I really wish LinkedIn would collapse and close so that something useful could take its place. At the moment I feel like it's squatting the "business networking" square on the board, but I don't know what it would take to dislodge it. I wrote a little about this on my blog about a decade ago and I don't feel we are any closer to it being dislodged.

Do you think LI's problem is innate to the platform, or it's users? How will an alternative professional social network make itself immune to the scourge of online 'business networking'?

I honestly believe the problem is inseparable from the social network itself. Either you have a space where people can connect and find jobs and nothing more, and you'll have zero engagement and no way to really fund the platform. Or you allow actual social networking (i.e. public posts) and then open yourself up for lots of engagement, and all the associated cancer that comes with that.

Quite regularly I see people on HN post their alternatives to LinkedIn and all the other locked-in modern 3 sided marketplaces that are blights on the modern world.

And they all have the same problem LinkedIn has -- they don't fix the core incentive issues.

Because you know if any LinkedIn alternative ever becomes popular at some point they'll perform a rug pull to turn popularity into massive profit.

But they won't become popular because they first have to solve the trust issue.

And the trust issue is foundational. And has a solution -- it should be a non-profit and/or consumer co-op and/or producer co-op.

Which likely means it needs to be formed in Europe or Canada or someplace without the anti-co-op laws of the US that make it difficult for co-ops to raise capital.

And founders will have to be satisfied with solid six figure salaries instead of their dreams of becoming a billionaire.