SoylentNews

I'm seeing a lot of unwarranted (IMO) down-moderation lately, mostly on posts that express a minority opinion or that question a majority opinion (judging minority/majority based on discussion context). As a result, there are many posts ranked -1 or 0 that probably deserve higher scores.

I'd like to remind moderators that you're supposed to "Concentrate more on promoting than demoting". In the meantime, I'm going to spend all my mod points on posts that I think have been modded down unfairly. I encourage others to consider spending some mod points in this fashion as well.

Twenty years ago, I started my career in the US nuclear power industry. I had a graduate degree in nuclear engineering, much better than average IT/computer skills, a hunger to learn as much as I could about my chosen profession, and an ambition to work my way up into a position of responsibility and authority. In those early days, I loved my work so much that I almost couldn't believe I was getting paid. It was exciting and fulfilling, and I really had high hopes for the future.

Then, along the way, life happened. Everything changed, I moved a few times, and I ended up in Canada... married to a wonderful woman, and becoming a step-father to a beautiful 3-year old girl. I found a job in the Canadian nuclear power industry, but I was no longer doing the hard technical work that had characterized the first part of my career. I still retained some of the enthusiasm and ambition I'd once had, but unfortunately, that didn't last.

I enjoyed some of the work I did along the way, especially if it involved databases, analysis, and process improvement. Eventually, though, I ended up doing work that I found uninteresting and unfulfilling; necessary work, of course, but not something I can stand doing for much longer. Now I'm in my mid 40s and relatively happy in my personal life, but I know things could be better; professionally, I've stagnated. I've reached a plateau in pay and responsibility that can only be surpassed by entering management, but I no longer seem to have any real interest in ascending the corporate ladder.

So, this is my midlife nerd crisis. My brain is seriously underutilized, but I no longer seem to have any career goals that excite me. It's sad to say, but I'm more concerned about making it to retirement with a decent pension than I am about advancement and making a difference. I'm very thankful to have this job, and the long-term security it seems to provide, but I don't look forward to another 15 or 20 years of this.

If I were to check out right now, people would probably say I went with a whimper rather than a bang, and that is not something I can tolerate. I'm not necessarily looking for advice, but I could really use some inspiration. Has anyone out there experienced this? If you managed to surpass it, please tell me what you did and how it worked out. If you're currently in the same situation, tell me how you're dealing with it now and if you have any ideas on how to conquer it. If your time has come and gone, and you feel you should have done things differently, what actions would you take if you had a do-over?

(Feel free to be brutally honest. Maybe I need to get angry. Maybe I need to feel anything other than what I feel right now.)

Barrabas and NCommander need to stop with the drama, I think. The continued posting of ever-longer emails and IRC logs doesn't seem to be serving the purpose of transparency anymore, and I think it's actually going to become counterproductive. The last thing you guys need to do right now is rile up the community or poison the environment. Take it offline, or just agree to end it.

A lot of Slashdot refugees ended up on Usenet before SoylentNews was up and running. Many of us joined up here as soon as open registration started, but most have also continued to participate on Usenet as well. We kind of made comp.misc our home base, but we've started to use misc.news.internet.discuss as well (mostly for non-computer subjects), and some are also frequenting alt.folklore.computers and other groups.

If you haven't stopped by yet, please come check it out. If you like it here, you should feel right at home there. The easiest way to get started, especially if your haven't been on Usenet in a while (or ever) would probably be to visit http://squte.com/, which provides a Slash-like interface to all the newsgroups mentioned above (and then some).

Come check it out, and make sure comp.misc is the first group you visit!