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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.

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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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Houston Chronicle:Pacers maintaining hard line on explosive Artest

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  • #1

    Houston Chronicle:Pacers maintaining hard line on explosive Artest

    Some Artest mentions here... plus some other NBA talk (Heat, Celtics, LA, etc)...


    Pacers maintaining hard line on dealing explosive Artest
    GM seems willing to allow deadline to approach; trade to Western team is preferred strategy

    By JONATHAN FEIGEN
    Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle

    More than three weeks have passed since the Pacers put a for sale sign on Ron Artest. But there he sits in the window, banished from the court with no takers willing to pay the price.

    Pacers president Donnie Walsh has refused to lower his asking price and though a deal could come Monday, Walsh seems perfectly content to let Artest and the Pacers wait until the deals start flowing in February.

    Walsh, of course, wants the message out that he is not willing to give up Artest for nothing. He has been looking for a relatively young, up-and-coming player, preferably with a short contract — basically what Artest was before he became determined to wear out his welcome.

    Al Harrington, the former Pacers forward, makes perfect sense, and Walsh went after him. Harrington will be a free agent so Atlanta could use something they can keep and the Pacers, who are keeping a close eye on the budget, wouldn't mind a trial period.

    Hawks GM Billy Knight would want a draft pick in that deal and so far the Pacers won't give one.

    The Timberwolves are hot for Artest, but Wally Szczerbiak's got three years and $36 million left on his contract after this season. No deal.

    The Nuggets would love Artest, but there is little market for Earl Watson because of his contract, and the Pacers have too many point guards. Nene won't help this season. So if Walsh was going to make a deal for the future, there is no need to do it now.

    The Clippers won't part with Corey Maggette, and he's hurt anyway. The Warriors have been hesitant to include Mike Dunleavy in a trade.

    So Walsh waits.

    The failure to make a deal, is to his credit.

    The Pacers are trying to get a player of Artest's caliber, but also with his relatively modest salary, $6.5 million. They also don't want to give up a handful of players to get a deal done. And team president Larry Bird said they would rather send him to the Western Conference, making it tougher.

    So Artest, the Defensive Player of the Year in 2004 who was averaging 19.4 points, sits and waits. He hasn't played since Dec. 6. A player who last season suggested he needed time off to promote his music company and then earned a suspension for most of the season, should be used to the inactivity. If not, though, he could have a long wait.

    Games of the week

    • Rockets — Thursday, at Cleveland. LeBron James. Tracy McGrady. TNT loves the headliners and gets two of the biggest names. It might have been interesting to match up Zydrunas Ilgauskas and Yao Ming, but the broadcast will get by without that easier than the Rockets have.
    • NBA — Saturday, San Antonio at Phoenix. The rematch of last season's Western Conference finals will be missing Amare Stoudemire, but still pits two of the West's best, and two point guards who should be in Houston for the All-Star Game, Steve Nash and Tony Parker.

    Defense wins
    The Mavericks figure they will be hearing about those 62 points Kobe Bryant hung on them all season. They also figure this is a good thing, as a reminder that their success will be determined by how deter-
    mined they are defensively.

    Dallas can safely assume its scoring will be there. But a few statistics show that the defense tends to determine whether the Mavericks win.

    In the past five seasons, the Mavericks are 196-13 when holding their opponent to the same or worse shooting percentage.

    They are 52-96 when their opponent shoots a better percentage.

    "If you can really concentrate on every possession and try to make it hard for them to get a good look, and keep that shooting percentage of theirs down, that takes the pressure off your own shooting percentage," assistant coach Del Harris told the Dallas Morning News. "Now it's true we've won 63 straight when we shoot 50 percent.

    "But I like this stat better than hoping to shoot 50 percent. When you say, 'Well just outshoot them,' that's a harder way to look at it."

    Winning cools trade talk
    The Nets were actively pursuing front-line help, and would still be open to making moves. But things have to be turned around more than enough with an eight-game winning streak to consider the Nets among the Eastern conference contenders, in the group of teams below the Heat and Pistons.

