This is great advice, coming from someone who pondered using the “Mother was really sick and had to manage her illness and passing” excuse if I ever went back, as it was true for me too. (I’m sorry for your loss, it’s a really painful life transition, I know.)

I ended up taking a slightly different approach. I worked in IT project management before I retired early. My LinkedIn resume shows me currently employed as an “IT consultant” and will until I decide I need another job or I kick it.

Yes, servers can disable downvotes. Beehaw does that, for instance. I’m on lemmy.world which allows both. I prefer both because I think it helps silence bad faith participation with less active moderation, but I respect that some places don’t want it.

His persecution fetish is showing