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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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Draft Preview from Somethingawful.com

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  • Draft Preview from Somethingawful.com

    1.) The Toronto Raptors

    When talking about the Raptors you have to keep in mind that they have not been part of the league for that long. Despite their short time in the NBA, however, they have built a long-standing, storied tradition: Drafting ugly forwards. Their last two draft picks have been among the ugliest men to grace professional sports (there’s some speculation that the NBA banned reflective flooring in stadiums so Chris Bosh wouldn’t see his own reflection and try to run away from it) and they're damn proud. If they keep with their legacy the higher-ups in Toronto could find themselves with a team that looks equally at ease on a team bus or the short bus.

    Take, for instance, their first-round pick from last year, Charlie Villanueva:

    Fun facts about Charlie Villanueva:
    • When he was a child Villanueva tripped and fell into a hot waffle iron. His forehead hit the top grid, which was roughly the shape and depth of an engorged human kidney.
    • Though Villanueva bears a strong resemblance to former WCW star Vampiro, they are not related. They just both have very large, lumpy heads.
    • An announcer once called a dunk Villanueva made over a defender a “caveman jam”. Villanueva punched the commentator out after the game, then apologized after a teammate told him the statement wasn’t a knock on his looks.
    • Contrary to popular belief, Villanueva actually has large, bushy eyebrows. He shaves them weekly in accordance with the beliefs of his hometown, a small aborigine village where the word “eyebrow” means “homosexual with hair on his face”.


    Or their top pick the year before that, Chris Bosh:

    Fun facts about Chris Bosh:
    • Bosh was not drafted on the premise of skill. Instead, the Raptors administration picked him because he was the only selection who, in fact, resembled an actual velociraptor.
    • I’m going to step away from humor here and just use good old italics to get my point across: His neck is exactly the same width as his head. Hell, his neck is exactly the same width as his entire body. If Cris Bosh stiffened into perfect posture and they dropped him headfirst from the arena ceiling, he could fit through the hoop with room to spare. **** being able to hit a jumper, man. Those are some ****ing skills.
    • Combined with his freakishly built pencil-body Bosh also has creepy taffy-arms that he has to keep rolled up under his arms when he’s not on the court. Because of these two things he kind of resembles those weird snake-things Freddy Krueger turned into in a couple “Nightmare on Elm Street” movies.
    • Often when I see a millipede in the house I will mistakenly say “hon, there’s a Chris Bosh under the bed” to my girlfriend.


    If they don’t trade their pick the Raptors are expected to draft yet another forward today, Adam Morrison. He is a fairly normal-looking kid but I expect he will look like this merely days after he is drafted by the organization:



    Expect to see more of my work on the Sistine Chapel’s ceiling in a few months. Michelangelo used wet fresco. I use MSPaint, philistine.



    2.) The Chicago Bulls

    Because of a deal with the New York Knicks, the Bulls will have two top-20 draft picks, numbers two and 16. Some analysts think a similar deal will transpire next year, when the Bulls trade the Knicks a bag of boiled peanuts and a couple of Archie funnybooks for their entire team and every draft pick they have until the end of the NBA. After the deal Madison Square Garden will be leveled and turned into a huge, money-filled swimming pool. Isiah Thomas will pay a Scrooge McDuck impersonator $20 million a year to swim in it, claiming the transaction is “in the team’s best interest” and that “the next person to call me crazy can come tend to the duck farm in my secret moon palace and see how ******* crazy I am then”.

    With their extra pick the Bulls are expected to up the ante and draft not one, but two hustle players. Given the recent explosion of Andres Noccioni, who is widely considered to be the league’s best foreign shooter since that Serbian bum someone drafted because he could “throw cards in a hat real good”, the Bulls know the real gravy lies in hustle, not talent. Sure, any old $16-million-a-year yokel can score 30 points and grab 15 boards a game, but for that same price they can have people who shoot lots of threes and dive into the crowd for loose rebounds! If a superstar has a bad stretch of games, fans question his talent. If a hustle player has a bad season, that’s totally different. Prissy superstars are only practicing and coming to work every single day for the paychecks, man. Hustle players play to play.

    Look at the Pacers. Sure, Jermaine O’Neal is out there scoring in the post and blocking shots and ****, but Austin Croshere scored 25 points once. In a single game. And he’s white. Who cares if O’Neal does that every game? Croshere showed some ****ing hustle.

