The Fall and Rise of LinkedIn Site Wide Moderation.

LinkedIn's User Unfriendly Auto-Moderation System.

Recently +John White asked me what I thought about the "blue box" or "site wide moderation" system on LinkedIn. You know the one - where you get censored across every single group you are a member of for doing something "wrong" in one or two completely unrelated groups? Not so long ago there was a big push back on this from the user community,  precisely because it was totally unfair and unyielding. That was a rare victory for the users. It seemed like LinkedIn was starting to listen. We got it changed. It was then, later, quietly changed back again. Obviously, it's still in full force, as John had recently experienced it and was a bit annoyed to say the least!

So I thought I would take a look back at what I had written myself on the subject previously, to give a potted history of the affair for John and for the rest of the community too.

My records show that on 22nd September 2014, I posted on google+ that

"There is a growing dissatisfaction with the LinkedIn moderation system in LinkedIn's own community help forum" with a link to a heated outcry from many users in that forum. LinkedIn were roundly criticized for providing no input or engagement whatsoever. Their notable absence fueled the fire. In the google+ post, I also referred to earlier long text articles, now misplaced, where I had given detailed arguments about why it was so unfair a system and how it had real negative impact for businesses.

On 13th October 2014, I published a post entitled "Is this good news from LinkedIn for a change?" - this is what it said:

"Is LinkedIn's Self-Moderation System Fixed?

Is this an example of the power of social media campaigns?

Having been hammering this point across social media platforms recently,

I hear from +Steve Phillip in the Linked2Success group

<Just this morning, when commenting in a group, I noticed that the dreaded blue box read slightly differently, using the term 'this community'. I then got curious and checked out other groups I'm a member of and guess what?.....No blue box.
Maybe, LinkedIn is listening?!>

Maybe, indeed - listening to your customers is what social media is all about."

Two days later, I had the confirmation myself:

LinkedIn's modified blue box for single group moderation.

"Confirmation that the Dreaded Blue Box System is No Longer Quite as Dreadful

Now only group wide. But still dreadful due to automated system requiring  no human oversight."

Alas, the victory was short lived. On 8th December 2014 I posted

LinkedIn's return to site wide moderation.

 "Is The Dreaded Blue Box back?

Its back to across groups again?"

Indeed it was. Poor John. Unfortunately, I had to point out that it is only going to get worse according to LinkedIn. In an email sent to Group Moderators in February 2015 we were told

"To keep discussions on-topic, all groups will now automatically filter Job and Promotion posts. Also, when members flag a post as inappropriate, it will be removed more quickly."

A great way to block your business competitors. Or they you. So if you think it's ironic that we set up the LinkedIn User's Community using Google+, it's really for very good reasons indeed.