I just quit two social job sites, and I don't expect I'll start using another one. After several years' membership I find that my occasional hillbilly-style urge to peek through the work-life curtains of acquaintances is not outweighed by the cons:

  • Spam, Spam, Spam, Spam, lovely Spam! Lovely Spam! I hesitate to think that I've received even half a dozen useful messages through these sites, and those would have been just as useful via email. That means even the occasional junk mail is pushing the statistics up the >90% range.
  • Giant productivity sink. Did you ever have "100% completion" on your profile? How long did it take until it was back at 80%? And how many giant lists of people, skills and options have you gone through to "optimize" your participation?
  • Sites selling my information to third parties really grinds my gears. With "we can do anything we like, anytime we want" legalese, "You are not being watched" propaganda and the impossibility of keeping up with opt-out data sharing schemes, it's hopeless to keep any kind of privacy.

This list is starting to look a lot like the reasons for leaving Facebook. So good riddance! Those who know where to find me (without having bought my contact information) know that they're welcome to.