An even lower opinion of Research Gate
Previously, I griped about the business practices of Research Gate and swore that I would not participate in their community.
Like many online communities, RG sends out plenty of spam, but this is particularly annoying spam — the “from” lines shows the names of colleagues on Research Gate who have attempted to create links to me on RG. In contrast, LinkedIn clearly identifies itself when sending updates and connection requests. Since I have a LinkedIn account (which controls the frequency of these emails), those emails aren’t even spam.
So, if you participate in Research Gate, that company will use your name to spam your colleagues. Classy.