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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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Just my personal opinion and observation

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  • Just my personal opinion and observation

    Everyone involved with PD and the boards are awesome, and I appreciate the hard work and web site very very much.

    However, I must say, I greatly prefer the old board. The new board does have some cool features, but there is just something about the layout that feels very cluttered to me.

    One thing that was great about the previous PD board, it was very eye friendly and when viewing the main pacer forum page, scanning all new topics, etc. was a snap and it made the forum my absolute favorite place to frequent.

    I cannot help but feel a bit out of the loop anytime I log onto this new board. The quick glance of new topics/newly replied topics does not have the same feel of the old board at all. Perhaps some of you have also noticed this and just not said anything, perhaps all of you love it. Either way is fine.

    I am not posting this to upset or discredit anyones work, just simply posting it to clear the air on the issue IMHO.

    Keep up the great work everyone however, this forum has been one more reason that its great to be a Pacers fan, and I am sure it will continue to be so, and if I can assist in any more ways, please let me know.

    Thanks for listening

  • #2
    Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

    Resistance is futile. We will assimilate you into the collective.

    It wasn't about being the team everyone loved, it was about beating the teams everyone else loved.

    Division Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 1989, 1990, 2002, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008
    Conference Champions 1955, 1956, 1988, 2005
    NBA Champions 1989, 1990, 2004

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

      I feel your pain buddy
      "Just look at the flowers ........ BANG" - Carol "The Walking Dead"

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

        One of the "new" things this forum has is on the index page (main forum) at the bottom, it allows you to select things like "most active threads" and "new since last visit".

        Also the "user" area allows you to personalize the board a great deal, I believe there will be "adepted" templates created so you can choose other "setups" and so on.

        Looks are a personal thing. As far as I know there was already a "look overhaul" planned on the old board, and this is mostly the design they came up with.

        It's hard to make it to everyone's taste, there are almost 500 members on this board.

        Rest assured that in the coming month a lot of small additions will make this even more "awesome" then it already is and a lot of those add-ons are important as well.

        Finally the added security is one of the most important considerations. Perl as opposed to php is a lot safer from hack attempts and other mishaps.

        sometimes you pay a small price for something like that.

        It is a few things that makes you experience what you do: the banner on top, which was not a part of the old site, the lining around the topics/forums, which was almost blended on the old board and they make up for the difference.
        Again; this is a design decision taken to integrate the website, which was mostly ignored on the previous board into the forum where the designers hope it gets more attention this time.

        So Long And Thanks For All The Fish.

        If you've done 6 impossible things today?
        Then why not have Breakfast at Milliways!

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

          I prefer the old board too, for much the same reason, this board feels cluttered. My main objection is all the pictures in the signature and reading area. I wouldn't mind them if they just appeared once, but to me it's just clutter after having seen them a couple times.

          However, I know this is a work in progress and I can live with it. I expect this board to soon have options where you can turn things like avatars and signatures off. The result, no clutter.

          So, I would say just hang around and the options to unclutter your view will soon appear.

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

            Will's exactly right, we're going to be adding the ability to ignore sigs and avatars again.

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

              Well I've thought it, but the PC side of me wouldn't allow me to say it. (no, I'm not a closet liberal!) I'm not fond of the mainpage, I find it more difficult to find threads, return to, andthen editing my posts is more difficult too, but hey...I really, really do appreciate the hard work everyone had to put in to make this go...so who am I to gripe?

              Seriously tho...
              Ever notice how friendly folks are at a shootin' range??.

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

                One other thing I will mention about the busy-ness, I felt similarly when I first tested these boards. It took me time to get used to it, and I'm still not quite as comfortable as I was on phpBB, but it is coming. You guys have only had 3 days to digest it a bit, I think you will get a better feel in a couple weeks.

                Plus we'll do what we can to make it better than it is.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

                  I know you will...and yer right. Change is never as fun as hoped.

                  But we'll all be in the swing of it shortly, all it will take is one trade or signing to make us forget all about our petty differances.


                  Ever notice how friendly folks are at a shootin' range??.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

                    I feel the same way. I mean, this is alright but the whole switch just seemed unnesessary. Why mess with a good thing? This whole board system just seems too.. i dunno, clunky I guess. Definitely harder to keep track of posts and follow everything here. The whole slowness issue isn't helping either. If you had to make a change shoulda gone with vbulletin or something with a more simple look and feel like the old one. I dunno, guess I'll just hope it grows on me =\
                    [edit=90=1088451450][/edit]

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

                      Originally posted by able
                      Again; this is a design decision taken to integrate the website, which was mostly ignored on the previous board into the forum where the designers hope it gets more attention this time.