    Take your prima donna superstar **** any day, man. I’ll stick with my boys on the bench, hopping up and waving towels every time someone on the floor hits a shot. You can’t coach enthusiasm, brosef.



    3.) The Charlotte Bobcats

    The problem with the Bobcats is that nobody outside of North Carolina knows who they are. Nobody. You could ask NBA Commissioner David Stern a question about the team and his response would be something like “Huh? Oh, right. Those guys.” Oddly enough, God would say something very similar if you asked him about North Carolina.

    The Bobcats are expected to draft a forward this year. This would give them an 06-07 lineup that resembled this:
    • Two point guards
    • Seven forwards
    • A forward who can also play center


    This, of course, will be a huge inconvenience to the three people who play as the Bobcats on NBA 2k6. Trying to put Emeka Okafor in a position that doesn’t play to his “strengths” (i.e. “standing there” and “occasionally shifting to the right to block a shot”) is every bit as fun and rewarding as having sex with a hole in a screen door. Others speculate the Bobcats trade their draft pick to another team, possibly for two forwards. This would allow them to spread the floor a bit more, giving Primoz Brezec room to hit that one jumper he can actually make one out of ten times or so. Whatever the case the forwards will eventually retire into the bog of obscurity surrounding North Carolina, doing small local speaking gigs until they get picked up to sell acne medication on infomercials with “former NBA stars...” tacked onto the front of their names.



    4.) The Portland Trail Blazers

    You know that show Bumfights? The one where the dude pays bums to beat the **** out of each other? You know how bad you feel when you laugh but you do it anyway? That’s how most sports fans feel when they pick on the Blazers. Using my amazing talents of brevity, wit, and bulleted lists I will now sum up the franchise’s entire history in one sentence:
    • They had a chance to draft Michael Jordan but picked some doofus named Sam Bowie instead.


    Given that fact even the kindest of hearts can’t help but s****** at the Blazers. The story has spanned the globe and taken many forms, kind of like the world’s most tragic e-mail chain letter. People in third world countries, many of whom have never even heard of the NBA, often sit around their huts cackling at tales of a foolish tribe that picked a dressed-up lion turd over a brick of gold. Doctors often pull patients out of year-long comas by whispering “Sam Bowie” in their ears. Restaurants around Oregon offer things like “The Sam Bowie Special”, where you come in and order a good steak but instead you get a nasty old hamburger someone found in a cooler and then when you complain about it the chef comes and punches you in the balls.

    The Blazers were expected to have the number one or two pick in the draft this year, but when the names were drawn they ended up at fourth. This brings to mind jokes like “the Blazers even suck at getting draft picks” and “drafting high school players only works if you have the talent to develop them”, but I’m mature and I’ll refrain from that stuff. Instead I’ll be an adult and end with one parting comment: Pee poop caca *****.



    5.) The Atlanta Hawks

    Honestly, any club that features Al Harrington as a team centerpiece needs to be demoted to a kiddie-ball league for a couple of years. This would help in two ways. First, the Hawks could undoubtedly find a sixth-grader with more talent and less ego than Harrington. Second, the league would experience a relaxing sensation akin to taking a giant Sunday morning dump.

    And while we’re on the subject of bad business moves and Al Harrington: When the Hawks traded Stephen Jackson for Harrington they made a deal that involved offloading Jackson and still came out on the losing end. Jackson is a tumor on the *** of the NBA. A big pulsating blob of stupid that will inevitably explode and coat a city block in a dark mire of idiocy and overconfidence. If I ran a team and I traded Stephen Jackson for a busted vending machine that only dispensed flat Mr. Pibb I’d consider myself ahead of the game. Jackson does not play basketball. Instead, he simply argues with referees the entire game, possibly about how well his headband matches his stylin’ mustache. But past all that I’d rather have Stephen Jackson – hell, a whole team of Stephen Jacksons – than I would Al Harrington.

    Who will the Hawks draft? What will they do with him? The one correct answer is this: Nobody gives a ****. Why? Because short of a major relocation (possibly to the surface of the sun), the Hawks will never be a solid ball club. Good job, Al Harrington. You managed to ruin Atlanta’s reputation. If that doesn’t make you feel like **** I don’t know what will.
    Spikes gonna rip off my face and wear it on Halloween!
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