Getting Banned on LinkedIn - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

In the course of the last two years, I have been posting essays on the weblog of The IEEE Consultants Network of Long Island and then selectively announcing those essays to fifty LinkedIn groups. At this writing on September 29, 2012, I have posted two-hundred-twenty-five essays on that weblog.

I say "selectively" because not all of my topics have been suitable for every group. For example, the topic "Coil Shielding Choices" did not get announced to the "Long Island Business Group". It would clearly not have fallen within that group's range of interests. Similarly, the intentionally humorous item  "Skeletor's Virtues" did not get announced to the "RF and Microwave Community" group. I felt that it was way too far off-topic.

Sometimes though, I find myself pondering if this item or that should or should not be brought to the attention of this or that group. The decisions can be difficult to make.

For example, "Transformers With Tertiary Windings" did not get announced to the "IEEE Dielectrics and Electrical Insulation" group even though it was a high voltage issue that led to the transformer design work. In hindsight though, I think maybe I should have put it there even though I didn't.

In spite of my trying to be selective however, there have been some group owners whom I have unintentionally offended. The following are some examples of groups from which I have been banned along with my guesses as to the reasons why. 

Consultants Network 

I was banned from this group after posting a series of technical items on a variety of topics. I suspect that there were more posted items from me in the course of approximately a month than the group's owner wanted to see coming from just one person, that it was a case of too much coming too fast.

ARMMS RF & Microwave Society

I was banned after posting two items that were critical of the security of RFID systems. I made reference to other publications in stating the case.

HVDC Professionals

I was banned from this group after posting a question about wires' physical movements under the influence of an applied high voltage of 20 kVDC. The level of only twenty-thousand volts was not considered a "high" enough voltage to be a suitable discussion topic for this group.

Electronic Component Counterfeit Prevention Network    

I was banned from this group after posting an essay about somnambulism, a public health issue that was recently an article topic in Scientific American Mind and about which I related both family and personal experiences. Although this was an item of general interest, or so I thought, that appears to have been another case of being too far off topic according to the group's owner. However, the item has appeared elsewhere on LinkedIn. It was well received, by readers in other groups, some of who offered anecdotal commentary in reply.

 

There have been other bannings too, but these several will suffice to make the point which is that some people will harbor motivations, attitudes and agendas which, to my view, are misguided at best but which cannot be modified (intransigence) and which will lead to acting out in keeping with those harborings.

They are traits that need to be accepted and dealt with as best as possible and, yes, as in venting by writing this essay. ( I admit it.)

Did I get it wrong regarding the reasonings of the owners of these groups? I can't read minds so maybe I've misread their motives, but at a gut level, I don't think so.

 

Comments

[EM Spectrum Engineering Group]

All I would ask is that the discussion topic be directly linked to the Group subject. I would probably never ban you (unless you started blatant spamming); I would just delete posts that I didn't feel belonged. And I can see how some group owners would get tired of the multitude of posts from one person... :-)

[Mary Winch]

Hi John,

I love your articles...you are a great story teller but I don't know why you were banned from the Electronic Component Counterfeit Prevention network by Linkedin. I removed the Sonnambulism article after a member complained it was off-topic but I didn't ban your postings.

Whenever I want a break from the monotony or a laugh I read one of your articles, in fact I shared some of the mathematics experiences with the Grey Nums of the Sacred Heart at Blessed Sacrament grammer school in Jackson Heights, NY...I guess their profession made them sticklers for the rules (formulas). Of course this was before calculators and proving the answers was not an option at the time.

Mary.

[John Dunn]

Hi, Mary.

What is and is not suitable for any specific group can be a troublesome decision to make.

Where a topic is highly specific to a particular technology, I make posting decisions that are quite limited.

For example, spurious resonances in quartz crystals was very much a topic for the "RF and Microwave Community", but was not suitable at all for " IEEE - CPMT" (Packaging) because the moderators of both of these groups have fairly narrowly defined interest areas. I see nothing wrong with that decision on their parts.

However, more broadly addressed technical groups such as "Engineering Design Professionals" or "Sherlock Ohms Investigators" would get everything from "MOSFET Thermal Runaway" to "The S-100 Bus" to "How To Kill An ARC-210". I think that any technical topic in any discipline is fresh meat for those groups.

Non-technical topics are another matter.

Some of my non-technical postings were in deadly earnest. "The Drug" was about a personal medical experience that might have led to drug addiction except that I was aware of what I was facing. That one was very difficult to write.

Others are merely mildly advisory as in "Avoiding Burn-out", intentionally entertaining as in "Solfeggio" with its reference to Ernie Kovacs, anecdotally significant such as "The Teaching Experience" or just a small diversion such as "Ghoti" about George Bernard Shaw.

All of the non-technical posts share something in common, however. I would consider them to be appropriate for posting on every group of which I am a member unless I have discovered that a particular moderator would object and once having made that discovery, I refrain.

In any case, Mary, thank you for your kind words and your action regarding that group.

All the best.

John

[Claude]

John,

I'm not going to attempt to analyze why you may have been banned from certain Groups.

Here is my understanding of why these Groups were formed "to allow a forum for individuals that share a common area to have an open discussion about topics within that area".

Perhaps posting entire articles that interest you falls outside of that relam. Another approach would've been to say "I found an article on this topic, does anyone within this Group have an opinion or have experience with this?"

Although I must say if you were banned from HVDC for "posting a question about wires' physical movements under the influence of an applied high voltage of 20 kVDC" - then I think the Moderator owes you an explination.