What is Inflation?

[Masse]

I see inflation tossed about as an important issue in auction leagues but I don't understand what is meant by it and how it should be considered. Inputs please.

[Michael@HQ]

Patrick Davitt wrote a pair of articles last spring about dealing with inflation in draft leagues, but I can't figure out how to find them so I can pass you the links. (When will the search function return?)

Briefly, what inflation means conceptually is that in a keeper league if some of the dollars are already spent on the kept players but you have removed value greater than those dollars spent from the pool, then on auction day, you have more dollars to spend than value so each dollar on average is going to buy you less than a dollar's worth of value for your league as a whole. The formula is something like (total dollars (say $260 x 12 in a "standard" league) - dollars spent on keepers) / (total dollars - value of keepers).

[PD@HQ]

Do a search on these threads using "inflation" as a term (but restrict it to thread titles, or you'll get 10,000,000 results).

[PD@HQ]

The gist of the two articles I wrote was this: Understand your league's inflation. Many bidders do not. You can take advantage of this lack of understanding by bidding aggressively on the early studs, capturing them above projected value but below inflated value. Many bidders will refuse to overbid projected value because they believe inflation will "come down" from overbidding on the early studs, but I proved in the article that as long as players are sold below inflated value, even if over projected value. then inflation goes up, not down. That, in turn, means that later, lesser players are even more costly, because the tight-fisted bidders who held their cash have lots to spend and nobody to spend on.

[Markus_ls]

The article by Davitt is here. (It is outstanding.) We were talking recently about inflation in this thread, but I'm sure there are many threads of value on the topic.

[circle360]

Masse - you could also look on the bottom of the page. Their are a few threads titled that as well.

[Michael@HQ]

Thanks Markus. Also part 2 is here.

[Markus_ls]

Michael, thanks for clueing me in to the second article - I hadn't realized there was one. (I guess the giant "Part I" wasn't enough of a sledge hammer to my noggin! )

The second one, and the Forum discussion that followed (shown in "related threads") is actually very interesting because it highlights again the role of "total dollars" (or savings) versus percentages like "inflation." And makes me realize I have more thinking to do on when dollars matter versus when percentages matter. Best, -Mark

[Michael@HQ]

No problem. Good tag teaming. How did you find the link to the first one, Mark?

[Markus_ls]

Ya know I can't remember? I found it for my Thinktank thread on inflation and now I just keep going there when I need it. Can't remember how I found it at that time?

Edit: There was another inflation thread that spurred my more recent one. It was dated 4/3/05. I think I just went back searching through HQ articles from around that time.

[Steve NY]

Adding Links to Posts

Thanks Markus. Also part 2 is here.

Can somebody please refresh my memory...how does one include a link to another site (see Michael's quote above) and have the post read "part 2 is here", etc., instead of having the lengthy site address appear in the post?

Also...is there a way to copy and paste website addresses into a post, or do you have to manually type in the whole thing? This seems silly but I haven't been able to figure this out since the new board format came up.

Thanks in advance.

[Michael@HQ]

Adding links to posts

This used to be easier under the old software, but maybe I've not completely figured it out.

1) Open what you want to link to in a separate browser window. Highlight the URL and click on Edit, Copy
2) In the reply you're typing, click on the "Insert link" icon, which as a picture of a globe.
3) Paste the URL into the dialog box that pops up and then click on OK.
4) The text generated by the dialog box is now in your reply window. The link that's within quote marks should be fine. The second time the link appears is the text that'll be in your message. Use your backspace key to delete that text and type in the words you prefer to have appear in your message.

[Markus_ls]

I think it is easier. First type the phrase you want to be the link. Highlight that phrase and then click the globe/insert link button. Paste the hyperlink into that box and when you click "okay" the highlighted text should be a link to that page.

I had problems with this too until someone told me. It's backwards from the way it used to be - you used to insert the link, then type the text you wanted to represent it. Now you have to type the text first, then insert. But once you get used to it I think it is easier and better than the old boards.

[Steve NY]

Let's see if this works....

If I can type this story and have it serve as the link, one down!

I still had to manually type the link (for some reason, when I open up the hyperlink box, the minute I hit the "alt" key (as in Alt+P for Paste) nothing happens, and I can't get it to copy. Any thoughts?

PS...the link above is totally OT but very interesting...it's the legal filing by Anucha Browne Sanders vs. Isiah Thomas and MSG, courtesy of Newsday.

[Markus_ls]

"CTRL C" is copy, "CTRL V" should be paste, not "ALT P". At least for IBM...as far as I know....?