Announcement

Collapse

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.
See more
See less

Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

Collapse
X
Collapse
 
  • Page of 2
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
Previous 1 2 template Next
  • #1

    Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

    http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...607010426/1088

    July 1, 2006

    Pacers' goal: Get faster
    Bird will work to reshape team in free agency period
    By Mike Wells
    mike.wells@indystar.com

    Larry Bird didn't have to watch Dallas or Phoenix in the playoffs to learn what it would take for the Indiana Pacers to become a title contender again. He said he'd seen the future two years ago.

    That's why the team president now is trying to remake the Pacers, underachievers as a half-court-oriented squad last year, into a longer, faster team that can keep up with the best.

    The first step came Wednesday when they picked up Shawne Williams and James White in the NBA draft. "Athletic" is the first word generally associated with both.

    The next step begins today with the start of the free agency period.
    "There's no question that's the direction we want to go," Bird said. "We want long guys that are athletic and interchangeable. That's just the way it is. I noticed the change a couple of years ago. If we ever got to the NBA Finals, we wouldn't be able to play (such teams). We can't keep the games in the 70s and 80s."

    The new salary cap, to be announced before July 11, is expected to increase from last season's $49.5 million, but the Pacers will still be over it. They will have the mid-level exception of around $5 million and the bi-annual exception ($1.7 million) available.

    "We're going to be active as much as we can," CEO Donnie Walsh said. "We're trying to get this team to play a different way next year."

    Given their limited financial flexibility, the Pacers aren't expected to be in the running for any of the high-priced free agents. Bonzi Wells and Jared Jefferies are possibilities. Former Pacer Al Harrington is, too, if they can't re-sign Peja Stojakovic. But it would take a sign-and-trade to re-acquire Harrington.
    The first day players can sign contracts is July 12.

    In-house, the Pacers' top priority is re-signing Stojakovic. The small forward wants to return to the team, but his agent, David Bauman, said earlier this week that they will to listen to other offers. The Pacers can sign Stojakovic, who averaged 19.5 points in 40 games with Indiana, to a deal of up to six years, while other teams can only offer a five-year contract.

    Shooting guard Fred Jones is a restricted free agent, which means the Pacers can match any offer made to him. But that could be high, as many consider it a weak shooting guard market, and the Pacers probably won't match anything near the midlevel exception.

    Center Scot Pollard and point guard Eddie Gill are unrestricted free agents. There's a chance Pollard could return; Gill probably won't.

    The Pacers also will explore trade options to improve the chemistry on and off the court. Team officials have repeatedly said All-Star forward Jermaine O'Neal will not be involved, however.

    "We look at trades every year, but this year we are looking very hard to see what we can do," Walsh said. "There's no one player we are singling out to trade; we are just trying to put together a team that can have good chemistry on the court. We want chemistry that's better on the court than what we saw last year."

    It wouldn't be surprising if the Pacers tried to trade one of their point guard trio of Jamaal Tinsley, Anthony Johnson and Sarunas Jasikevicius.

    Tinsley, considered the best of the three and the starter when healthy, has battled near-constant injuries and illnesses the past three seasons. Johnson showed his value when he averaged 20 points, 5.2 assists and 5.0 rebounds while outplaying New Jersey's Jason Kidd in the playoffs.

    Austin Croshere is also a candidate to be traded due to the logjam at forward, and because he's entering the final year of his contract.
    -----------

    Top 10 free agents

    (and the Pacers' chance of getting them)

    Note: Restricted means the player's former team can keep him by matching any offer.

    BEN WALLACE, center, Detroit
    The heart of the Pistons, Wallace will likely get offers starting at about $12 million. Chicago has been mentioned as one of the teams in the running. Pacers' chance: Zero.

    JASON TERRY, guard, Dallas
    Terry's stock rose in the playoffs, but he reportedly is expected to re-sign with the Mavericks early in the free agency period. Pacers' chance: Unlikely.

    AL HARRINGTON, forward, Atlanta
    There's talk of Harrington possibly returning to the Pacers, but the only way that happens is through a sign-and-trade. Pacers' chance: Possible.

    BONZI WELLS, guard, Sacramento
    He's the best shooting guard on the market and would fit into the Pacers' plans talent-wise, but would he be willing to sign for the mid-level exception? Pacers' chance: Possible.

    NENE, forward, Denver (restricted)
    Nene played only three minutes last season because of a major knee injury, but his age (23) and the league's lack of good big men makes him a wanted commodity. Pacers' chance: Zero.

    PEJA STOJAKOVIC, forward, Pacers
    He'll test the market, but it would be surprising if he didn't re-sign with the Pacers. Pacers' chance: Likely.

    JOEL PRZYBILLA, center, Portland
    He averaged only 6.1 points and 7.0 rebounds last season, but he could still land a lucrative contract like that of Chicago's Tyson Chandler or Philadelphia's Samuel Dalembert. Pacers' chance: Unlikely.

