I mean, sure, it’s not good if they did sketchy stuff to bootstrap their network. I hadn’t heard there before but I wouldn’t be surprised.

But I don’t think it’s really the same as Yelp. Or at least not how I use it. Trust isn’t really a factor. I don’t use LinkedIn to review a company. I don’t look at their soulless posts about how great their team is. I use it to see “do I know anyone who works at this place that has an opening I want?” Then when I see my old friend is a manager there, I shoot him a message (possibly not even via LinkedIn if it’s someone I know well) and ask if it’s someplace I would want to work at. There’s not really a lot of room for fake in that process.

Also sometimes recruiters just message me. Some of them suck but that’s not really particular to LinkedIn.

You’re not thinking of Glassdoor, are you? Because that’s more like yelp and I don’t especially trust the positive reviews on there.

I don’t really want to go to bat for Microsoft though. I’d be happier if there was a better professional network out there. But, you know, capitalist hellscape.

LinkedIn is very useful for job searching and networking. I don’t post on there, but it was key to getting several job offers.

I’m not aware of any other professional social networks.