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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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Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

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  • #1

    Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

    Not sure if this is worth commenting on. I'm surprised he remembers how to spell the word Pacers.


    http://www.indystar.com/apps/pbcs.dl...plate=printart

    Bob Kravitz
    Blame has to start at top
    February 8, 2007


    If their names weren't Donnie Walsh and Larry Bird, we'd be calling for their heads. If one wasn't a saintly presence with a long record of success, and the other wasn't Larry Legend, the official state Bird of Indiana, we'd be running them out of town.

    Instead, the Indiana Pacers CEO and president get the benefit of the doubt. It's all Jamaal Tinsley's fault. Or Marquis Daniels' fault. Or the fault of the club manager who kept sticking his face in the way of people's fists the other night during an incident at the 8 Seconds Saloon on the Westside.

    Well, no more.

    It's time for the Pacers' owners, the Simons -- Herb and Mel, or Mel and Herb if you prefer -- to hold Donnie and Larry's feet to the fire, demand accountability for what has become a joke and an embarrassment of an organization.
    Something has to change.

    It's one thing after another after another for the TrailPacers, leaving a once-proud franchise shrouded in shame. And to have this happen just hours after the Indianapolis Colts' wonderful championship parade and RCA Dome pep rally is truly embarrassing, a major civic buzzkill.

    At this point, I'd rather be the Boston Celtics.
    How much more nonsense will the Simon brothers put up with? They're not in this business to lose money, and they're surely not in it to look like chumps.

    Without question, Walsh has been one of the game's pre-eminent architects, building teams that were not only good but easy to embrace. These past few years, though, this organization has made one horrid mistake after another after another. Casting its lot with Ron Artest, although, in retrospect, he looks like a beacon of rectitude. Trading for bad actors. Signing ordinary talents to long-term contract extensions.

    It's not just the fact that they're a slightly better than .500 team; a town could easily accept that. The problem is who they've got. There's a reason they're near the bottom of the league in home attendance, and it's not because Hoosiers don't like basketball.

    At this point, it's still unclear what Walsh is planning to do at year's end. His face graces the cover of the team's media guide, which suggests maybe this is his swan song. With the team's decline, he could be leaning one of two ways: Either he wants to walk away from this mess, or he's intent on making sure he leaves the Pacers in better shape than they are now.

    Of course, the Simons may decide he doesn't have a choice in the matter. Walsh has had a great run and he's a wonderful man by any conceivable measure, but it's impossible to ignore what has happened here in recent years, on and off the floor.

    Then there's Bird, whose addition to the front office seemed like such an inspired idea at the time. The year he began, the Pacers reached the Eastern Conference finals. Since then, it has been a nightmare.

    How much of that is Bird? With two men leading the team, it's hard to know exactly where the culpability begins and ends, but it's undeniable that he deserves his share of the blame.

    If you're Bird, who really doesn't need this nonsense when there's so much golf still to be played, are you really interested in returning next year? More important, if you're the Simons, who have spent a whole lot of money to keep two men in charge of a franchise that is completely rudderless right now, do you really want to entrust the franchise to Larry Legend when Walsh retires?

    There's not enough room here for a complete accounting of all the Pacers' front-office missteps in recent times, but let me offer just one timely example: This summer, they off-loaded Austin Croshere for the fabulously unproductive Daniels. With the trade deadline looming, how valuable would Croshere's lapsing salary have been to a team in rebuilding mode?

    They would have gotten more than Daniels, I can promise you.

    At some level, coach Rick Carlisle gets the hit here, too. He was sold on a lot of the wrong players. He was a big Stephen Jackson guy, thought Tinsley could be saved, pushed for Daniels to come in and make his team more athletic. He has been tougher on players this year, without question, but they still don't seem to want to play for him, and they sure aren't making themselves accountable, to him or to one another.