    MIKE JAMES, guard, Toronto
    Playing in Toronto turned out to be a good thing for James. He averaged 20.3 points and 5.8 assists to ensure he would land big bucks this summer. Pacers' chance: Possibility.

    JARED JEFFERIES, guard, Wizards (restricted)
    The former IU star is another player who would fit into the Pacers' new up-tempo plans. The Wizards, however, would likely match any offer made to Jefferies. Pacers' chance: Unlikely.

    SAM CASSELL, guard, L.A. Clippers
    Yes, he'll be 37 next season, but he's a big-game performer who has won two NBA titles and has a history of leading teams, the Clippers and Timberwolves, further than they've been before. Pacers' chance: Unlikely.
    -------------------------------

    I would say the chance of getting Bonzi is the same as Ben Wallace, zero. Pacers are going for good citizens.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

    Gee, I wonder if Rick has read this article?

    Sure hope the coach and the "visionaries" are on the same page about this because it is really difficult to micromanage every play when they are running full court.


    Question...If resigning Peja is likely, then where do we play Al? Back-up 4? Starter with JO moving to 5 full-time? I see signing Peja and Al as being mutually exclusive.

    Would they REALLY consider bringing Bonzi back to Indiana? I admit, he seems to have cleaned up his act a bit, but is it a rish they really are willing to take?


    They can resign PEJA and still claim victory in the Free-agent market. "Hey, we signed the 2nd biggest prize out there this year...we kept Peja"
    Ever notice how friendly folks are at a shootin' range??.

    Comment

    • #3
      Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

      I am not sure if Al is an option only if Peja is not resigned or they want
      both(highly unlikely). They could still do a sign and trade with Atlanta
      maybe sending Croshere and Tinsley their way for Harrington.

      On the front line Harrington,JO, Peja? Or how about Harrington,JO, Granger?
      Can the Pacers get rid of the bad attitudes ie Tinsley/Jax?

      ????
      {o,o}
      |)__)
      -"-"-

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

        Seemed clear to me that Al's an option only if Peja is not re-signed.

        And to bring up an old argument, if it was pre-ACL Al, I'd be all for it, but post-ACL Al doesn't have enough speed.
        Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

          How much will Pryzbilla really command?
          This space for rent.

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

            In this market, quite a lot. I'll be surprised if he doesn't get 50+.
            Come to the Dark Side -- There's cookies!

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

              Interesting that they mentioned Jeffries' name as a possible target. Also that the consider Mike James a possibility.
              "I'll always be a part of Donnie Walsh."
              -Ron Artest, Denver Post, 12.28.05

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

                If it weren't for his attitude, I'd be very interested in Wells. It'd be hard to swallow if we got him, but at least he gets along with JO, which is a good start. He'd probably towel-whip Sarunas and Jeff for being too pale, though.

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

                  On paper, re-signing Peja and acquiring Bonzi (MLE) and James (S&T) would make us contenders again. But you really have to worry about the attitudes of the latter two.

                  C - Foster/Hulk
                  PF - JO/Williams
                  SF - Peja/Granger
                  SG - Bonzi/White
                  PG - James/Runi

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

                    Originally posted by Shade
                    On paper, re-signing Peja and acquiring Bonzi (MLE) and James (S&T) would make us contenders again. But you really have to worry about the attitudes of the latter two.

                    C - Foster/Hulk
                    PF - JO/Williams
                    SF - Peja/Granger
                    SG - Bonzi/White
                    PG - James/Runi
                    I'd think we'd have to sign-and-trade Peja to get James - Tinsley/Jackson/Jones wouldn't do it.

                    IndyToad
                    Bwa bwa bwaaaa

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

                      This article pretty much tells me what I already know......we have an "unlikely" chance of landing anyone from the Free Agent Market.
                      Ash from Army of Darkness: Good...Bad...I'm the guy with the gun.

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

                        Originally posted by indytoad
                        I'd think we'd have to sign-and-trade Peja to get James - Tinsley/Jackson/Jones wouldn't do it.

                        IndyToad
                        Bwa bwa bwaaaa
                        Maybe a three-team deal would get 'er done. Cro's contract has to be valuable to some teams out there.

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

                          Well, I'm not big on Peja, but I'd rather have Peja than Al.

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

                            Originally posted by jjbjjbjjb
                            Well, I'm not big on Peja, but I'd rather have Peja than Al.
                            Ditto. I like Al, but with JO, Peja, Granger, and now Williams up front (not to mention Cro), there's just no room for him. He'd be redundant. We need to focus more on upgrading the backcourt and center positions.

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Re: Star} Pacers' goal: Get faster

                              Originally posted by CableKC
                              This article pretty much tells me what I already know......we have an "unlikely" chance of landing anyone from the Free Agent Market.
                              I'm certain we'll pick up SOMEONE from free agency this summer (besides resigning our own FAs), just probably no one from that top tier.
                              "I'll always be a part of Donnie Walsh."
                              -Ron Artest, Denver Post, 12.28.05

                              Comment

                              Previous 1 2 template Next
                              Working...
                              X