Am I the only one who read that and thought "perhaps you should have paid attention to what you were doing?" I know it sounds dickish, but seriously, why not own up to the fact that not every user interface is tailored to you, and that sometimes you are fallible?
I wish I took screenshots, but honestly my memory is I only saw six invites to review and in tiny 10px text below the "connect now" button was a thing saying (and also 1,132 more).
For what it's worth, a designer that works on this feature tweeted an apology and said they should add a warning, as it was way more common than intended.
Linkedin is very motivated to design their interface in such a way to ensure that they collect as many members and connections as possible. In other words, I believe they specifically design their interface so as to make it more likely that this mistake will be made.
I'd like to see screenshots of the interface before judging if its deception or user error. Also, sounds like it had a positive effect on your life - old friends happy to hear from you.
