So long, LinkedIn. Hello, Famm Connect! Why we don't f…uss with the legacy networking platform, for the Queer Black Win.

First, some context.

In Þe olden days of 2003, we–uh– historians tell us… that there weren't convenient options for online professional networking. LinkedIn launched and soon grew as a major professional connector. While it didn't replace in-person networking, it has definitely become a very visible part of common business introduction, discourse and public presence.

But…

During the 20+ years since its innovative, broadly helpful launch, users of LinkedIn have continued to report very unprofessional experiences on the platform from spam to phishing, fraud, harassment, and beyond. While they have made changes to how they moderate content, they've failed to adopt many modern best practices to make LinkedIn at least a safe space to have a profile and professional discussion.

As major platforms go, LinkedIn surely isn't alone in its calculus to have a bigger platform at the expense of safety. However, our principal concerns in shifting away from LinkedIn like in how it treats our community members, specifically.

Queerly Beloved…

Beyond LinkedIn's general community shortcomings, we continue to receive substantiated and frequent reports of the ways that LinkedIn is not the most supportive for Black people, Queer people, and especially Queer Black people. Specifically,

• Ever try being Queer, Black, and share with your community about harms you've personally experienced and possible solutions for broader social harms? If yo have, you might have found yourself shadowbanned or you might have had your content removed.
• LinkedIn's policies and practices around profile names are demonstrated to be quite arbitrary, inconsistent, and devastating for longtime users who suddenly find themselves cut off from contacts, messages, memories, and opportunities.
  • Many of our community members share with us how they've been kicked out of the platform for using their chosen names on the platform in good faith (while many other people use nicknames and chosen names without issue or with quick remedy).
  • While LinkedIn nominally provides a pathway to restore access through verification, in principal, this only applies to those of us using our legal names. More importantly, the process doesn't work for many of us -- we're unable to even complete it despite having all referenced documents, and attempts to get help often go without effective response, clear response, or even any response at all.
  • Lastly, in this SINNERS year of 2025, what a missed opportunity for LinkedIn to have missed: it could have demonstrated understanding and leadership in community safety by and belonging by embracing chosen names. It could have brought an unnoticeably-small grain of its $16+ billion in annual revenue to bear in using modern technology and some community practices to celebrate and support the many thoughtful and impactful users they've been leaving behind.

A Story about Everybody, Anybody, Somebody, and Nobody…

In this reality, at least, LinkedIn hasn't done what they technically could have done.

And we say "enough."

The math ain't mathin', especially now we have such welcoming and fun platforms elswhere.

Enter: Famm Connect

In the few days we've been using Famm Connect (invite-only 🤫), we've had a common experience of freshness: Queer people are clearly, queerly loudly welcomed and celebrated on Famm Connect, and it's so much smoother and more community-oriented than any iteration of LinkedIn we can recall:

• We can show up as ourselves on Famm Connect, without the harrassment and anti-LGBTQ interactions and demonstrated policies of that legacy platform (what's it called again?)
• The app: the design is nice, clear, and accessible. They have been releasing updates and adding features we think many will welcome. It's already in a nice spot, and we're ready to see what Famm Connect brings next.
• The way people communicate, interact, and celebrate each other on Famm Connect is so very YES, and in contrast to the more extractive and oppression-embracing behaviors we've seen on some-other-platform.
• Yes! You can have your Queer Black Business listed on Famm Connect
• Yes! You can connect, message, explore the feed, add to the feed, and interact with others' feed posts.
• We've been able to get right to offers, asks, and celebrations. Enthusiasim is as loud as PRIDE on Famm Connect.

One not-so-little thing…

Famm Connect does need our help, however, and it's something we can resolve together:

Famm Connect needs more Queer Black people to show up, season, inspire, question, and do our thing for ourselves, for the cultures, and for the world. Queer Black community members: if you want to join Famm Connect, let us know through our contact form or on our socials. If you found this article from a QBF social media post, comment below about your interest in Famm Connect, and we'll see what we can do.

Or, to be able to comment on this post itself, you can…