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Spam on LinkedIn

Connections on LinkedIn are ranked by alphabetical order. So if your name is Aarsen, you will show up first on everybody's profile. As a side effect, people with many connections tend to be linked to people with artificial names, such as Aaaarsen. These "fraudsters" initially link to you via their real name, but over time change their name in order to appear at the top of each of the thousands of profiles they want to "hijack".

Why hasn't LinkedIn think of a system where connections show up in a random order on your profile, rather than in alphabetical order? Wouldn't this strategy fix many spam problems?

Tags: social networks

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Permalink Reply by Ralph Winters on July 5, 2009 at 3:27pm: Yes I agree randomization would be better. It might take a large chunk of programming time for them to rewrite. It is probably is not high on their priority list. The scenario you describe also makes it easier for 'bots to know the relative positions of someones connections. I would suggest posting the question on Answers, and putting it out there. It seems at least in terms of fairness the "A" people should not show up before the "W" people (myself included!)

-Ralph Winters; ▶ Reply to This