    "Winning cures all wounds and solves a lot of problems," guard Vince Carter said. "Winning, playing hard, playing together, we can hold our heads up and not worry about being traded now."

    Carter, who had been going along for the ride instead of taking over, has been the biggest difference, as his 51-point game against the Heat demonstrated.

    "I just decided a different approach, to set the tone," Carter said. "(I said), 'This is how I'm going to play.' This is how our captain ( Jason Kidd) plays. Follow us. RJ ( Richard Jefferson) plays the same way, high energy. Once the three of us go all out, everyone else jumps on board, and says 'If our three leaders are doing it, we should, too.' "

    The Nets were not shopping any of their big three. But when Carter was asked if he were concerned he might be shipped out, he said, "You never know."

    Celtics' near misses
    If the Celtics ever get over their misfortune in not winning the 1997 lottery to get Tim Duncan, they can move on to lamenting their near miss last season when they thought they were about to land Baron Davis.

    With the Celtics facing the Warriors last week, Boston coach Doc Rivers said he thought the Celtics' offer — likely Gary Payton, a draft pick and a young player — would land Davis. Instead, he has helped resurrect the Warriors.

    "He's one of the best points in the league, and if you can get a good point or center as a foundation for your franchise, that's what you want to do," Rivers said. "Those two positions can affect everyone on the floor immediately. With a good point guard you know you're going to get into your sets. You know nobody's pressure is going to bother you. Pick-and-rolls will be part of your offense.

    "If you had Baron and Paul (Pierce), you'd feel pretty damn good about your team. He would have been able to improve Paul's shots. But as far as the other stuff goes, with the way it's turned out this year, Paul's been fantastic. So that part has worked out anyway."

    Targeted changes
    As the Pistons distance themselves from the league, they have decided the Heat made all those changes in the offseason to compete with them.

    "Yeah, I was surprised," Richard Hamilton said. "They just lost (Game 7 to the Pistons) in the last couple of minutes and they had one of the best records in the NBA, then they switched everything up. I guess they felt they had to get better.

    "I can't see it as anything other than that (trying to match up with Detroit."

    Said Chauncey Billups: "There was no other reason for them to change. They won 60 games (59) and the only team they struggled with was us. So, I have to figure they made those changes to get past us."

    Riley's side
    Heat president and coach Pat Riley said his team's changes were not specifically to beat the Pistons.

    If they were, he might have made other moves (to land Michael Finley and perhaps Robert Horry). But he continued to defend the moves he made, particularly the late pickup of Gary Payton, who has come on since Jason Williams' injury. (Riley still did not explain dealing for Williams.)

    "I'm happy with what we did," Riley said. "You can't specifically look at a team and go, 'OK, I'm going to do this, and he's going to match up with this guy and he's going to match up with this guy.'

    "I do believe at the end of the summer, we got very fortunate to get Gary, because I think Gary will have the moxie to play against (Chauncey) Billups and maybe Rip (Hamilton), and the experience. And I think maybe in a big-game situation defensively, he can shut people down.

    "When we get to that time when we're going to need that kind of defense, then I think we have enough. And if we don't, then I'm going to keep looking for it."

    Translating Phil
    In his book, written between gigs as Lakers coach, Phil Jackson mildly criticized the Lakers for trading Shaquille O'Neal, basically saying he understood the logic but would not have done it.

    Now back as Lakers coach, he mentioned that the Bucks have not won a championship since trading Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and explained the difficulty of winning after trading such a dominant player.

    "It's pretty obvious," he said, "that the replacement takes a tremendous amount of culture to kind of germinate it the right way."

    Experts tell us that means it's easier to win with really good players than without them.


    http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/...n/3558629.html
    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
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Houston Chronicle:Pacers maintaining hard line on explosive Artest

    I really doubt Mullin would lose any sleep at night if he had to trade Dunlevy. I like Dunlevy but hate his contract.If there is one position they are stacked at its the swingman positon.

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