Pending Submissions - John Dunn, Consultant, Ambertec, P.E., P.C.

As a long time victim of LinkedIn's SWAM policy, my work has regularly been sequestered and sometimes outright blocked from many groups. A new SWAM problem has recently arisen however and with that discovery and my resultant inquiries, LinkedIn's so-called help staff strikes me as having met my call for help with intentional misunderstanding.

The following is my latest attempt to pierce that barrier. Of course, if anyone can shed some light on this issue, the input would be very welcome indeed.

From: John Dunn [mailto:jdunn4@optonline.net] 

Sent: Thursday, August 27, 2015 4:57 PM
To: 'LinkedIn Customer Support'
Subject: RE: Pending Sunmissions [Case: 150826-006169]

Sandra, as a LinkedIn rep, you should already know about this.

I am one of LinkedIn's many victims of SWAM (Site Wide Auto Moderation), an atrocious policy that has been the topic of written abuses and personal insults that came my way in the past from LinkedIn staff, most notably from Charles Caro, in response to my inquiries.

In essence, my postings to most groups are sequestered, held in abeyance, pending Group Manager review and approval, a process which might or might not actually take place. The result is censorship of my work by many individuals of genuinely dubious intent.

A typical scenario up until the last couple of weeks would go like this.

I would select a particular group such as this one.

After clicking on "Search", the following would appear.

To actually view my sequestered work, the next step is to click on "Pending Submissions" as shown here. Up until recently, doing so would yield a result as follows.   

I've superimposed a calendar to show that this particular item has languished in "Pending Submissions" in this group for nearly two years, thus demonstrating the folly of the SWAM policy.

Now though, the "Pending Submissions" function no longer works. It does not work on this PC with IE9 and Windows Vista and it does not work on my laptop with Chrome and Windows 7.  

Instead, on both computers, upon clicking "Pending Submissions", the display goes to this: 

Note the message: 'There was an unexpected problem that prevented us from completing your request."

I have underlined the key phrase of "... unexpected problem ..." which is quite apt in the present situation.

John

Comments

[John Dunn]

Part of the dialog that this situation has engendered is this:

LinkedIn Response (08/28/2015 08:54 CST)
Hi John,

I tried to replicate the issue and I also get the same error. I wish I had an immediate resolution for you., but this particular issue will need to be escalated to our internal research team.

I understand this may be frustrating but as soon as I get an update, I'll let you know.

Thanks for your patience in this matter.

Many thanks,

Samuel
Customer Experience Advocate

So, is anyone ready to make book on how long this issue will persist??

[Bob]

John,

Take a deep breath. I have seen many of your posts. You post the same thing to many groups and are often off-topic. They also come across as self-promotional. While you do have some interesting tales to tell I generally perceive of your posts as annoying or even spam. This is especially true when I move from group to group and keep seeing the same post over and over again.

It might help if you started one topic in a group and put all of your posts in that one topic rather than loading groups with multiple posts. It would also help if you were more selective in making sure that your posts are really relevant to the group in which you are posting.

[John Dunn]

Actually, Bob, I find your remarks quite offensive on more than one level.

I and others in LICN have sought to put out helpful information. Occasionally, someone comes along who takes a derisive attitude to that effort such as the fellow who objected to a write-up I did of stagger tuning of IF strips because he felt IF transformers were obsolete. I pointed out to him that there are many millions of those things out there and that if he were to encounter any, the knowledge that he would choose to spurn would be important.

There have been other cases like that as well.

Another matter is that many groups with similar titles and focus have significantly large non-overlapping readerships as with the LinkedIn groups "Analog & Mixed Signal Society", "Analog Circuit Design" and "Analog Mixed Signal" for example. There are other groups of groups with similarly overlapping interests and non-overlapping readerships. I would not hesitate to post analog related materials to all three of them for just that reason yet it seems that you would call that putting out "multiple posts" or spamming. I consider your attitude in that regard to be quite inappropriate.

Relevance is very much a consideration when I put material on line. Thus, I do not post power supply essays to "Electromagnetics and Spectrum Engineering Group". As regards the general consideration of relevance, I follow my own judgment, not yours, when making such choices. If someone objects, I take note, I consider the nature of the objection but I follow my own guidance. I do not accept directives.

More about the "Pending Submissions" problem later. That one has developed into quite a story in its own right.

[Bob]

John,

I offered my perceptions as feedback to you. Rather than acknowledging my perceptions and sincerely asking yourself "Why would he think that?" and "How can I understand his point of view?" in order to gain understanding and insight, you tell me how much you are offended and go on the defense by going on the offense.

So be it. I have offered my perceptions thinking they might be useful to you to understand the push back your are getting. Consider or discard my comments as you will, but I am done here.