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The Rules of Pacers Digest

Hello everyone,

Whether your are a long standing forum member or whether you have just registered today, it's a good idea to read and review the rules below so that you have a very good idea of what to expect when you come to Pacers Digest.

A quick note to new members: Your posts will not immediately show up when you make them. An administrator has to approve at least your first post before the forum software will later upgrade your account to the status of a fully-registered member. This usually happens within a couple of hours or so after your post(s) is/are approved, so you may need to be a little patient at first.

Why do we do this? So that it's more difficult for spammers (be they human or robot) to post, and so users who are banned cannot immediately re-register and start dousing people with verbal flames.

Below are the rules of Pacers Digest. After you have read them, you will have a very good sense of where we are coming from, what we expect, what we don't want to see, and how we react to things.

Rule #1

Pacers Digest is intended to be a place to discuss basketball without having to deal with the kinds of behaviors or attitudes that distract people from sticking with the discussion of the topics at hand. These unwanted distractions can come in many forms, and admittedly it can sometimes be tricky to pin down each and every kind that can rear its ugly head, but we feel that the following examples and explanations cover at least a good portion of that ground and should at least give people a pretty good idea of the kinds of things we actively discourage:

"Anyone who __________ is a liar / a fool / an idiot / a blind homer / has their head buried in the sand / a blind hater / doesn't know basketball / doesn't watch the games"

"People with intelligence will agree with me when I say that __________"

"Only stupid people think / believe / do ___________"

"I can't wait to hear something from PosterX when he/she sees that **insert a given incident or current event that will have probably upset or disappointed PosterX here**"

"He/she is just delusional"

"This thread is stupid / worthless / embarrassing"

"I'm going to take a moment to point and / laugh at PosterX / GroupOfPeopleY who thought / believed *insert though/belief here*"

"Remember when PosterX said OldCommentY that no longer looks good? "

In general, if a comment goes from purely on topic to something 'ad hominem' (personal jabs, personal shots, attacks, flames, however you want to call it, towards a person, or a group of people, or a given city/state/country of people), those are most likely going to be found intolerable.

We also dissuade passive aggressive behavior. This can be various things, but common examples include statements that are basically meant to imply someone is either stupid or otherwise incapable of holding a rational conversation. This can include (but is not limited to) laughing at someone's conclusions rather than offering an honest rebuttal, asking people what game they were watching, or another common problem is Poster X will say "that player isn't that bad" and then Poster Y will say something akin to "LOL you think that player is good". We're not going to tolerate those kinds of comments out of respect for the community at large and for the sake of trying to just have an honest conversation.

Now, does the above cover absolutely every single kind of distraction that is unwanted? Probably not, but you should by now have a good idea of the general types of things we will be discouraging. The above examples are meant to give you a good feel for / idea of what we're looking for. If something new or different than the above happens to come along and results in the same problem (that being, any other attitude or behavior that ultimately distracts from actually just discussing the topic at hand, or that is otherwise disrespectful to other posters), we can and we will take action to curb this as well, so please don't take this to mean that if you managed to technically avoid saying something exactly like one of the above examples that you are then somehow off the hook.

That all having been said, our goal is to do so in a generally kind and respectful way, and that doesn't mean the moment we see something we don't like that somebody is going to be suspended or banned, either. It just means that at the very least we will probably say something about it, quite possibly snipping out the distracting parts of the post in question while leaving alone the parts that are actually just discussing the topics, and in the event of a repeating or excessive problem, then we will start issuing infractions to try to further discourage further repeat problems, and if it just never seems to improve, then finally suspensions or bans will come into play. We would prefer it never went that far, and most of the time for most of our posters, it won't ever have to.

A slip up every once and a while is pretty normal, but, again, when it becomes repetitive or excessive, something will be done. Something occasional is probably going to be let go (within reason), but when it starts to become habitual or otherwise a pattern, odds are very good that we will step in.

There's always a small minority that like to push people's buttons and/or test their own boundaries with regards to the administrators, and in the case of someone acting like that, please be aware that this is not a court of law, but a private website run by people who are simply trying to do the right thing as they see it. If we feel that you are a special case that needs to be dealt with in an exceptional way because your behavior isn't explicitly mirroring one of our above examples of what we generally discourage, we can and we will take atypical action to prevent this from continuing if you are not cooperative with us.

