Did you know Author of a LinkedIn post can delete anyone’s comment in it? And that the commentee won’t receive notification when their comment is deleted? [1]
I found it the hard way after thinking about topic for 1 hour, opening a post, spending 30min to write a comment, and then receiving an error on submission. I was replying to a comment thread started by me, which was deleted while I typed a follow up reply. My comment was missing from my activity so I had to go and search if the author’s post was still there. It was, and one other comment thread was cleaned as well.
My thoughts.
On the bright side, deletion of comments contributes to the professional network feel of LinkedIn. It discourages divisiveness, criticism, and going out of topic. It allows authors to shape the communities they participate in. It gives them a mechanism to use when their self-expression is challenged, so they can continue to put content on the platform, instead of leaving it. It contributes to the feel good atmosphere when reading the authors you follow.
On the other side: it can lead to a build up of echo chambers, it can make LinkedIn feel fake; it’s an easy way to get out of challenging question; it will be taken as disrespectful by the person who took his time to contribute to the post. And a person has to think if there’s a point to comment if not aware what the author considers acceptable - and for me this would be on the top of my list for a while.
I imagined that a person using his professional profile already puts enough stoppers to avoid controversial behavior - and if not, then there would be reduced opportunities.
Then there are bots, community clashes, review bombs where the damage might be done by the time support / LinkedIn reacts.
Ultimately, with LinkedIn’s professional focus, I’d rate that the option to delete comments as fair. Authors should have some controls to manage their posts. But there probably are better ways to implement it. The focus should be equally on top level content like posts and on discussions via comments, and the controls should reflect that.
Not receiving notification for deleted comment however.. I’m confused.. It’s hiding the mess underneath the bed in hopes parents won’t see it. It results in both author and commenters feeling good, except that the commenter is impacted, just doesn’t know it, yet. Is that the goal? LinkedIn is there a way to be more transparent about this action? Receiving feedback when a comment is deleted would give me the chance to improve for next time, especially if supplied with reason.