LinkedIn has given users the ability to break connections manually, without customer service intervention. Some reasons why are listed here.
This is great news. My network had grown close to 1,000 connections, but lately I'd been getting spammed with requests for Plaxo, OpenBC, and Soflow updates. So I went in and did some pruning this weekend - removing about 70% of my connections.
Almost immediately, I was spammed with generic add requests from connections that had been dropped. Given the speed and lack of personalization, some people must be using automated tools to build LinkedIn networks. Everyone has different reasons for social networking - seems more like a game of numbers for some.
Anne Holland, president of MarketingSherpa, wrote a nice post last year about some common sense things to do when trying to connect. Taking an extra minute to write something that matters could be the difference between a valuable connection and a dead network node.
UPDATE: I'm noticing an uptick in visits from web-based mail clients and realize that I've spammed my network. Sorry!
FYI, if you click the "send an update" on the front page - no warning, the message will be sent.
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