In Which I Go All Ranty McRantsalot Over an Incident on LinkedIn

[kaasirpent]

I'm on LinkedIn, which, if you're not familiar with it, is kind of like FaceBook, but completely for professional contacts. You use it to network with former/current coworkers and friends and family, and their professional/family/friend contacts can then more easily see people that their trusted connections have trusted, and so on.

But all that's just background.

On LinkedIn, there are groups you can join. Like alumni groups or professional groups, or groups for fans of the Dallas Cowboys or cheese or whatever. But, mind you, much more professional than the same kinds of groups on FaceBook.

Really.

I'm in a group called Writing Mafia. It's for people who write, professionally or not. Yes, I always find writing groups, no matter where I go. :) There are 5100+ members of this group. Members can post news items or start discussions (but it's very much not like FaceBook! Really!) on topics that are of interest to the group. There are guidelines for what you can do both on LinkedIn in general and some groups in particular. One of these guidelines is that hawking services or advertising is against the Terms of Use. The purpose of News and Discussions in groups is to provide information and be a resource for others in the group, not to spam them. (You probably see where this is headed.)

Today, I looked at the list of new discussions and this one leaped out at me:

Hire a ghostwriter to become author in 3 months

Hi

One of my friends is published author . He is available to ghostwrite a complete book for anyone interested. His area of expertise is Motivation, Fiction, Selling/Marketing, Leadership.

He will charge 4000 USD for writing a book of around 120-125 pages.

If you want to be author and enjoy recognition, then please contact me at:

xxxxxxxxxxx@gmail.com

Regards

Sara Xxxxx

Now, maybe it's just me (it's not; keep reading), but when I read this, I was extremely insulted. The idea that someone would ask $4000 for writing a book of only 100 to 125 pages...and the idea that anyone would actually do this and take credit for someone else's work.... [I'd like to interject here that I know 'ghostwriting' is a supposedly 'legitimate' thing and that people do it all day every day. Whatever. It is against my nature to take credit for something I didn't do. It really hit a nerve.]

Well, needless to say (because this is my journal and I'm writing about it), I couldn't keep my mouth shut.

Wow. This is the most insulting thing I've seen in a long time.

You have some kind of nerve posting this in a group of writers. Go peddle your nonsense somewhere else.

Now, granted, I could have used a less...dismissive choice of words, but I checked this person's public profile and it was apparent that she had only joined LinkedIn to do this very kind of thing (she has only ever posted one thing to any group, ever: this one), which is quite against the Terms of Use of LinkedIn.

Well, she certainly showed her true colors quickly enough.

[Kaa], this group is for writers then what are you doing here.How many books you have authored. You are bald not from outside but from inside also. Read the group profile before pissing on people. The group is also meant for projects.

There is no debate. Obviously I can't go for pissing match with skunk.

Heh! Right for the jugular! So I'm "bald not from outside but from inside also," whatever the hell that means. And apparently, I have some vague relation to a skunk. That pisses. Whatever. She could have brought up that I'm fat and old, too, which she could have gotten from my profile picture. I'm surprised she didn't.

This, boys and girls, is what our very own Skippy would refer to as an ad hominem attack. In other words, instead of attacking my argument—which she could easily have done; as I admitted, I could have been less dismissive—she chose instead to attack me personally.

Of course, I replied.

Oh, and we go RIGHT for the personal attack. There you are folks. That's what Sara Xxxxx is about. Treat her with the respect she so RICHLY deserves.

I figured that would be it.

In some alternate reality that bears no resemblance to this one. Only I expected to be the one getting slammed, because that's how it usually goes.

From "Sean"

Sarah Xxxxx (the mind reels‽) —- slamming people here is probably not the best way to drum up business for either you or your "friend"... just an opinion.

From "Mark"

Is this group not moderated at all?

It's one thing to mention your own services after providing advice and suggestions in the spirit of mentoring and good will.

The folks who blatantly solicit (looking directly at you, Sara Xxxxx), hawk their wares, or try to build up their affiliate networks are something else entirely. It's getting tiring. The Writing Mafia needs to live up to its name and get a couple of wiseguys in here to bust heads and take names.

