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Dump of http://developer.linkedin.com/forum/retrieve-all-positions-profile-including-past-ones#comment-20856
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Dear Mr. Mohager: | |
I am not sure if you realize, but this change just "pulled the rug" from under | |
our feet unbeknownst to us. We feel completely blind-sighted, disappointed, and | |
frankly bullied by a company that we considered our role model and used to | |
admire. We were one of your earliest supporters, and now we feel betrayed. We | |
are an early stage company, and have invested our own, investors' and clients' | |
money in building two LinkedIn integrated applications centered around a | |
use-case that requires for users to have access to their own contacts' current | |
and past positions. Now, as we are about to launch, we realize that all that | |
effort and money has been spent in vain? If there is still a principle of right | |
and wrong in this world, then breaking your promises as a company in this manner | |
is completely wrong. It breaches the spirit of trust that LinkedIn promotes | |
toward developers and its community of users. It diminishes the good will with | |
those, on whose shoulders LinkedIn stands on. | |
Over the past year, we spent significant resources and time building two | |
applications while counting on the API documentation, sample code and online | |
resources. After a year of development, today, as we were finalizing for launch, | |
we realized that positions don't show as expected with utter disbelief. For the | |
whole time, we were consulting the Apigee console | |
(https://apigee.com/console/linkedin) with an expectation that our API calls | |
will yield similar results, which to this day shows current _and_ past positions | |
for 1st degree connections. To this day, the API documentation states that the | |
positions field in the Basic Profile provide "A collection of positions a member | |
_has had_." (https://developer.linkedin.com/documents/profile-fields#profile). | |
There was never any indication that you would be making this change to the API. | |
We took your word, followed your example, invested heavily in enhancing our | |
joint customers' experience, and in turn we are now left "holding the bag". We | |
were one of your first developers, but by fluke we didn't create an application | |
API key before the August 6, 2012 deadline, which was never communicated in | |
advance. We believed that we could count on the documentation and Apigee | |
examples to build the apps, without worrying about registering the App in time | |
to "lock in" the functionality. We were obviously mislead. We believed that when | |
LinkedIn versions its API (http://api.linkedin.com/v1/people/~/connections), it | |
makes a promise for backwards compatibility for users and predictability for | |
developers. We were obviously mislead. We believed in you, and in return paid a | |
heavy price. | |
Imagine how many developers are counting on your documentation to stay | |
consistent, and building apps by following your example. With such arbitrary | |
moves, each of your developers could end up in the same position as us. But the | |
development community is very connected, we have a sense of right and wrong, we | |
work hard to do good, and when we feel bullied and betrayed, we don't forget. | |
Sincerely, | |
Sandro |
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