I hate the thing. It could be that I am still ticked from Plaxo and its' constant requests for updates, but every time I get a LinkedIn request it goes back to the sender with an "I'm a conscientious objector" note.

Blech.

A better explanation of what you might be seeing is your more latent contacts becoming aware of the service.

If you have worked for a large company there seem to be more random attempts to connect and link. These tend to be marked by the defaults being taken vs. a truly customized message.

I've been using both Plaxo and LinkedIn for a while and have only come across 4-5 people that flat out objected to the service. Specifically, Plaxo is completely blocked by certain corporate MTA's. LinkedIn rejections, by comparison, are very rare in my experience.

I really don't know what to make of it. I've been dutifully building my network for over a year, but there hasn't been a single occasion when I've felt the need to use it. I already know the people I need to know or people who can help me find them.

What's really odd about the new piece on LinkedIn is that it wants to be the company's love slave - what a puff piece!! - but without exception the last 10 blog posts from actual users that I've read about LinkedIn react the way Stuart does.

For me, LinkedIn has been a mixed bag of tricks. At last count I think I have 230 contacts. It's certainly more useful to me now than when I had only 20 contacts and I think it will continue to be important as my network grows.

Their current platform depends a lot on the participation of its members. Since many of its them do not understand the value of networking, many people login, create a profile, invite one or two people never to be seen again.

It would be like going to an after work social at the bar where everybody stands around and doesn't speak to each other. The LinkedIn challenge is to find a way to motivate its members to connect to each other.

I think some meetup functionality within LinkedIn would be cool. Organizing business events and tradeshows within LinkedIn, view the participants bio, etc... that would be cool. Also, there should be something within LinkedIn to flag stagnant profiles... nobody wants to see them.