Slope of Hope Blog Posts

Slope initially began as a blog, so this is where most of the website’s content resides. Here we have tens of thousands of posts dating back over a decade. These are listed in reverse chronological order. Click on any category icon below to see posts tagged with that particular subject, or click on a word in the category cloud on the right side of the screen for more specific choices.

Comment-palooza

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If you look back at the night of the 2016 election, you’d probably be very, very surprised at my reaction to the shocking news that Trump was winning:

reaction

To explain………..I was excited about the fact that the equity markets were suddenly heading into a free fall (and would ultimately be limit-down). That didn’t last, of course, nor did my enthusiasm.

What was interesting about that night, however, was the sheer popularity of the comments section; it was absolutely packed with people (of course, this was before social distancing existed):

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The Last Downvote

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I’m not always the sharpest knife in the drawer, but this time, I really outdumbed myself.

For weeks now, I’ve been increasingly concerned about the tone of the site. I have spent an inordinate amount of time addressing this issue, mostly behind the scenes, with a combination of engineering efforts and diplomacy.

Anecdotally, we might guess where all the “Dislikes” are coming from, but I’ve got the data. (As a courtesy, I have blurred out the actual names, since Lord knows there is a lack of civilized decorum in present society). One of these chaps is dead, so no more worries there, but it looks like some folks spend an awfully lot of time bashing that downvote button. Thousands upon thousands of dislikes.

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Odds & Ends

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Over the course of time, many of the improvements on Slope are so small,. I don’t mention them. If I find that a noun is missing an “s” at the end, and we fix it, I’m not going to waste your time with the big news. (As a side note, the generosity of some Slopers is jaw-dropping. Mississippi Man recently spent hours reviewing the options strategy guide and send me ample corrections, and Violet has been tidying up my work for years!)

Anyway, we did release a hodgepodge of improvements lately that I think are worth noting. In no particular order:

We have improved the measurement tool so that it is intelligent about where it places its information box.

measure
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