    I'm not saying players should mope after losses and drown their sorrows in 2 percent milk, but this all happened a few hours after Jackson and Golden State walked into Conseco and lit up the Pacers. Duly chastened and embarrassed, the fellows went to a club. That's the problem ultimately: Fans often care more deeply than the players.

    So now the Pacers are stuck again. Trade them? Good luck. Suspend them? For what? Staying out late? The players will receive and deserve their due process, but in the eyes of a dwindling fan base, they are once again guilty of debasing the franchise.

    At some point, a person in charge is going to pay the price.
    Tags: None
  • #2
    Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

    I decided long ago that I wouldn't comment in any Kravitz thread, since the guy is a bozo and his job is to sell newspapers rather than to be fair or wise.

    But if I were going to comment, I'd say that this column is pretty balanced, pretty complimentary to Walsh and Bird, and that it makes the correct point.
    And I won't be here to see the day
    It all dries up and blows away
    I'd hang around just to see
    But they never had much use for me
    In Levelland. (James McMurtry)

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    • #3
      Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

      Boob keeps saying "we". "We'd be calling for their heads", "we'd be running them out of town". The guy got a mouse in his pocket?

      Attention Boob Krapitz, it is YOUR head "we" keep calling for. It is YOU "we" want out of town. YOU are the reason I quit subscribing to the Star. It is YOU who brings more unneeded negative attention to the Indianapolis sports scene than every Indiana athlete from T-Ball to the Pros put together.

      Some day you might write an article that is not ultimately geared towards getting YOUR NAME out there. But I aint holding my breath. The brain dead may buy into your crap, but most of us see you for what you are. An ambulance chasing tabloid writer that blows anything and everything out of proportion for your own self gain.

      Go away Boob Krapitz.

      Comment

      • #4
        Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

        I thought it was fairly good.

        I'm ***** off and fed up, too.

        Now, I don't for one minute think that Walsh and Bird aren't just as upset as I am. I'm 100% sure they recognize the big mess they have gotten the franchise in. I'm even pretty sure they are working very hard to fix it.

        I also don't think that the Simon's would seriously consider firing Walsh and Bird.

        But, still, I think that's it's about time TPTB got criticized for the team they put together.
        You're caught up in the Internet / you think it's such a great asset / but you're wrong, wrong, wrong
        All that fiber optic gear / still cannot take away the fear / like an island song

        - Jimmy Buffett

        Comment

        • #5
          Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

          The only problem with the article seems to be the inherent assumption that Pacers players did do something wrong in this latest incident.

          We don't know that yet, but it is easy to assume the worst.

          If Pacer players did instigate or escalate a fight in a bar, then I agree that it is yet another black eye for the franchise, and TPTB need to take considerable heat for it.
          The poster "pacertom" since this forum began (and before!). I changed my name here to "Slick Pinkham" in honor of the imaginary player That Bobby "Slick" Leonard picked late in the 1971 ABA draft (true story!).

          Comment

          • #6
            Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

            Originally posted by pacertom View Post
            The only problem with the article seems to be the inherent assumption that Pacers players did do something wrong in this latest incident.

            We don't know that yet, but it is easy to assume the worst.

            If Pacer players did instigate or escalate a fight in a bar, then I agree that it is yet another black eye for the franchise, and TPTB need to take considerable heat for it.
            Problem is...Perception is Reality.

            Comment

            • #7
              Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

              This is a Kravitz article from the Star about the Pacers. It should not be on the politics board.

              I'm disappointed.
              "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

              Comment

              • #8
                Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

                I've explained my position on the other thread. Anything specifically or majorly about this "incident" is going on the News board.

                Comment

                • #9
                  Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

                  I guess you're talking about this comment:

                  "After all that came with the Brawl flooding up the boards, and now this (not to mention the training camp BS), I decided I'm tired of this off-court drama crap getting on a board that's supposed to be about basketball. Like it, hate it, it is what it is. The Pacers board is predominately about basketball; I'm sick of it being about crap like this."



