LinkedIn Open Networker

A Linked In Open Networker (or LION) is a member of the business-oriented social networking site LinkedIn who positively encourages connections from some members or any other member, whether or not they have had a previous business relationship. The abbreviation LION is used, and is usually placed somewhere in the profile page. Created in september 2007 and moderated by John L. Evans, the LION community gathers more than members in 2011.
LIONs Linked In Open Networkers
LinkedIn networking philosophy is based on a simple rule that says that a person should invite to connect only persons that they personally know (for instance, school colleagues, coworkers, business partners, service providers etc.).
However, this limitation is viewed by some members of the LinkedIn community as overly restrictive. So some of them have adopted a policy of accepting invitations even from strangers. They circumvent some LinkedIn requirements (e.g. having to know a person's email address in order to send a linking invitation to them) by publicly posting their email addresses in their profiles, and stating that they openly accept invitations, thus becoming LinkedIn Open Networkers, or simply LIONs.
The most LION's rule is that in no circumstance an invitation is to be replied by clicking the "I don't know X" (X being the name of the person that sent the invitation) or even worse, mark it as spam. In case a LION doesn't want to connect with a specific person, all that he needs to do is to archive the invitation, which thus is set to automatically expire. (Choosing "I don't know X" or marking an invitation as spam can cause LinkedIn to impose restrictions on the account of the inviting party).
Not everybody that displays an email address on their profile is automatically a LION, however. Usually, the LION word is also present on the profile. LIONs can nuance the above rule of conduct when it comes to the received invitations, for instance, there are LIONs that won't accept standard invitations and require people to write customized invitations (for instance explaining why they would like to connect).
History
The LIONs was founded by Christian Mayaud in January 2006. Christian was quickly joined by like-minded John L. Evans from the United Kingdom, and between them they rapidly established the LIONs Group on Yahoo. John L. Evans applied to LinkedIn for a Badge of recognition and invented the idea of including in members' name/headlines to enable LIONs to search each other out and connect. Lists of LIONs were available at the Yahoo Group to enable mass Invites to be sent. John L. Evans continues to run the LIONs Groups on LinkedIn and and is seeking trade mark/design protection.
FAUX LION WARNINGS:
There are many people claiming to or to be associated with the LIONs:
* Marc Freedman created the MyLink500 site (now a part of MyLinkNetwork) to enable people to post their number of connections, together with MyLink Network, where networkers could specify their level of openness (Libertine, Open, or Closed) with corresponding CSV lists.
* TopLinked, whose founder is not publicly known, provides a variety of lists and ways for people to promote themselves for a fee. However, those lists are traded and will lead to increased incidence of SPAMMING.
The LIONs position as the leading Open Networking Group on LinkedIn is constantly being challenged. Lots of other Groups have been started claiming to represent LIONs or to be part of the LIONs. The only bona fide LIONs are those to be found at LinkedIn, Yahoo and 'Lair' (TheMetaNetwork) as per the URLs below. There are also Groups for LIONs to identify themselves on facebook, for example, however, these Groups are not managed as diligently as the aforementioned.
Amongst the reasons that others pass themselves off as LIONs / Open Networkers is to build email lists for various purposes including potentially spamming. This is very damaging for all concerned, to the reputation of the Social Networks, the LIONs and Open Networking generally. Look out for Groups which invite all Open Networkers from any and all Groups, and for Groups making huge emphasis of numbers. Look at the background to the sponsors - why are they promoting their Group - are they in businesses built on mass mailing and pyramid style enterprise?
The LIONs is the only Group that shares its membership lists with the members - a Group set up for the mutual benefit of the members.
The LIONs does not charge its members for anything and makes no offers of enhanced membership or self promotion if paid.
The LIONs advice - if it doesn't carry the LIONs logo - don't trust it. If it does, and you're suspicious, report it to the LIONs via the Yahoo Group.
LinkedIn critics on the LIONs
While not having explicitly prohibited LIONs, LinkedIn has adopted a rather negative position against LIONs. Indeed, LION can be perceived as a way to hack the LinkedIn professional network service and to use it free of charge.
When LinkedIn first started, there were no limits on the number of invitations one could send, where currently each person that joins LinkedIn now starts with a fixed number of 3,000 invitations. LinkedIn now placed a limit on the number of connections that you can have. At LinkedIn's beginnings, the number of connections one had was also visible in full. When a person gathers more than 500 connections, only "500+" is now displayed instead of the actual number the connections. Moreover, this number is visible for the account owner only in the Connections section. It was for the above reasons (amongst others) that the LIONs came into existence. For quite a while, LIONs were organized outside of LinkedIn because LinkedIn Groups supported nothing more than the ability to display the LION’s “” badge . When LinkedIn started the User-generated Groups program, the LION group on LinkedIn gained momentum with the addition of Discussions, for example. However, the real and meaningful, serious LIONs' discussions continued to take place on Yahoo.

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