Well, good. I wasn't the only one who was offended.

But it gets better. I showed the above sequence to a friend of mine and when he looked at Sara's public profile, he said, "Wait. I know this person."

o.O

A few minutes later, he IM'd me. "Heh! I don't know her, but I do know the woman she stole the picture from."

Our lovely Sara had posted a picture of singer Sara Bareilles and blatantly misrepresented it as herself. Next to her picture was a tiny link that said "Report this picture as..." so I clicked it and reported it as being Sara Bareilles, which violates the Terms of Use. LinkedIn immediately removed her picture.

Then I noticed that Sara listed her company name and that she'd only been there less than one month, and was the Recruitment Manager at her headhunting firm.

I sent the following to Sara privately, so the rest of the group didn't get annoyed with it.

Does your employer know that its recruitment manager goes around personally insulting people in public? Not very professional, I'd say.

Neither is using Sara Bareilles' picture as your own. (From the "Terms of Use" document: "[Do not] upload a cartoon, symbol, drawing or any content other than a photograph of yourself in your profile photo." So unless you're the singer, that violates the ToU.)

What also violates the Terms of Use is advertising services on LinkedIn, such as ghostwriting.

Finally, I was going to report her to her superiors at her company. Not just because she'd pissed me off, mind you, but because if a company has a Recruitment Manager that goes around hurling personal insults at total strangers in a public forum, they need to know.

Problem: I discovered that her company is only ever mentioned one time that Google has seen.

That's right: in Sara's public LinkedIn profile.

I'm betting there is no company, she has no employer, and that she's a big ol' trolly troll who does this kind of thing all over the Internet.

I'm sorry this dragged on for as long as it did, but I felt ranty and decided to indulge. I haven't ranted in a while.

Comments

[slymongoose.livejournal.com]

Er... I though that the x's in "Sara Xxxxx" were blanking out the real info, like her last name. But those "Xxxxx"'s were really there?
Hmrf.
I smell Phish. And Greed. And Bullsh*t!

[kaasirpent]

No, they are blanking out something. I'm protecting the guilty as well as the innocent ("Sean" and "Mark").

[ladywhy.livejournal.com]

LOVE how you handled that! Bravo!

[bramblekite.livejournal.com]

awesome!

Sounds like a russian spammer to me. The first email was grammatically sound enough, but it broke down when she had to compose something on the fly.

Troll!

[kaasirpent]

She claims to be in Pakistan, which is why I raised no issues with her language or grammar. English grammar and spelling is hard enough if you were born into it; it's insane if you're trying to use it as a second language.

She was hoist by her own petard quite well without anyone needing to reference her use of English. :)

[lepusdomesticus.livejournal.com]

I have this "friend." No, no, really. Well, I'm not a linguist, but my guess is that the spammer is the ghostwriter (wow! I read a mystery like this once!) and creates bogus profiles to try to get money from gullible people. I was going to say that the grammar sounded like his first language is Russian, but I could believe it was something else. But I rather suspect that when he gets the $4000, he never writes a book. ; )

Oh, and if it makes you feel any better, everyone is bald on the inside. Even skunks. ; D

Anyway, I know this was extremely annoying at the time, but your description of the incident made me laugh.

[kaasirpent]

I always try to make these things humorous because in trying to do that, it helps me to see it in perspective. If you see me frothing at the mouth and ranting, it's usually because I've not taken the time or spent the effort to back away and try to view it through calmer eyes. :)

[kaasirpent]

But that being said, I was never frothy at this. I was appalled at it and disgusted by it, but her personal attack was so inept it created its own humor.

[skreeky]

If you're hairy on the inside you need to get that treated right away.

[kaasirpent]

Oh, no problem. Apparently, I'm bald in there, too. :)

[skreeky]

I'm pretty sure that's a good thing.

[bloomchen.livejournal.com]

Are there hairy snakes? Silly Sara.

[kaasirpent]

Actually....

There are hairy bush vipers. And they're kind of cute. If you like snakes. :)

[tonysalieri.livejournal.com]

Niiiiiice!