I'm on linkedin but I don't know why. People keep connecting me to and I'm not sure what it means. Is it like being "spoused" on Metafilter?

I don't use it professionally at all. I'm not linkedin with the people I currently work with.

ethylene .. I'd be honored!

I'm on LinkedIn. I'm connected to a bunch of people I worked with and currently work with, but I don't really USE it in the sense of working the network. I keep sort meaning to be more active in the groups, but it is more fun to come here and interact with y'all (or read relationship ask.me's).

I generally try to keep MeCha/MeFi jeoc separate from real-life [name redacted] because I sometimes use swears or complain about work or express unpopular social, political or religious opinions here and there. It seems like some folks have well-integrated online/IRL personas, but I'm not really one of them.

My identity isn't a big secret, though, so if you want go ahead and connect to me!

LinkedIn is really useful when you're job searching or starting a new job or just got back from a conference, and not so much else.

So why is your manfriend so busy linking people on linkedin?

I use Linkedin to keep track of ex-coworkers and classmates. I've learned the hard way that jobs and/or companies in the tech world can dissolve without notice and it helps to keep your contacts always up to date. I don't look at it often but I get weekly updates telling me who's moved and such.

I got an update last week telling me that a co-worker had started his own company and when I looked at his profile, I found out that he'd quit a month ago and no one said anything.

I'm on LinkedIn and find it totally worthless. I'm really only connected with friends, not people I work with.

I use LinkedIn only for people I've worked with. Even though I only use the profile and contact features and don't participate in the discussion groups, I get a lot of work referrals through my linkedin profile and have used my contact list to find people for projects I'm working on. When I joined it many years ago it would only offer contact suggestions from people who worked at companies that I listed on my profile and if you wanted to add someone as a connection, you'd have to designate the company you had in common first. Lately it's suggesting all sorts of non-business contacts, which I've ignored...if a friend or acquaintance that I know in a non-professional capacity sends me a connection request I'll direct them to my FB profile instead in my feeble attempt to keep work and personal life separate. Linkedin in the front, FB in the back or something like that.