing some really hidden way to delete messages, so I did a search and ran across this article. I did think that a “social website” would not allow you to delete your own messages, because as others have stated archiving is not the same as deleting. Thank you for the information. Overall LinkedIn is not very user friendly so I only use it for certain types of activity, certainly not to its full potential.
As for why LinkedIn does this? Perhaps it is an agenda on the part of LinkedIn, but on the other hand maybe Reid Hoffman has a latent dissocial paranoid schizoprenic disorder that the public hasn’t seen until now. Either way this really does need to be fixed.
This has been an utterly unpleasant experience with LinkedIn and I am furious. I sent a very personal joke to a friend while inviting him, but now that innocent but very private remark is stuck in our mailboxes forever. No way we can delete it.
I am considering deleting my account. NOBODY has anything to do with private messages except for the people involved. One expects that deleting private messages is a universal feature in message systems, except for broadcast systems like Twitter, so it is not really something one should have considered before clicking the send button. It doesn’t make sense at all not allowing people to clean up their entire profile, private messages for gods sake! How professional, LinkedIn. Are you silently collecting dirty jokes or something?
I expect a delete button within a month or I am gone. Stupid clowns.
They probably keep them on record and allow prospective employers to see them… thats what I heard.