This is the Wikipedians group on LinkedIn as run by Wikipedians.
This is not — the guy running it has stated in private emails that he is running it for “networking,” which in practice appears to mean spam blasts. I suggest avoiding it.
(If you add me on LinkedIn with the link being Wikipedia/Wikimedia, I’ll probably add you back eventually when I get around to it.)
You can leave the spammy group by going to the page http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration (while logged in) and clicking “Leave group” link under “Wikipedia Users Group”.
David, for some reason I couldn’t connect to the “official” LinkedIn Wikipedian group.
On the other hand, there is another InkedIn Wikipedia group run by Wikipedians here — although so far it’s not been very active. (Pete & I just have not had the time to do much with it.)
Geoff
And I couldn’t connect to your group either just now … when not logged in it said the group was no longer active, when logged in it says “There was an unexpected problem that prevented us from completing your request.” I assume all is less than well right now …
Unfortunately that group has the first mover advantage. I too initially joined it for being the largest, then left it afterwards.
OTOH, there are way too many wikipedia/wikimedia-related groups on LinkedIn; I’ve suggested before to merge the ones that obviously overlap in scope, but it seems people don’t care much. Here’s the link to that discussion (in the Wikimedia Foundation group), I hope it works for you: http://www.linkedin.com/groupAnswers?viewQuestionAndAnswers=&gid=158280&discussionID=267258
I just had another look at my Wikipedia group, & there’s a note stating “Group status suspended” — which explains part of what David encountered. However, this is the first I heard that it was not active. (Another LinkedIn group I belong to whose activity is about as low — ” 10th Mountain Division Descendants” — is active & apparently okay.)
Geoff
I’m registered there, but I never go – I have so much trouble keeping up with my Facebook. Love your blog, David.
My group was suspended as well and succeeded to get it back online with the help of some officials. Just to keep an eye on it I stay memeber of some more groups.
Question is: What is the most official group?
Good question! The above-warned group was not a sincere Wikipedians group, but there are at least a couple that are sincere … we need an on-wiki list somewhere on Meta, I’d suggest.
Great idea, David. It’s been some time I was on Meta. I have very few influence there. I’m just a simple translator en-nl and nl-en.
The “evil” group seems to be owned by Jimbo… or is this a hoax?
Indeed, many of the wikipedia-related groups on linkedin seem to be owned by Jimmy Wales now, including the original (and largest) “evil” group. I wonder if he asked the group owners individually, or requested that to LinkedIn’s admins. In any case, I think this is an excellent opportunity to merge the groups! I joined the largest group, and will suggest that sometime soon.
Btw, the logo for the “evil” group is set to a rubik’s cube, I wonder why (especially since many other groups use the wikipedia logo