Also please be aware that you will not be given a pass simply by claiming that you were 'only joking,' because quite honestly, when someone really is just joking, for one thing most people tend to pick up on the joke, including the person or group that is the target of the joke, and for another thing, in the event where an honest joke gets taken seriously and it upsets or angers someone, the person who is truly 'only joking' will quite commonly go out of his / her way to apologize and will try to mend fences. People who are dishonest about their statements being 'jokes' do not do so, and in turn that becomes a clear sign of what is really going on. It's nothing new.

In any case, quite frankly, the overall quality and health of the entire forum's community is more important than any one troublesome user will ever be, regardless of exactly how a problem is exhibiting itself, and if it comes down to us having to make a choice between you versus the greater health and happiness of the entire community, the community of this forum will win every time.

Lastly, there are also some posters, who are generally great contributors and do not otherwise cause any problems, who sometimes feel it's their place to provoke or to otherwise 'mess with' that small minority of people described in the last paragraph, and while we possibly might understand why you might feel you WANT to do something like that, the truth is we can't actually tolerate that kind of behavior from you any more than we can tolerate the behavior from them. So if we feel that you are trying to provoke those other posters into doing or saying something that will get themselves into trouble, then we will start to view you as a problem as well, because of the same reason as before: The overall health of the forum comes first, and trying to stir the pot with someone like that doesn't help, it just makes it worse. Some will simply disagree with this philosophy, but if so, then so be it because ultimately we have to do what we think is best so long as it's up to us.

If you see a problem that we haven't addressed, the best and most appropriate course for a forum member to take here is to look over to the left of the post in question. See underneath that poster's name, avatar, and other info, down where there's a little triangle with an exclamation point (!) in it? Click that. That allows you to report the post to the admins so we can definitely notice it and give it a look to see what we feel we should do about it. Beyond that, obviously it's human nature sometimes to want to speak up to the poster in question who has bothered you, but we would ask that you try to refrain from doing so because quite often what happens is two or more posters all start going back and forth about the original offending post, and suddenly the entire thread is off topic or otherwise derailed. So while the urge to police it yourself is understandable, it's best to just report it to us and let us handle it. Thank you!

All of the above is going to be subject to a case by case basis, but generally and broadly speaking, this should give everyone a pretty good idea of how things will typically / most often be handled.

Rule #2

If the actions of an administrator inspire you to make a comment, criticism, or express a concern about it, there is a wrong place and a couple of right places to do so.

The wrong place is to do so in the original thread in which the administrator took action. For example, if a post gets an infraction, or a post gets deleted, or a comment within a larger post gets clipped out, in a thread discussing Paul George, the wrong thing to do is to distract from the discussion of Paul George by adding your off topic thoughts on what the administrator did.

The right places to do so are:

A) Start a thread about the specific incident you want to talk about on the Feedback board. This way you are able to express yourself in an area that doesn't throw another thread off topic, and this way others can add their two cents as well if they wish, and additionally if there's something that needs to be said by the administrators, that is where they will respond to it.

B) Send a private message to the administrators, and they can respond to you that way.

If this is done the wrong way, those comments will be deleted, and if it's a repeating problem then it may also receive an infraction as well.

Rule #3

If a poster is bothering you, and an administrator has not or will not deal with that poster to the extent that you would prefer, you have a powerful tool at your disposal, one that has recently been upgraded and is now better than ever: The ability to ignore a user.

When you ignore a user, you will unfortunately still see some hints of their existence (nothing we can do about that), however, it does the following key things:

A) Any post they make will be completely invisible as you scroll through a thread.

B) The new addition to this feature: If someone QUOTES a user you are ignoring, you do not have to read who it was, or what that poster said, unless you go out of your way to click on a link to find out who it is and what they said.

To utilize this feature, from any page on Pacers Digest, scroll to the top of the page, look to the top right where it says 'Settings' and click that. From the settings page, look to the left side of the page where it says 'My Settings', and look down from there until you see 'Edit Ignore List' and click that. From here, it will say 'Add a Member to Your List...' Beneath that, click in the text box to the right of 'User Name', type in or copy & paste the username of the poster you are ignoring, and once their name is in the box, look over to the far right and click the 'Okay' button. All done!

Rule #4

Regarding infractions, currently they carry a value of one point each, and that point will expire in 31 days. If at any point a poster is carrying three points at the same time, that poster will be suspended until the oldest of the three points expires.

Rule #5

When you share or paste content or articles from another website, you must include the URL/link back to where you found it, who wrote it, and what website it's from. Said content will be removed if this doesn't happen.

