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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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Tbird analysis: Getting the thing turned around....some coaching quick fixes

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  • #1

    Tbird analysis: Getting the thing turned around....some coaching quick fixes

    Hello all once again.....Im glad I have some time to sit and post something today, as work and life in general has really gotten crazy. I've been watching from my living room as our Pacers have continued to freefall, losing something like 15 out of 17 as I sit and type this.

    No matter what happens, if you are a coach, player, executive, or fan for long enough, you are going to be involved in a period of time when you are going to struggle. Its in these times that you find out what you are really about as a team, and even as an individual player, coach, or fan in our cases. My thoughts today come from my coaching background, in particularly from some older coaches I met in my youth, some even from other sports. The topic of the day is: What are some things you can do as coaches to help your team survive a losing streak, and what are some of the mistakes that can be made? Here are a few thoughts on how to be successful:

    1. Don't panic. If youve done your job as a coach, you have studied and analyzed your own team to the point that you already should be employing the basic strategies that maximize your chances for success.....theyve worked in the past, theyll work again in the future, so dont throw everything you believe in away in a panic move.

    2. Stay positive. Teams that are struggling generally lose confidence and faith in themselves and each other very quickly. Being negative, and/or allowing negativity to fester among your team is why losing can be contagious. The statement that losing becomes a habit can be a self fulfilling prophecy only if you allow it to be as a coach....if your team has negative people around it, either in the media, the lockerroom, your other coaches, or some of your players, you are usually better off eliminating that from your surroundings rather than try to keep peace and get by. Its a cliche, but the power of positive thinking is a powerful thing in a professional lockerroom atmosphere.

    3. Be decisive. Make decisions and stick with them, sell what you are doing to the team and make them believe and buy in. Dont be wishy washy and keep experimenting and trying new things.....analyze what you need to do, come up with a solution, and stick with it.

    4. Simplify, dont complicate things. In a basketball sense, this can mean narrowing your playbook down to just a few different things and using less variety, perhaps defensively only using about half of your normal stuff, etc etc. Maybe it means narrowing your rotations, maybe it means playing less people, maybe it means substituting in quicker intervals, maybe it means subbing in slower intervals.....whatever the case, keep it simple and basic as much as you can. Do the few things that you do as well as you possibly can do them.


    OK, now what has fascinated me from watching this Pacer team from my perspective is how the staff has tried to solve issues that this teams lack of chemistry and talent have created.

    The other fascinating and often forgotten thing among this fanbase is that in all his years of coaching, I highly doubt RC has ever had a team come anywhere close to playing this bad for this long.....he has been part of huge winners from college playing days, to his professional career as a player, as an assistant coach and as a head coach in 2 different stops. RC has been a proven winner in various situations for 20 years.....I doubt seriously he has ever had a team struggle like this, and I dont think our staff has handled it particularly well.

    Reviewing the above 4 items, how well has RC handled this particular crisis?

    -Has he panicked? I dont know.....he is by nature a coaching "tinkerer", meaning that he likes to experiment and try new things and keep things fresh. He has inserted some guys into the rotation for brief periods, then taken them out again, he has changed lineups by necessity of injury a couple of times.....its tough to say whether these are panic driven moves or not. I think the way he keeps making odd lineup choices sometimes (randomly starting Shawn Williams, for example) can be a very good idea when things are going well, but when they don't he probably tinkers a bit much.

    -Has he been positive? Well, by nature RC again isnt too flamboyant, so we dont know for sure how he interacts with the team in this way. I expect he is quietly determined, but somewhat aloof with them too. Again, his steady as she goes approach is really effective most of the time, but in the throes of an extended slump he might need to exude and amplify more of an air of confidence in this group of guys. How great would it be for example if RC went on a major confidence boosting campaign in the media, talking a little about how none of the top seeds want to see us make it because we are a dangerous team? Or if he made some statement about how we have the best low post player in the East and weve got a legitimate shot? No matter what bravodo of a statement he might choose to make, and how silly it might sound, and how he'd be lambasted in the press for saying something so offbeat, dont you think it might have a galvanizing effect on the roster?

    Since RC wont say it, then I will: The Pacers are a team no one wants to face in the playoffs, not Detroit, not Miami, and not Cleveland. We probably cant beat all 3, we may not even win even one series, but we have a great playoff coach in RC, a great low post player in JO, and we will have a rested and fresh Marquis Daniels by then. Even if we go down, I guarantee you the team who beats us will know they were in a war.

    Wouldnt it be great to see someone with the Pacers make a bold statement like that?

    -Has he been decisive? In a word, no. I think his open mindedness and willingness to experiment hurts you in a losing streak, and he has been relatively tolerant of too many things still. Moreover, he cant seem to decide how he wants this team to look, or who he wants to play, or what style he seems most comfortable coaching this group. Basically, I think the best way to describe how this team plays is to say it looks uncomfortable, muddled, and they play like strangers.

    Now, being flexible with playing time, and open to new ideas, and willing to give different guys a chance in different roles isnt a bad trait, its just bad when you are in a losing rut. RC will be a better coach in the future for going through this, but I think he is learning some of these lessons the hard way.