                  I understand that you're sick of it. But it's not your fault or your responsibility. The reality of Pacer Nation's three years of bad press "is what it is." You shouldn't have to apologize for it, and I know you've been at this too long to simply move something because you personally don't like it.

                  I was always under the impression that the board was about all things Pacer related.

                  Technically, all the threads about salaries and contracts and players agreements and salary cap are not about Basketball per se. But they certainly affect the Pacers, as does all this off-court behavior, including affecting the dollar bottom line at Conseco.

                  One of the great things about this board, for me, is that I have never, ever, had to go anywhere else to get Pacer-related information. It is always posted here.

                  I would be disappointed if it becomes the case that I have to surf the web now to find all the unwashed news.
                  "Look, it's up to me to put a team around ... Lance right now." —Kevin Pritchard press conference

                  Comment

                  • #10
                    Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

                    I'm still in too good a mood about the Colts' championship to comment on what an ignorant doofus Bob Kravitz is.

                    Comment

                    • #11
                      Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

                      Pacers Digest is not one single board. We have many boards here. These threads contain a topic that is being only moved. Not deleted. Not hidden. Not a forbidden topic of discussion. It is simply being kept away from the place for talking about basketball and regularly related topics. I'm making a stand on these types of things (Brawls, Shootings, Fights, etc). They can still easily be read about and discussed. I can't make it clearer than I already have.

                      Comment

                      • #12
                        Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

                        What exactly does "TPTB" mean? I read it all the time..

                        Comment

                        • #13
                          Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

                          Originally posted by Hicks View Post
                          Pacers Digest is not one single board. We have many boards here. These threads contain a topic that is being only moved. Not deleted. Not hidden. Not a forbidden topic of discussion. It is simply being kept away from the place for talking about basketball and regularly related topics. I'm making a stand on these types of things (Brawls, Shootings, Fights, etc). They can still easily be read about and discussed. I can't make it clearer than I already have.
                          One more incident from these guys and we might have to create a whole new sub-board called "Brawls, Shootings, Fights, etc."

                          You're caught up in the Internet / you think it's such a great asset / but you're wrong, wrong, wrong
                          All that fiber optic gear / still cannot take away the fear / like an island song

                          - Jimmy Buffett

                          Comment

                          • #14
                            Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

                            Originally posted by McKeyFan View Post
                            I guess you're talking about this comment:

                            "After all that came with the Brawl flooding up the boards, and now this (not to mention the training camp BS), I decided I'm tired of this off-court drama crap getting on a board that's supposed to be about basketball. Like it, hate it, it is what it is. The Pacers board is predominately about basketball; I'm sick of it being about crap like this."



                            I understand that you're sick of it. But it's not your fault or your responsibility. The reality of Pacer Nation's three years of bad press "is what it is." You shouldn't have to apologize for it, and I know you've been at this too long to simply move something because you personally don't like it.

                            I was always under the impression that the board was about all things Pacer related.

                            Technically, all the threads about salaries and contracts and players agreements and salary cap are not about Basketball per se. But they certainly affect the Pacers, as does all this off-court behavior, including affecting the dollar bottom line at Conseco.

                            One of the great things about this board, for me, is that I have never, ever, had to go anywhere else to get Pacer-related information. It is always posted here.

                            I would be disappointed if it becomes the case that I have to surf the web now to find all the unwashed news.

                            I agree. This board is becoming very user UNfriendly. This is a Pacer board not a Political board. At least that's what it started out to be.

                            Comment

                            • #15
                              Re: Anyone want to comment on Kravitz latest

                              Originally posted by Hicks View Post
                              Pacers Digest is not one single board. We have many boards here. These threads contain a topic that is being only moved. Not deleted. Not hidden. Not a forbidden topic of discussion. It is simply being kept away from the place for talking about basketball and regularly related topics. I'm making a stand on these types of things (Brawls, Shootings, Fights, etc). They can still easily be read about and discussed. I can't make it clearer than I already have.

                              IF you know where to find it. So now we need to go check all areas of the board just to find "other" Pacer related info?

                              Comment

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