Can you build a LinkedIn group by excluding people? Yes

The Chronicle of Philanthropy is breaking an unwritten rule of LinkedIn community-building by creating a group in which not everyone is welcome.

An article by Andrew Phelps of the Nieman Journalism Lab says the newspaper has created a LinkedIn group in which membership is free but available only to those who apply.

“Self-promoters, spammers, and people without at least a tangential relationship to the nonprofit world need not apply,” Nieman reports.