    -Has he made things simpler? No, I heard him say the right things about doing just this very thing, but I see the Pacers running new sets alot lately, as he looks for that "perfect" play or offense or strategy to run. This is such a common mistake in coaching circles that I cant even describe it to you....its a lesson lots of people have to learn. I wish many times RC had a veteran former head coach on his staff who could guide him away from this, but he doesnt. Its so tempting when you start to lose to start micromanaging and adding new plays and sets and you end up making the game harder to play for the players. This in turn makes them play worse, causing you to lose even more, causing the struggling coach to install new things designed to fix the losing, making the game even more complicated, and the cycle just keeps feeding on itself.

    I think adding such a new group of players midseason was alot bigger challenge for him than any of us expected, including me. As he continued to learn the games of Dunleavy and Murphy, RC continued to try and add/alter the playbook to use their assets better.....as it turned out, he may have "overcoached and undertaught", which is a complete season killer when you fall in that trap. RC wont make these mistakes again, he is too smart not to learn from his first extended losing experience in 20 years. Whether or not he gets to prove what he has learned in Indianapolis remains to be seen.

    OK, so now here we are, with 12 games to go or so. Am I the only guy in Indiana who truly believes this team can be dangerous in a 7 game series? Im telling you all this: The East is still wide open, and while I dont see us a contender for the finals, we can make some playoff noise....we are plenty good enough to do that if we get there. If I was a top contending team, id be praying the Pacers get knocked out, cause Id rather play Orlando or New York.

    I STILL BELIEVE.

    Just my opinions, of course.

    Tbird
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  • #2
    Re: Tbird analysis: Getting the thing turned around....some coaching quick fixes

    Always a pleasure, T-bird.
    “Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts.” - Winston Churchill

    “If you can't be a good example, then you'll just have to serve as a horrible warning.” - Catherine Aird

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    • #3
      Re: Tbird analysis: Getting the thing turned around....some coaching quick fixes

      Great comments on how being in a rut like this affects people mentally. I agree that Rick should put himself out in front of the team & say something to galvanize the team (and also take the bullets for it of course). Excellent commentary as usual Tbird.
      Mickael Pietrus Le site officiel

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      • #4
        Re: Tbird analysis: Getting the thing turned around....some coaching quick fixes

        Good post T-bird. Lots to chew on.

        Originally posted by thunderbird1245 View Post
        Am I the only guy in Indiana who truly believes this team can be dangerous in a 7 game series?

        Tbird
        No, but you all could fit in a Volkswagen Beetle.

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

        ------

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

        -John Wooden

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        • #5
          Re: Tbird analysis: Getting the thing turned around....some coaching quick fixes

          Originally posted by kerosene View Post
          Great comments on how being in a rut like this affects people mentally. I agree that Rick should put himself out in front of the team & say something to galvanize the team (and also take the bullets for it of course). Excellent commentary as usual Tbird.
          Thank you for the compliment, and thanks to the others as well.

          I am generally a RC supporter, and usually take the coaches perspective in things. However, I really really wish he had a more outgoing and dynamic personality, especially now with a team that is drifting and struggling.

          Its usually up to the front office to make any public comments that mean anything, but I fo one would absolutely LOVE it if RC came out and made some bold and forceful public statement....an expression of bravado and cockiness about how good our team can be and what he thinks it can accomplish. Even if he didnt believe what he said, and he got skewered in the media, it would if nothing else become a distraction back onto himself and away from the struggles of the players/team.

          I even have an example. Anybody enough of an NFL fan to remember a few years ago when Jim Fassel (ex coach of the Giants) had a press conference in the throes of a losing streak and GUARANTEED his team would make the playoffs? That was a great move for Fassel to make, and that team galvanized together, unified behind its coach, and made the Super Bowl. Thats the kind of confident, brave, bold statement that only RC can make....and since he has never done so before, it would mean EVEN MORE coming from him, a person who doesnt seek out attention or scrutiny.

          Its possible it might not work, wed keep losing, and Rick would be embarassed and look foolish.....but it also just might work, wake our team and its fanbase up, and get us out of this rut.

          He could even go into the cliched world of saying something like :"The fans dont believe in us, its likely some of us wont be here next year, the league doesnt respect us anymore......" followed by a Fassel like statement of something like ..."I dont care what everyone else says. Jermaine Oneal is the best big man in the east, a true warrior and superstar. Foster is a gutsy battle tested veteran who has been thru the wars, Jamal is healthier than he has ever been and we expect a big playoff run, DG is on the verge of becoming a stud in this league, and we are smarter and tougher minded than at any point in my tenure. Marquis daniels will provide us a spark weve been missing, and can flat out create and score. Im a great coach, weve got top players, and Detroit and Miami and the rest of the east better get ready, because we are going to kick ***, mark it down!" Or something similar......wouldnt alot of us rally behind that? It would be alot better than talking about draft scenarios and who we are going to trade and all the other doom and gloom crap.....we'll have time for that later.

          In a town and with a franchise that is crying out for brave leadership, Pacer nation is looking at you Rick.

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          • #6
            Re: Tbird analysis: Getting the thing turned around....some coaching quick fixes

            Good stuff, tbird.....

            Rick was a good, steady hand for the team when it was full of volatile personalities. This group needs someone to kick them in the @$$......
            PSN: MRat731 XBL: MRat0731

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