                      Most of the designers and mods are interested in web design. I know they are trying hard, but most of us are here mainly for Pacer's talk and news.

                      For a long time the Star forum was perfect for me, it had the best and most knowledgeable Pacer's fans on the net. Then it started filling up with troll's and smack talkers, and nothing was done about them unless they got really obscene.

                      Then this place came along and it was moderated and it soon had the most knowledgeable Pacer's fans on the net. Why, because beside the Pacer's talk it was simple and user friendly.

                      The designers and mods are all guys that know a lot about the Internet, thus finding their way around is simple for them. However, newbies along with the older generation of Pacer fans are not computer and Internet literate. They get easily frustrated, and if things are not simple they go elsewhere. I know because I've always been a computer geek. I had the first computer game that came out called pong, a game much like ping pong. Thus I know what I'm doing. (Usually) :P However lately I am having more and more trouble with sites and instructions that are less than clear, and I no longer have the patience to put up with such. (That last wasn't a reference to this site)

                      Thus I think the default look of the digest should be uncluttered. The skilled Internet users would soon find the controls and change things to their liking, but the newbies and such would not be repelled.

                      I guess what I'm trying to say is this site should build carefully around their main draw, which is Pacer's talk and news, and not get to caught up in things most people would have no interest in. Everyone has heard the words, 'Keep it simple.' Well in this case the designers should, 'Make it simple.' That way people will appreciate the site and keep coming back.

                      AS IS THE GUYS ARE DOING GREAT!
                      [edit=91=1088451919][/edit]

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

                        Originally posted by indygeezer
                        I know you will...and yer right.
                        I know you too Geezer. As for being right . . . yeah, most of the time, but that's just because I don't USUALLY post something I'm wrong about. :P

                        By the way, you should have capitalized the 'w' in Will.

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

                          The aesthetics of the previous board with the innovations of this board would be ideal to me. Again, from a design standpoint, I find this board and little cold and busy.

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

                            OK I will again emphasize some things about this board and the previous one.

                            Though this board is slightly slower at THIS moment in time it will be up to "normal" speed again soon, at the latest within one month.
                            Please do remember the number of times the database gave you an error on the previous board.
                            How easily we forget.

                            The main difference between THIS board and the previous outside of the technical merits, is the banner on top, which holds the entire site that used to be www.pacersdigest.com AND the forum in ONE page.
                            The additional amount of information at your fingertips is amazing, but it as a price in the sense that the banner is "visible" unlike the old board.
                            For the remainder the bars between and surrounding the threads are thick and dark, instead nearly invisible.
                            Those are design-decisions that will be reviewed at regular intervals no doubt. whether they will be change remains to be seen (not up to me thank God).

                            To say that it is harder to keep track of threads is nonsense, certainly if it is followed up by techno babble on going with vbulletin, another pay through the nose php package with all insecurities of php added to it.

                            FYI: 2 days ago a security leak for vbulleting was released, it is no yet patched.

                            With the "pressure" on this forum; 18 thousand posts in the month of June, a far more robust system is/was needed, this is the first enface change, the remainder will be done in the background to emerge with a board capable of doing 100 thousand posts a month without stressing a server to death.

                            At average there are 35 people online, taking the night into consideration that means that at peak times 70 PLUS users are online at the same time, most boards fould under that. The bigger the database becomes the harder it becomes to post, the slower it becomes, only solutions that allow Oracle or likewise dbase structures are capable of dealing with those at speed. php driven boards can not use oracle.

                            The many options you have to view the boards may be overwhelming, they are certainly superior to what was. You can subscribe to threads, find your own posts (all) with one click in the user area, you can go to the main view, but you can also elect to just look at what's new, what is most active and so on, options that were not included in the previous board.

                            If you don't like the design, that is sad, at least give it some time to grow on you and learn how to use the tech merits of the underlaying software, which has NOTHING to do with the design, which I happen to like, but that is personal opinion.

                            Everyone is entitled to an opinion but to post things like zxc did is unfounded and not appreciated by me.

                            Anyone having problems: there is a "help" button in the top bar, including a FAQ and there's a lot of people on this board capable of helping you with a lot of things.
                            asking has never cost anything on this board, so why would it now
                            So Long And Thanks For All The Fish.

                            If you've done 6 impossible things today?
                            Then why not have Breakfast at Milliways!

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: Just my personal opinion and observation

                              I'm in agreement with what has been said.

                              Comment

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