This is known for quite a while, but well, since they bothered me, why not restate the fact that they suck in terms of respect of the users?
Note: real names and addresses have been modified, but everything else is legitimately LinkedIn®.
I've received this message a few times, ignoring it at first, but they kept annoying me:
John Doe
Employee at Example
Ok, so a typical message (in French) asking me to add John Doe to my LinkedIn account. But wait, the e-mail address in question is not in my LinkedIn account! So LinkedIn actually wants to "convert" me. Notice the tone: John Doe wants and not LinkedIn wants. This would be mostly OK, except that... they keep spamming me again and again, every week!
If John Doe really wanted to join my network, he would at least know that I have one, right? Nice way to blame the user there.
If I click on the link, they take me to the registration page:
A nice touch here: the Email field is readonly, which means you cannot change your mind and put another e-mail. Why? Well, they confirmed the e-mail exists when you clicked on the link anyway, so they are just making sure you don't change your mind... but without disabling the field, if you just happen to prefer another address (say, Professional.Full.Name.email@example.com), you spend your time trying to understand why Backspace and Delete suddenly stopped working. Nothing in the UI indicates it is read-only.
So, I suppose I'm fair game since someone just sent my e-mail address to LinkedIn. Notice the small text below the message:
Vous recevez des e-mails de rappel concernant vos invitations en attente. Se désabonner. [You receive e-mail reminders about pending invitations. Unsubscribe.]
Oh, cool, so I can unsubscribe. But wait, I never actually subscribed to anything in the first place! So all it takes is a random user to add me to LinkedIn's server, and voila, they just triggered a spam machine which will either force me to admit "OK, I'm weak, I admit this e-mail address is actually being read by a human being by clicking on your Unsubscribe link for something I never subscribed", or I have to actively treat their messages as spam. Either way, it surely looks like LinkedIn is so desperate they are resorting to spammy ways... but this is not new anyway, so why am I complaining...?
This is what the unsubscription page looks like:
They are honest here, but still blaming the user: you are receiving these emails because a [bastard evil goddamn] LinkedIn member invited you....
No, wait, I'm receiving it because you want to spam me and just found a stupid justification to do so. Don't blame the user, LinkedIn, he didn't spend his time writing and sending me the e-mail, you did it!
Bonus points for those who find the e-mails of LinkedIn's CEO's family members and