[senshan]

> I spent the day receiving over 500 (!) birthday greetings from LinkedIn contacts, whose names and faces I didn’t even recognize, who had clicked on a notification prompt

From the above, it appears that the harm is self-inflicted. Why would one have 500+ contacts who she does not recognize? Linkedin is a tool and every tool can be misused. My contact list is under 200 and those are the people I enjoyed working with and would not hesitate to ping if needed

[maplethorpe]

I always accept friend requests in case they want to send me a message, which they sometimes do. Is that bad? Maybe I should go back and delete all those people.

[senshan]

It is your choice, but for me, it is strictly professional. Some overlap with friends, but those who I never worked with, are not on my Linkedin contact list. Somewhat counterintuitively, no recruiters. Many/all recruiters have very "noisy" contact lists which complicates navigation via degrees of proximity, like 2nd, 3rd, etc. When the list of contacts is carefully curated, it adds value.

[fragmede]

When you're looking for a job, you're going to wish for more connections.

[tpoacher]

Friends and people you know are fine.

People you don't know but who take the time to leave a considerate message explaining why they would like to connect, is also probably fine.

But some "Jeffrey Epstein" rando wanting to connect without even explaining why should be an instant ignore. You are the company you keep, so might as well know who your company are.