An example:

If I copy and paste an article from the Indianapolis Star website, I would post something like this:

http://www.linktothearticlegoeshere.com/article
Title of the Article
Author's Name
Indianapolis Star

Rule #6

We cannot tolerate illegal videos on Pacers Digest. This means do not share any links to them, do not mention any websites that host them or link to them, do not describe how to find them in any way, and do not ask about them. Posts doing anything of the sort will be removed, the offenders will be contacted privately, and if the problem becomes habitual, you will be suspended, and if it still persists, you will probably be banned.

The legal means of watching or listening to NBA games are NBA League Pass Broadband (for US, or for International; both cost money) and NBA Audio League Pass (which is free). Look for them on NBA.com.

Rule #7

Provocative statements in a signature, or as an avatar, or as the 'tagline' beneath a poster's username (where it says 'Member' or 'Administrator' by default, if it is not altered) are an unwanted distraction that will more than likely be removed on sight. There can be shades of gray to this, but in general this could be something political or religious that is likely going to provoke or upset people, or otherwise something that is mean-spirited at the expense of a poster, a group of people, or a population.

It may or may not go without saying, but this goes for threads and posts as well, particularly when it's not made on the off-topic board (Market Square).

We do make exceptions if we feel the content is both innocuous and unlikely to cause social problems on the forum (such as wishing someone a Merry Christmas or a Happy Easter), and we also also make exceptions if such topics come up with regards to a sports figure (such as the Lance Stephenson situation bringing up discussions of domestic abuse and the law, or when Jason Collins came out as gay and how that lead to some discussion about gay rights).

However, once the discussion seems to be more/mostly about the political issues instead of the sports figure or his specific situation, the thread is usually closed.

Rule #8

We prefer self-restraint and/or modesty when making jokes or off topic comments in a sports discussion thread. They can be fun, but sometimes they derail or distract from a topic, and we don't want to see that happen. If we feel it is a problem, we will either delete or move those posts from the thread.

Rule #9

Generally speaking, we try to be a "PG-13" rated board, and we don't want to see sexual content or similarly suggestive content. Vulgarity is a more muddled issue, though again we prefer things to lean more towards "PG-13" than "R". If we feel things have gone too far, we will step in.

Rule #10

We like small signatures, not big signatures. The bigger the signature, the more likely it is an annoying or distracting signature.

Rule #11

Do not advertise anything without talking about it with the administrators first. This includes advertising with your signature, with your avatar, through private messaging, and/or by making a thread or post.
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Artest = Blessing in disguise?

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  • #1

    Artest = Blessing in disguise?

    Ok when I first heard the news, like everyone else I was angry. But the more I think about it...the more I see this as a blessing.

    This whole Ron Artest thing is going to motivate every player on our team to work twice as hard, to prove we are better without Ronnie. I expect Jermaine, Jack, Granger, and Sarunas all to make noticeable improvements in their game, being motivated by what happened with Ron.

    We all knew this team was honestly TOO DEEP. Now Granger will advance at a quicker rate, Jackson has his role that he flourishes in and Sarunas gets more minutes. All in all I think we should be HAPPY. We all knew Ron was a ticking timebomb...certainly it would of been better to move him earlier, but the Pacers took a risk.

    But I think the Pro's are going to outweight the con's here. Jermaine has said anything less than a championship is a failure, Sarunas want's to win a championship more than most guys in this league based on the passion he demonstrates on a nightly basis.

    I feel like if we can somehow move Tinsley, without taking much of a talent hit there. The this team is ready to take off.

    The pacers have looked really solid without Tins/Artest in the lineup. All we need to do is get some solid role players for these guys. If we can get a guy like Hughes/Odom/Peja....I think this team is poised to make a run at the Pistons.

    The Pistons are reminding me of the Pacers team that won 61 games. They are just rolling through teams, but will they honestly be able to maintain that intensity throug the playoffs.

    Our Pacer team is looking like the Pistons team when they went 12-12. We have had a bumpy start and some other issues.

    I also see the fans rallying behind this team POST Ron. Just like they did after the brawl. We all know how our players will respond to that.

    Also, whats the Bender situation? Does that allow us a certain amount of money to sign another free agent or something along those lines? Fill me in here.

    I for one am looking forward to adding some new faces to this franchise. Donnie Walsh knows what he is doing and I expect him to sit on Ron Artest until a solid trade is available. This could take time, but thank god the NBA season is so long. Looks as if our team is going to be in perfect position to do some damage in the playoffs.

    I for one haven't been more excited about Pacers basketball in sometime. We ALL knew that this team was going nowhere with Tins/Jack/Artest. Too many boneheads.

    One of those guys is FOR SURE removed from the equation, now if we can get rid of Tinsley...I think a HUGE burden will be off our shoulders. I'd love to see us deal Artest/Tins to atlanta for Al Harrington and a young guy/draft pick or what have you.

    We have a pretty solid window of opportunity to win a championship. If not this year...it's only looking better the year after. (i know most people will hate that comment)

    Jermaine is only getting better and MUCH more mature as the days go by. Sarunas is likely to make vast improvements in the next 2 years, then probably level off. Granger is obviously going to be a beast in a couple of years.

    I like our chances a lot better without Ron and his distractions. I love the way he plays on the court, but it ends there. Jermaine obviously can't stand Artest and I think that was a major reason for our struggles early on.

    The Pacers will win the next 2-3 games...then soon enough we will add some new faces and maybe drop a couple games while introducing new guys to the system.

    I like the Pacers with a lower seed in the playoffs anyhow. Pacers fluorish with the underdog role...and not to mention the better draft pick we might get.

    So all in all...i'm not even concerned with our record this year. We will make the playoffs and our team can only become a more cohesive unit as the season goes on.

    GO PACERS!!
    *removed* Just keep politics and religion completely out of it, please.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

    (as in, I concur, not, I think you are stupid)
    Play Mafia!
    Twitter

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    • #3
      Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

      well enjoy your pessimism.

      tinsley/sjack/artest/jermaine are all one on one players.

      Your a jackass if you think a startin line up with those 4 is going places.

      Basketball is a team game. Case in point....Phoenix Suns and Detroit Pistons.

      I don't think any professional team has such pessimistic fans as the Pacers. It's quite ridiculous.

      But you calling me "stupid" for stating an opinion tells me all I need to know, in regards to how much credibility your post has.
      *removed* Just keep politics and religion completely out of it, please.

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

        Originally posted by btowncolt
        What just happened? He said he was agreeing with you.
        I didn't see it that way.

        He didn't convey his feelings properly then.

        If btown is right, my apologies.
        *removed* Just keep politics and religion completely out of it, please.

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

          Let this be a lesson to us all.
          If you live by the smilie you will die by the smilie.

          Smilies are the number one cause for confusion in America..

          And kids today are using them without any regards to thier hazardous consequences....

          85% of kids admit they have used smilie's just to get through a tough day at school..


          Why Not Us ?

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

            Originally posted by Jon Theodore
            I didn't see it that way.

            He didn't convey his feelings properly then.
            Yes he did.

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

              I should have gone with
              Play Mafia!
              Twitter

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

                Originally posted by Pig Nash
                I should have gone with
                Why you dirty lowdown son-of-a—! Just what do you mean by that?

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

                  Originally posted by Frank Slade
                  Let this be a lesson to us all.
                  If you live by the smilie you will die by the smilie.

                  Smilies are the number one cause for confusion in America..

                  And kids today are using them without any regards to thier hazardous consequences....

                  85% of kids admit they have used smilie's just to get through a tough day at school..

                  It's true. Everytime I think I'm out, they pull me back in...















                  Damn it.

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

                    I have horrible smiley comprehension skills
                    *removed* Just keep politics and religion completely out of it, please.

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

                      Does anyone have any ideal what is going on with Bender?

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

                        Originally posted by Pacers#1Fan
                        Does anyone have any ideal what is going on with Bender?
                        I heard he's going to announce his retirement sometime this week.
                        Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.
                        -- Albert Einstein

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

                          Originally posted by Pacers#1Fan
                          Does anyone have any ideal what is going on with Bender?
                          My biggest question is:

                          Will they use Bender's trade value while trading Artest...or will they simply dump Bender's salary? I think they have to pay Bender anyway for ...what, a year? ...so why not use the salary if the opportunity is right.

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Re: Artest = Blessing in disguise?

                            Originally posted by Pacers#1Fan
                            Does anyone have any ideal what is going on with Bender?
                            I tried to get some info and this is all I could get:




                            -Bball
                            Nuntius was right for a while. I was wrong for a while. But ultimately I was right and Frank Vogel has been let go.

                            ------

                            "A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork."

                            -John Wooden

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